Renewable Energy For India - Page 38

senthilkumark · September 18th, 2012, 06:46 AM

25 renewable energy firms bid for supplying power to tower firms

At least 25 Renewable Energy Service Companies (Rescos) have expressed interest in supplying energy to telecom tower companies.

Tower companies, including Indus, Bharti Infratel, American Tower Corporation and Viom, had floated a joint proposal for the project.

Under this project, the Rescos will set up renewable energy-based power plants near the telecom towers and sell power to the telecom company at a predetermined cost on a pay per use model.

The power generated by the Rescos will be off-grid. But additional power generated by them can also be sold to commercial users living in areas where the power plants are located

The Tower and Infrastructure Providers’ Association had floated the Request for Proposal inviting NGOs and private green power companies to generate and supply off-grid power to telecom towers in the country.

TRAI REGULATION

This comes in the wake of TRAI’s recent regulation directing all telecom service providers to ensure that part of the power that is used for the towers comes from renewable sources.

Under the new rules, at least 50 per cent of towers and 20 per cent of the urban towers are to be powered by hybrid energy sources (renewable and grid) by 2015. The move is aimed at reducing carbon emissions due to increased dependence on diesel.

However, the tower companies are not too happy with the regulations.

According to them, the dictate from the regulator was unfair as they are being forced to adopt a particular technology.

“It is okay to tell us that we need to reduce carbon emissions but why tell us how to do it,” posed a Delhi-based tower firm.

Tower companies currently spent 20 per cent of their operational expense on buying diesel for powering tower sites.

“We ourselves want to reduce the cost on diesel but the Government should give us alternative power supply. Why should tower firms start generating energy?” posed another tower firm.

senthilkumark · September 18th, 2012, 06:47 AM

Agartala to be Northeast India’s first solar city

According to reports, to reduce dependency on conventional energy, the Tripura government Wednesday announced ambitious plans to make Agartala a ‘solar city’, replacing at least 10 percent of usual power use by solar energy.”Agartala city would be the first ‘solar city’ in northeast India within the next few years,” Tripura’s Urban Development Minister Manik Dey said after inaugurating a 50 kilowatt solar power plant at the Agartala Municipal Council head office here.

He said: “Solar power is the sustainable and viable energy for both cities and remote areas. Electricity crisis would not be solved in the country unless we use non-conventional energy like solar power in a big way.”

An official of the Agartala Municipal Council said a master plan of Rs.452.32 crore has been undertaken to make Agartala a ‘solar city’. The union ministry of new and renewable energy (MNRE) would bear 90 percent of the cost and the remaining would be borne by the Tripura government.

As part of the master plan, solar hot water systems would be installed in all hotels, nursing homes, school hostels, government circuit houses and bungalows, hospitals and health centres, tourist lodges, temples and the governor’s residence.

According to the official, the Agartala solar city project is part of MNRE’s plan to turn 60 Indian cities into solar cities.
“The Tripura Renewable Energy Development Authority (TREDA) and urban development department, in association with MNRE, would implement the ambitious scheme,” the official added.

The city’s street lights and other lights in public places would also be operated on solar energy.

“Theft of battery and solar panel is a major problem facing the authorities in implementing the solar electrification programme,” Tripura’s Science, Technology and Environment Minister Joy Gobinda Debroy said.

The minister said 700 hamlets and 50 villages in remote areas in the northeastern state have already been provided solar energy, benefiting more than 35,000 families, mostly tribals.

“Solar energy would also be provided to hundreds of more remote villages in the state under the remote village electrification (RVE) scheme during the current financial year,” the minister said.

According to Debroy, through the TREDA, 80,000 solar lanterns have been distributed among poor people residing in urban as well as rural areas in Tripura. Over 66,000 small and medium hot water plants have been installed across Tripura.

“To popularise ‘solar energy’, lakhs of specially-designed ‘solar caps’ and ‘solar torches’ would be distributed among students in the state,” he stated.

Of India’s 60 proposed solar cities, eight cities have been identified in the northeastern region by MNRE.

The cities include Itanagar in Arunachal Pradesh, Agartala in Tripura, Guwahati and Jorhat in Assam, Aizawl in Mizoram, Imphal in Manipur and Kohima and Dimapur in Nagaland.

senthilkumark · September 20th, 2012, 06:15 AM

Solar power on every rooftop

A solar panel atop every house should be the model for providing electricity to all. The grid should merely serve as a back-up.

With will and vision, India’s energy prospects can be changed from grim to green, and the world will benefit as a result.

