4,000 protest coal mine as German police clear forest camp

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BERLIN (AP) — Thousands of people are protesting against the expansion of a coal strip mine in western Germany that would entail the clearing of an ancient forest. Police in the city of Aachen estimated that 4,000 protesters took part in a march toward Hambach forest Sunday. Some carried saplings they planned to plant between the woodland and the adjacent lignite mine operated by German utility company RWE.

(1 of 2) Protesters walk on a field close to the Hambach forest in Kerpen, Germany, Sunday, Sept. 16, 2018. Thousands of people are protesting against the expansion of a coal strip mine in western Germany that would entail the chopping down of an ancient forest. (Henning Kaiser/dpa via AP)

September 16, 2018

Authorities have been trying for days to evict environmentalists who chained themselves to treehouses and tree trunks. German news agency dpa reported that two men who were hiding inside a makeshift tunnel left voluntarily after medics warned they could run out of oxygen.

Environmental groups hope a government-appointed committee examining the future of Germany's coal industry will recommend halting large-scale cutting in Hambach forest.

Over 3,600 Sex Abuse Cases Spanning Decades in the German Catholic Church

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By KRISTEN GRIESHABER / AP 

(BERLIN) — A report on sexual abuse inside the Catholic Church in Germany says 3,677 people were abused by clergy between 1946 and 2014, two leading German media outlets said Wednesday.

Spiegel Online and Die Zeit said the report they obtained — commissioned by the German Bishops Conference and researched by three universities — concludes that more than half of the victims were 13 or younger and most were boys. Every sixth case involved rape and at least 1,670 clergy were involved, both weeklies reported. Die Zeit wrote that 969 abuse victims were altar boys.

The report also says that the actual number of victims was likely much higher, according to the research by experts from the Universities of Giessen, Heidelberg and Mannheim.

The German Bishops Conference said in a written response a few hours later that it regretted the leaking of the report, but that the study confirms “the extent of the sexual abuse” that took place.

“It is depressing and shameful for us,” Bishop Stephan Ackermann said. He didn’t further elaborate on the findings of the report, but said the Catholic group would present the study as initially planned on Sept. 25 together with the authors.

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Die Zeit wrote that researchers weren’t allowed to look at the original church files but had to provide questionnaires to the dioceses, which then provided the information.

In their conclusions, the researchers write that there was evidence that some files were manipulated or destroyed, many cases were not brought to justice, and that sometimes abuse suspects — primarily priests — were simply moved to other dioceses without the congregations being informed about their past.

The Catholic Church has been struggling with sex abuse by its clergy for a long time.

In 2010, the German church was roiled by a sex abuse scandal triggered by the head of a Jesuit school in Berlin who went public about decades-long sexual abuse of high school students by clergy. Following that, a whole wave of victims who were sexually abused by clergy spoke out across the country.

An investigation in the United States last month found rampant sexual abuse of more than 1,000 children by about 300 Catholic priests in Pennsylvania.

Earlier this week, the Vatican said it is preparing the “necessary clarifications” about accusations that top Vatican officials including Pope Francis covered up the sexual misconduct of a now-disgraced American ex-cardinal.

Also on Wednesday, the Vatican said it’s summoning the presidents of every bishops conference around the world for a February summit to discuss preventing clergy sex abuse and protecting children.

Cash Disbursements to Poor Families Led to Higher Voter

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Newswise — For nearly 50 years, Americans have been eligible to vote starting at age 18. Yet the nation’s youngest voters have hardly flocked to the polls. Citizens 18 to 29 routinely post the lowest turnout among all age groups, according to the United States Election Project.

And because poor Americans vote at a lower rate than more affluent citizens, young people from poor families are even less likely to vote than the wealthier members of their age cohort.

A new paper co-authored by a Johns Hopkins Carey Business School researcher points to a possible way to raise the numbers. Voting increased among young people from poor backgrounds after their families began receiving regular disbursements of unearned income, the study says.

Annual payments of a few thousand dollars per household led to increased voter turnout of between 8 and 20 percent among the young people in the study, over a period of about 10 years.

“For those in their formative years who haven’t completed high school, household income matters a lot in determining whether or not they become active voters,” says economist Emilia Simeonova, an associate professor at the Carey Business School.   

“What’s more, we saw that the impact of the unearned income on youth voting was more pronounced among those who had the lowest household incomes at the time the disbursements started,” she adds.