The failure of the country’s electricity grid on July 30 and 31 highlights its vulnerabilities and underscores a larger national need: about 400 million Indians are not connected to the grid at all, and those who are have unreliable access. At 571 kWh per capita, India’s electricity consumption is one-fifth of China’s (2,631 kWh) and less than one-twentieth of the US’ (12,914 kWh). India’s electricity demand will only grow.

Burning coal for electricity is increasingly expensive, causes global warming, and jeopardises the planet’s health. In any case, India has ash-rich coal, limited oil, unknown amounts of gas, poor mining productivity and inadequate transport. Power plants struggle to get reliable fuel supplies. Solar electricity today at Rs 7.50 a kWh is economical compared with subsidised diesel-generated power at roughly Rs 15 a unit, but more expensive than coal-based electricity at about Rs 6. What, however, is the true cost of coal-based power? Prices are distorted by subsidies, State boundaries, vote-bank politics, and uncharged carbon-emission costs. Average prices matter less than peak prices. When India sheds load to manage peaks, customers use expensive diesel power.

UNIVERSAL ACCESS

How do we come out of this energy and infrastructure bind? Nothing short of a fundamental re-imagining, starting from first principles, of all energy solutions is essential to address India’s energy needs. Can India leapfrog into a clean-energy future rather than extend the conventional grid with fossil fuels at its core? In a nation blessed with abundant sunlight, to what extent should electricity be a networking service at all? Could India tap ambient solar energy for most of its needs?

India’s single-minded focus should be massive and rapid solar deployment, not only through utility-scale solar plants, but also through distributed generation, household-by-household, nationwide. Electricity in Indian homes should be rooftop-to-room and solar based with energy self-sufficiency as the goal; the grid can complement and serve as back-up where available. Much as TV antennas once sprouted on rooftops, so should solar panels.

Public policy should have a singular aim: universal electricity access.

By implication, policies aimed at encouraging domestic manufacturing, local content requirements, or favouring one technology over another should be put aside as tertiary.

The aim should be personal power just as we have personal computers. Slowly, we will get there. In the meanwhile, solar electricity is poised to become a friendly, industrial scale, cottage industry, like vegetable patches in home gardens. Photovoltaic technologies have matured sufficiently and present us with simple, affordable electricity alternatives to the traditional grid.

Enabling public policy can unfetter entrepreneurial energies and give birth to millions of small and large solar-related businesses, and thereby generate employment. Distributed solar generation can spawn innovations. Standardised 1-kW solar kits, for instance, can be mass produced and installed easily. The household deployments can extend to communities and neighbourhoods resulting in self-sufficient micro-grids.

PARTNERSHIP WITH CHINA

Community micro-grids for tens and hundreds of households in villages, towns and cities should be India’s preferred electricity infrastructure. Anchored with solar, the solutions may include combinations with bio-diesel, batteries, wind, biogas, micro-hydro, etc. At night or when the sun is behind clouds, alternative yet local sources can assure electricity. Once solar energy takes root, India will need less of the colossal and wasteful transmission, distribution and generation infrastructure except for industrial operations such as running factories and trains.

China has recognised the importance of solar energy and invested in numerous solar-panel factories. Taiwan is doing the same. Due to the manufacturing excess, prices have dropped by over 70 per cent in the past three years, and the fall continues. India presents a ready market for that production. The formula, ‘China produces, India deploys’, makes for a winning partnership.

MORAL IMPERATIVE

Among competing national priorities, what can be more catalytic of overall welfare than universal electricity? It can extend working hours, reduce pollution and diseases, and help prevent food waste. Beyond lighting homes, solar solutions allow for the spread of the Internet and therefore education, e-governance kiosks and ATM machines.

Solar panels facilitate a parallel infrastructure for clean transport — charging batteries for electric bicycles, scooters and cars. Solar energy aids cooking, powers streetlights, operates irrigation pump sets and substitutes diesel burning for cellular towers. Stubborn problems such as efficient battery storage persist, but they can be dealt with as the market evolves.

The grid failure has crystallized the solar market. There has never been an India-sized market for solar electricity, with relentlessly rising demand, talented people, old infrastructure and plentiful sunlight. The scale can establish new low-price benchmarks and thereby aid the entire world. Unfavourable economics has been the primary barrier to the spread of solar energy until recently, but no longer.

Universal electrification is a human-rights, inter-generational-justice and human-capital-growth issue all in one. For how many decades should a third of India’s citizens use kerosene for light and cooking, children study by smoky, unhealthy flames, and income-earning opportunities fade with sunset?