The researchers based their paper on data from the Great Smoky Mountains Survey (GSMS), a longitudinal study launched in 1993, as well as from public voting records. Initiated by Duke University and the state of North Carolina, the GSMS set out to examine the psychological traits of 1,420 poor children in western North Carolina, including several hundred children in the Native American Cherokee tribe.

As it happened, about four years into the study, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians opened a casino in the survey zone and started designating half of the profits as extra cash income for adult members of the tribe.

Simeonova and her colleagues focused on the effects of this new yearly income ― about $4,700 per household, or approximately 25 percent of the average Native American family’s annual earnings.

At the start of the payments, the children in the GSMS were 13 to 17 years old. The researchers learned that once the children reached voting age, the youngest ones ― those with the longest exposure to the additional income ― had the highest rate of turnout at the polls.

“That certainly helps underscore our view that extra income can encourage civic activity among children from poor families,” says Simeonova.

The voting patterns of the adults in the GSMS, on the other hand, did not change after the income disbursements started. “It appears that adult voting patterns are locked-in and unaffected by changes in income that occur later in their lives,” Simeonova says.

Increased voting among the youths might be attributed to their being able to finish high school on time, and to their families’ being able to avoid relocation, thanks to the extra income, the researchers say. Such factors might have contributed to the young people’s “social capital,” meaning they felt more committed to their communities and more likely to engage in civic activity.

“Regardless of the exact reasons, the additional income narrowed the turnout gap between children from disadvantaged families and their better-off peers,” says Simeonova. “From this, we see the potential long-term benefit that, as more people from lower-income groups vote, their views and their concerns will attract more attention from elected officials.”

The study, “Family Income and the Intergenerational Transmission of Voting Behavior: Evidence from an Income Intervention,” has appeared as a working paper on the website of the National Bureau of Economic Research. Along with Simeonova of Johns Hopkins, the authors are Associate Professor Randall Akee of the University of California, Los Angeles; Professor William Copeland and Professor E. Jane Costello, both of Duke; and Assistant Professor John Holbein of Brigham Young University.

This same group of researchers, minus Holbein, previously wrote a paper showing that the cash disbursements significantly improved the psychological well-being of adolescent children in the GSMS.

“There may be a broader effect from these disbursements than was thought before,” says Simeonova. “Our new study suggests that social policies aimed at reducing economic disadvantage may also help improve voter turnout in future generations.”

China to continue driving silver market growth

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The report was compiled for the Silver Institute and released in parallel with the 17th China International Silver Conference in Shenzhen. China is the biggest consumer of the white metal by a significant margin and its use is expected to continue rising as industrial, investment, bullion trade, jewellery and silverware demand heats up.

Robust end-use markets and the scope for growing market share should "guarantee" that industrial fabrication will also continue to rise, and push China's overall demand upwards over the next few years, rising by 1% year-on-year to 159 million ounces and reaching 166Moz by 2022.

The country's silver demand had risen in recent years, accounting for 18% of global demand.

The report fingered recent policy changes for dampening local photovoltaic (PV) demand in the short term, yet the outlook for silver demand in PV applications in China remains solid, both on the back of still sizable local installations and healthy sales into other markets. China's consumption of silver for solar applications has been rising in recent years to an estimated 65 million ounces in 2017.

More than 70% of global solar panel production takes place in China and local powder fabricators are only able to satisfy a portion of the essential powder and paste for manufacturing and, therefore, rely on imported silver to fulfil their requirements, despite Chinese mine production averaging 110 million ounces between 2010-2017.

Silver use in electronics applications is also on an uptrend in China. Moreover, local manufacturers will also benefit from market share growth, given that only a little over half of domestic needs are currently satisfied by Chinese fabricators.

Significant areas of growth include touch panels, light emitting diodes and equipment used in electricity generation. Chinese consumption of silver for electronic and electrical uses was estimated at 78-million ounces in 2017 and is forecast to grow modestly this year.

Brazing alloys and solders accounted for 24 million ounces in 2017, and the report outlined broad scope for further gains as China continues to focus on its infrastructure buildout.

Jewellery and silverware have suffered declines in China in recent years, with combined fabrication reaching 29 million ounces in 2017. While offtake in 2017 was once again down year-on-year and further losses are likely also this year, the rate of the decline is slowing considerably, with 2018 forecast to see the first single digit decline since 2014, of 7% to 24 million ounces.

The main drivers of this have been changing consumer appetites and the impact of anti-corruption legislation on the gifting market. In contrast, silverware has already turned a corner.

Where Have All the Turtles Gone, and Why Does It Matter?