Krishnamoorthy K · September 23rd, 2012, 01:08 PM

Quote:

Swati Shinde Gole, TNN Sep 3, 2012, 12.33AM IST

PUNE: Considering the total potential of 6,000 MW wave energy from the Indian coast, the Maharashtra Energy Development agency (MEDA) has taken the first step forward to tap Maharashtra's 720-km coast to generate wave energy. A study has showed that the Maharashtra coast has an annual wave potential of four to eight KW per metre of the length of the wave. During the monsoon, that is, between June and August, the potential is quite high -- 12 to 20 KW/m.

MEDA, which is the nodal agency appointed by the state government for taking initiatives in non-conventional energy, will soon float tenders to invite expression of interest by companies which would assess the potential for generation of wave energy in coastal areas. The project is slated to begin in the next three months.

J V Torane, general manager, research and development, MEDA, told TOI on Thursday, "The state government has given a go ahead to MEDA for executing this project. We have prepared a draft for floating tenders for companies which would be interested in analyzing the coast to assess the potential and commercial execution of wave technology in the state's coastal areas."

Torane said the tenders will be published shortly and companies will be shortlisted and finalized in three months. The project will take off immediately after that. "The wave technology project aims at generating energy from the waves of the sea and converting it into electrical energy for commercial use," Torane said.

According to a research conducted by MEDA, the average potential along the Indian coast is around 5 to 10 KW/m. With a coast line of approximately 7,500 km, total potential comes to around 40,000 MW. Even a 15% utilization would mean the availability of approximately 6,000 MW. "Generally it has been observed that the western coast is more useful than the eastern coast. This is because the former has more stable waves and is less vulnerable to cyclones that can damage the power plant," Torane said.

TOI

Krishnamoorthy K · September 23rd, 2012, 01:23 PM

100 hotels to set up biofuel units

Quote:

TNN Sep 6, 2012, 01.24AM IST

BANGALORE: You may soon get hotel food parcels in plantain leaves and arecanut leaf bowls.

BBMP commissioner Rajneesh Goel instructed members of the Bangalore Hoteliers Association that they must implement the ban of plastic and segregate garbage at source.

At a meeting on Wednesday with hoteliers, Goel said their association must come up with a list of 100 hotels which will start installing biofuel plants on site in a month. "Taking the help of a biofuel researcher, hotels can set up biogas units on their own and manage their waste. To begin with, biogas generators can come up in 100 large hotels," Goel said.

The commissioner introduced Sheetal Singh, a researcher with the Karnataka State Biofuel Development Board, who will provide technical guidance. She has a biogas unit at home which generates LPG on a daily basis by converting 1.5kg of kitchen waste every day. "The conversion of wet waste into gaseous fuel is the need of the hour. At the Bangalore International Airport, we're working on the biogas generation unit which converts food waste that arrives at BIA along with every flight. Similar units can be set up in apartments and hotels. I hardly depend on LPG supplied by the gas agency," Sheetal said.

Hoteliers, considered bulk generators of waste, said they would co-operate with BBMP on banning plastic and segregation of waste. "We don't mind paying for management of waste generated in our hotels. We'll meet with association members and extend BBMP our cooperation," said association president Vasudeva Adiga.

Does restriction on number of subsidized LPG cyclinders lead to bio-waste based biogas units at homes?

Hotels, malls must segregate waste from October 1

Quote:

TNN Sep 21, 2012, 12.28AM IST

BANGALORE: Like residents of Bangalore, hotels, malls, offices, convention halls and educational institutions must start waste segregation from Oct. 1. Not just segregation into dry and wet waste, but also compost wet waste within their premises or pay to hand it over to BBMP.

BBMP commissioner Rajneesh Goel on Thursday sent a public notice to bulk generators about this, as per Sections 256, 257 and 260 of the Karnataka Municipal Corporation (KMC) Act, 1976. The bulk generators, according to BBMP, include hotels, restaurants, choultries, malls, shopping complexes, marriage halls, convention halls, temples, residential apartments (10 units and above), public offices, railway stations and bus stands which generate 100kg or more waste per day.

If these generators have a space crunch to set up composting units or biomethanisation units on their premises, BBMP has directed them to put in place alternative arrangements to hand over wet waste to the BBMP Wet Waste Collectors on payment as specified by zonal commissioners. This will be collected regularly. But dry waste should be handed over to BBMP's dry waste collection centres once a week.

Goel has mandated the corporation to collect only rejects and inerts from bulk generators once a week on a payment basis. Shopkeepers of smaller business establishments and streets vendors and hawkers should not mix waste generated at their outlets and hand over only segregated waste to pourakarmikas.

He has warned bulk generators, shopkeepers and hawkers not to dump waste on the street or public spaces or vacant sites. They'll be fined for violating measures to control waste dumped at landfills.