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Newswise — Athens, Ga. – About 61 percent of the world’s 356 turtle species are threatened or already extinct, and the decline could have ecological consequences. These findings are according to a new paper in Bioscience synthesizing the global status of turtles and their ecological roles by scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey, Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute, University of California, Davis, and the University of Georgia.

“Our purpose is to inform the public of the many critical ecological roles turtles perform on a global scale and bring awareness to the plight of these emblematic animals whose ancestors walked with the dinosaurs,” said the study’s senior author, Whit Gibbons, professor emeritus at UGA’s Savannah River Ecology Laboratory and Odum School of Ecology.

“These modern descendants of an ancient lineage are touchstones for how human influences are causing the decline of so much of the world’s wildlife. Our hope is that everyone will be encouraged to engage in concerted efforts to conserve their well-earned legacy as part of our natural habitats,” Gibbons said.

 “Turtles contribute to the health of many environments, including desert, wetland, freshwater and marine ecosystems, and declines may lead to negative effects on other species, including humans, that may not be immediately apparent,” said USGS scientist and lead author of the study Jeffrey Lovich.

On the list of most threatened

Turtles are now among the most threatened group of animals on Earth, more so than birds, mammals, fish or amphibians. These iconic animals outlived the dinosaurs and have roamed the Earth for more than 200 million years. Reasons for the dire situation of turtles worldwide include habitat destruction, over-exploitation for pets and food, disease and climate change.

Scientists synthesized existing published studies to bring attention to the plight of turtles and identify what may be lost from an ecological perspective as they continue to decline and disappear. This paper provides the first major review of the various functional roles that large populations and diverse communities of turtles provide from an ecological perspective. This includes maintaining healthyfood webs, dispersing seeds and creating habitats necessary for other species.

Impact on the ecosystem

Turtles can be major players in ecosystem food webs because they can be herbivores, omnivores and carnivores. They range from specialists, or feeding on one to a few food sources, to generalists, feeding on a wide range of items. Their diverse feeding habits allow them to influence the structure of other communities in their habitat.

Some turtle species occur in dense numbers that can yield hundreds of pounds of turtles per acre, making them ecologically important by virtue of their mass alone. Such large masses of turtles equates to large amounts of potential food for organisms that feed on turtles or their eggs.

Turtles can be important in dispersing the seeds of dozens of plant species. Some turtle species may even be the primary seed dispersal agents for specific plants. Not all seeds are destroyed by the digestive tract. In fact, there are specific seeds that exhibit higher rates of germination after being eaten and passed.

Habitats for other species

Some turtles, like Agassiz’s desert tortoise in the American Southwest and the gopher tortoisein the American Southeast, dig large burrows creating habitat for other species. For example, the gopher tortoise can dig burrows over 30 feet long. The mounds of soil near the entrance of the burrows can create new habitat for some plant species, increasing overall plant diversity near burrow entrances. The burrows are used by hundreds of other species including spiders, insects, snakes, amphibians, other reptiles, rabbits, foxes and even bobcats.

“The ecological importance of turtles, especially freshwater turtles, is underappreciated, and they are generally understudied by ecologists,” says Josh Ennen, research scientist at the Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute. “The alarming rate of turtle disappearance could profoundly affect how ecosystems function and the structure of biological communities around the globe.”

“We must take the time to understand turtles, their natural history, and their importance to the environment, or risk losing them to a new reality where they don’t exist,” saidUC Davis scientist Mickey Agha. “Referred to as a shifting baseline, people born into a world without large numbers of long-lived reptiles, such as turtles, may accept that as the new norm.”

The full study is available online at https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/advance-article/doi/10.1093/biosci/biy095/5079873

Sexual Behavior Norms Among U.S. Adults with Dementia Living at Home

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Newswise — The majority of partnered, home-dwelling people in the U.S. with dementia are sexually active, according to a University of Chicago Medicine study out this week in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. In addition, people with cognitive impairment and dementia often have bothersome sexual function problems they don’t discuss with a doctor.

“Until now, most of what we knew on this topic came from studies or legal cases involving people with advanced dementia living in nursing homes,” said lead study author Stacy Tessler-Lindau, MD, MAPP, and UChicago Medicine professor of obstetrics/gynecology and geriatrics. 

“In the next 30 years, more than 80 million people in the U.S. will be 65 or older. A growing number of people with dementia live at home, cared for by a spouse who, like doctors and society more generally, don’t have the knowledge they need to manage the sexual aspects of life with a person with dementia,” she said. 

This study is the first to look at a nationally representative sample of this population.

The number of home-dwelling people with Alzheimer’s Disease (the most common type of dementia) is expected to grow to more than eight million by 2050.

Researchers found that of partnered people with dementia in their study, 59 percent of men and 51 percent of women were sexually active. More than 40 percent of partnered men and women ages 80 to 91 also reported being sexually active. But the likelihood of partnered sexual activity declined with lower cognitive scores for both women and men in the study.

“The lack of basic information about sexual behavior, function and desires in this growing population is a problem,” said Lindau, “because these aspects of life with dementia raise ethical, legal, clinical and even moral questions that we as a society are largely unprepared for.” 

For example, posited Lindau, can a person with dementia consent to sex or be deprived of sex because we’re not sure she can consent? Should a doctor treat a person with dementia for sexual dysfunction? Does a person with cognitive impairment have an obligation to fulfill “marital duty?”

The study’s authors looked at data from more than three thousand home-dwelling people in the United States between the ages of 62 and 91. In a previous study, Lindau and co-authors found later-life sexual activity to be positively associated with physical and mental health and was regarded by most men and women as an important part of life.  

The majority of people, across all cognition groups in the current study, reported positive attitudes about sex and that they were having sex less often that they would like. More than one in 10 partnered men and women reported feeling threatened or frightened by their partner; this rate was not higher among people with dementia.

“Physicians may be asked to determine whether a patient with dementia has the capacity to consent to sex and have to balance the obligation to protect the patient from harm with the obligation to protect the person’s autonomy,” Lindau said. “We now have normative evidence that should help counter negative bias and inform important decisions about sex for people with dementia.”

 More than one-third of men and one in 10 women in the study’s dementia group reported bothersome sexual problems, but only 17 percent of men and one percent of women with dementia talked to a physician about sex life changes that result from a medical condition like dementia.

According to Lindau, there are a growing number of FDA-approved treatments for sexual dysfunction, and many of these are targeted to older adults.

“Sometimes the person complaining about the patient’s sexual function problems is the partner, not the patient with dementia. Doctors need to be prepared for how to handle that,” she said.

Lindau is the director of WomanLab, a web-based platform for information about sex and aging that offers resources about sex and dementia.

The study is titled “Sexuality and Cognitive Status: A U.S. Nationally Representative Study of Home-Dwelling Older Adults.” Co-authors include William Dale, MD, PhD; Gillian Feldmeth, BS; Natalia Gavrilova, PhD; Kenneth M. Langa, MD, PhD; Jennifer A. Makelarski, PhD, MPH; and Kristen Wroblewski, MS.

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Seven Tips for Better Brain Health

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Newswise — Our brains change as we age: our memory gets foggier, our joints start to creak. Researchers at Jefferson who conducted cognitive studies with black participants suggest that being active socially, physically, and mentally (or cognitively) may actually prevent memory loss in those who start showing signs of forgetfulness. While this might sound familiar, the science suggests that the trick is to set achievable, or small goals, and to do them consistently, integrating them into everyday life.

“Many people feel, ‘I’ve worked my whole life, retirement is my time to rest,’” said Joann Akpan, Clinical Research Coordinator at Jefferson, who helped participants set and keep goals for more active living as part of the study. “People don’t realize that our bodies and minds stop working as well when we don’t use them.”

Keeping brains, bodies, and social lives active – all three, if possible – may significantly help reduce memory loss.  In fact, study participants who set and met activity goals saw an 88 percent reduction in risk of memory loss compared to those who didn’t.

But finding ways to set and keep realistic goals isn’t easy. Only about 9 percent of people who set New Year’s resolutions ever complete them. We spoke with Akpan and study authors, Barry Rovner and Robin Casten, for seven tips on finding and setting effective activity goals that all older adults can stick to.

• Start with a script

If you’re helping a family member with memory loss, create a script you can follow to start the discussion and avoid landmines. (Use the tips and activity suggestions below to guide your scripting.)

“It can be difficult to talk to loved ones about their memory loss – it can be scary, they may get defensive, and not want to engage,” said Akpan. “A script offers a roadmap if you hit an obstacle and keeps you focused. Most importantly, allow time to listen after initiating a discussion.”

1. Find motivators

Ask questions that allow the person to reflect on his or her observations about their memory – acknowledging that your memory isn’t as strong as it used to be. That can be a strong motivator and a point of commonality.

“I would tell stories about me or others forgetting their keys, or appointments, and say, ‘do you ever notice things like that? How does that make you feel and what do you do about it?’” said Akpan.   “Realizing there’s a problem can be very motivating, especially if there are things that can help improve that memory.”

• Help family members come up with goals

Explore their interests, from their past or current life, and develop goals around those interests.  Don’t force activities that someone does not really want to pursue. No one is motivated by someone else’s goal.

“A key element of our study was that all of the goals were realistic goals that the participants wanted to achieve,” said Akpan. “They may seem small, or simple, but the key here is interest, which leads to commitment.”

• Start with goals attuned to the individual’s abilities; modify if needed

If the person is not moving around the house much, start with activities they can do in their chair such as phone calls to a friend or family member every week, and reading. If they are active, but don’t like exercise, incorporate extra movement into tasks they already do, such as taking a few extra laps around the grocery store with the cart or adding steps to their laundry routine.

“If a person is bored with a goal that may be too easy or too hard, modify it,” said Akpan.  “Increase or decrease the number of times it’s completed per week, add a new goal, or switch to a more complex or simple goal, depending on need, for example, switch to doing Sudoku puzzles instead of word-finds.”

• Bake routine into each goal

None of the goals should be one-offs. Instead of “do a jigsaw puzzle,” it should be “do one jigsaw puzzle every Tuesday.” Or “go to the senior center once a week.” Build the activities into regular daily or weekly routines. Consistency is key.  

• Break the goals into steps; create a checklist

For people with more advanced memory problems, checklists can be essential, although they can be useful motivation tools for anyone. Start your checklist with the goal at the top and below that, the six or seven simple steps that might go into achieving that goal. The participant would then check off the steps he or she has completed and feel accomplishment in the progress towards that goal.

For a social/physical goal like “take a walk with a friend,” the steps might include: 1) mark your calendar to call your friend 2) call and find a date and time that works 3) decide on a meeting location 4) mark your calendar with the date and time for the walk 4) call the night before to confirm 5) put on comfortable shoes, etc.

“Keep in mind that memory is an issue, so memory aids like calendars, refrigerator white boards, or leaving a jigsaw puzzle in plain view become much more important in helping a person achieve their goal,” said Akpan.

• Compassionately manage setbacks

A loved one may have a medical setback or admit that they have not met their goals. This is normal. Managing through these setbacks – with compassion and understanding – will go a long way.  What caused the setback and were the goals too daunting? Is there an opportunity to create smaller, more actionable steps that do not overwhelm?

Akpan had some participants give her empty stares, while others broke down in tears over the fear of losing their memory. “Both are normal and natural responses and participants were usually very honest when they didn’t complete their goals,” she recalls “The key is to make each step do-able not to over-challenge. Sometimes a participant would have a medical set-back, which would throw the routine and we’d often have to start the process from the beginning, which is ok.”

SIDEBAR:

A Menu of SuggestionsTry to have one goal in each area and complete each at least once per week.

Mental Health (Brain): Activities that make you focus, think, or reflect

• reading

• writing

• playing cards

• Sudoku puzzles, jigsaw puzzles, word-find games

• memory matching games

Physical Health (Body): Simple activities that get the blood flowing

Loved ones don’t have to become Olympic athletes, in fact you might want to check with their doctor first to ensure any physical goals are not too strenuous.

• Start at the person’s baseline and if mobility is an issue, start small. Maybe stretching every morning, or walking around the apartment five times or down the stairs and then taking the elevator up is a good start.
• Add legs to the usual routine. For example, take a few extra trips up and down the stairs to get the laundry.
• Line dancing classes (very popular among study participants) at the local senior center can accomplish both physical and social goals.

Social Health: Simple positive human interaction is key to improving mood, reducing stress and creating positive feelings

• Visit a senior center or church group
• Text or call a niece or nephew once a week.

Spanish minister would prefer separatists free

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BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — The Latest on Catalan separatists in Spain (all times local): 6:40 p.m. Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borrell says that he would prefer for jailed Catalan separatist leaders to be free while awaiting a trial for their role in last year's push for independence from Spain.

(1 of 6) Pro-Independence demonstrators fill-up La Diagonal, one Barcelona's main avenues, during the Catalan National Day in Barcelona, Spain, Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2018. Catalan authorities have made a call to flood the streets of Barcelona later on Tuesday to demand freedom for Catalan politicians in jail and in support of independence from Spain. September 11, called "Diada," marks the fall of the Catalan capital to Spanish forces in 1714.

September 11, 2018

Nine politicians and activists remain in prison on preliminary charges of rebellion and abuse of power, while others, including former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, avoided jail by fleeing overseas.

Speaking to reporters in Strasbourg on Tuesday, Borrell said: "I personally would have preferred for the judge to take other precautionary measures that weren't preventive jail, but that's what the judge did and one must respect his independence."

A veteran Socialist politician from Catalonia who presided over the European Parliament, Borrell is an advocate of Spain's territorial unity. Catalan separatists say that the prosecuted leaders are "political prisoners" or "in exile." Central authorities reject the term and say that they are being dealt with according to the country's laws.

5:30 p.m.

Tens of thousands Catalans have issued a collective roar along a main artery of Barcelona to demand independence for the wealthy northeastern region from Spain.

Organizers said 470,000 people had signed up online for Tuesday's "Diada" march, on Catalonia's national day, but many more were expected to join the rally.

With the official slogan "Let's Make the Catalan Republic" written in pink-colored t-shirts and signs, protesters went silent at 5.14 p.m., which on a 24-hour clock is 1714 — the year when Barcelona fell in the Spanish War of Succession.

Shouts of "independence" and "freedom" followed, sweeping along a six-kilometer (3.7-mile) -long stretch of the city's Diagonal avenue.

In a giant symbolic wall, protesters toppled the image of a king of spades card, in an apparent rejection of the Spanish monarchy.

2:25 p.m.

The Catalan leader says the focus of the Day of Catalonia holiday must be on freeing the high-profile separatists who are awaiting trial for their part in the bid by the region to break away from Spain last year.

Quim Torra says that while maintaining the goal of secession for Catalonia, his government will dedicate all its efforts into drumming up public protests before the trials of the separatists expected to start before the year's end.

Torra says "I will not accept (guilty) sentences and I will appeal to all free-minded citizens to not accept them either."

Torra, however, adds that his government has ruled out openly defying the justice system by releasing the prisoners from their jails, which are in Catalonia and run by his regional administration.

Hundreds of thousands of pro-independence Catalans are expected in Barcelona's streets later on Tuesday.

12:45 p.m.

Separatist authorities are calling for people to take to the streets of Barcelona to mark the Day of Catalonia, in the first of a series of mass mobilizations demanding independence from Spain.

The traditional Sept. 11 march marking the "Diada," when the Catalan capital fell to Spanish forces in 1714, is expected to draw hundreds of thousands of secession sympathizers Tuesday.

It comes nearly one year after a banned referendum on secession led to an ineffective independence declaration. Catalan separatist leaders and activists who pushed it, defying Spain's constitutional protection of territorial integrity, are either awaiting trial in prison or fled the country.

Catalan President Quim Torra, who came to power after secessionists won a regional election, wants the new center-left national government to agree to a binding independence referendum.

Tata Power to offer suite of services in rooftop solar drive

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MUMBAI (Reuters) - India’s Tata Power Company Ltd plans to offer a range of services from advice and financing to installation and maintenance as it strives to increase its share of the market for rooftop solar panels, a senior executive said on Tuesday.

A boy dusts off a solar panel installed on the rooftop of his house on the outskirts of Ahmedabad October 27, 2014. REUTERS/Amit Dave/File Photo

Tata Power Solar, the renewable energy arm of Mumbai-headquartered Tata Power, is currently India’s biggest rooftop solar panel supplier.

But with a market share of just 6 percent, it sees plenty of scope for growth and aims to leverage its position as an integrated solar power company - with a presence in manufacturing, engineering, construction and maintenance - to offer customers an end-to-end service.

“We will give the benefit of low cost solar panels to our consumers and also help them (save money...) with other value-added services,” Praveer Sinha, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Tata Power, told Reuters.

Ashish Khanna, CEO of Bangalore-headquartered Tata Power Solar, added the services would include consultancy, sourcing of solar panels, installation and maintenance of rooftop structures as well as low cost financing and liaising with distributors.

He said the company would offer low cost financing through Tata group’s financing arm, Tata Capital.

India has plans to install up to 175 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy capacity by 2022, out of which 40 GW is expected to come from rooftop solar panels. So far, however, the pace of rooftop installations has been just around 6 percent of the target, according to government figures.

Tata Power Solar is also planning to launch a dealer network to better take on its myriad of competitors, which include Chinese companies.

It plans to have 58 master dealers across nine states, with each having five third-party sales people under them, said a senior executive who did not want to be named as he is not authorised to speak to the media.