Biomethanisation primer

* Formation of methane by microbes known as methanogens

* Largely used as final step to decompose organic masses

* Methane gas produced through covering organic waste without letting it come in contact with oxygen of air around

* Can be used to produce biofuel

Biofuel firm Hanjeer to set up waste plant in 1 year

Quote:

TNN Sep 22, 2012, 02.53AM IST

BANGALORE: The government finally appears to have a solution to garbage segregation and disposal in Bangalore.

The cabinet meeting on Friday approved the establishment of a fully automated segregation plant on develop-build-operate-transfer (DBOT) basis by BBMP through Hanjeer Biotech Energy Private Ltd.

"The company will be given 10 acres of land in Subbaramanapalya village, Tavarekere hobli in Ramohalli post, Bangalore Rural, on lease for 20 years to set up the fully automated segregation plant," law minister S Suresh Kumar told reporters.

Hanjeer is running a plant in Salem in Tamil Nadu, which was inspected before the deal was finalized.

The company has agreed to reduce waste receipt fee (tipping fee) to Rs 70 from Rs 83 per metric tonne, which it had earlier quoted, for segregation of solid waste. "After negotiations, the company reduced the fee," a senior minister said.

The company reportedly assured the government that it would start the plant within a year from the date of agreement, and has agreed to pay Rs 7.50 crore as performance security. A technical committee headed by HN Chanakya, professor, Indian Institute of Sciences (IISc), has been constituted to establish the automated plant.

The urban development department had directed the BBMP commissioner to give a report on savings to the civic body through this proposal, and comparative rates for segregation facilities in other cities. According to the report laid before the cabinet, approximately 200 MT of solid waste is being transported to Gundlahalli village in Doddaballapur taluk to Terra Firma solid waste plant, 80km from the city.

Orissa Biodiesel Policy
A need to revisit biofuel promotion policies

Krishnamoorthy K · September 23rd, 2012, 01:35 PM

Quote:

TNN Sep 15, 2012, 05.00AM IST

MADURAI: With the intention of providing uninterrupted power supply through green energy, a hybrid model of utilising wind and solar energy was launched by Borg Inc in Madurai on Friday. Borg's off-grid power generation system combines solar PV panel with a small wind turbine. The system was born in NASA's heliophysics science laboratory in Washington with more than 10 years of experience, company sources said. The product is claimed to recover only the differential current from the grid supply and helps reduces the power tariff besides providing uninterrupted power supply for residences. Further it is said to save 0.82 kg of CO2 emission equivalent for every 1 kw/h generated, they said.

Launching the product, Boaz Augustine of Borg said that the system is available in both smart-grid and off-grid models though the smart grid is yet to be introduced in India. Their first project in India was the most demanding and challenging task with Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd in association with the state government to generate off-grid hybrid alternative power through wind turbine and solar panels for lighting the Vellore Fort controlled by the Archaeological Survey of India, spreading over an area of 133 acres. "We wanted to have a model in the country to prove our efficiency and the Borg products are proven across the globe in United States, Europe and China," he said. They also have more than 75 international patents and quality certifications for the product, he added.

TOI

senthilkumark · September 26th, 2012, 06:07 AM

Vestas to scale down India operations

Vestas, the world’s biggest wind turbine manufacturer, has decided to “scale down its sales efforts in the Indian market’’.

Business Line had heard rumours that the Danish multinational was closing down its India operations and sent an email query.

In response to the query, Mikkel Friis-Thomsen, Communication Partner, Media & External Relations, Vestas Wind Systems A/S, said that the global wind energy market is in a “challenging situation right now’’.

As a consequence, Vestas is currently implementing a global re-organisation plan to develop a “more scalable and flexible organisation” and cut cost by €250 million by the end of 2012.

Consequent to its efforts to “re-establish a more efficient and profitable business”, the company is “re-evaluating its current business set-up and approach in India’’.

Therefore, “Vestas has decided to scale down its sales efforts in the Indian market to focus on providing value-added service and maintenance to existing Indian wind power plants,” Friss-Thomsen said.

“Vestas will adjust the number of employees to match the reduced business scope,” he has said in the email.

One of the earliest

Vestas was one of the earliest wind turbine manufacturers to set up shop in India. It came into India in collaboration with RRB. Vestas-RRB was a well known brand in the mid-1990s and was the second highest selling turbine after NEPC Micon, which was a joint venture between NEG Micon of Denmark and the NEPC group.

In 1996, NEG was taken over by Vestas in Europe consequent to which the partners of NEPC Micon had to split up. NEG was on its own in India, as a subsidiary of Vestas, even though Vestas was present also through Vestas RRB.

In 2004, the partners of Vestas-RRB decided to part ways. Vestas was on its own and all the operations of NEG were subsumed under Vestas.

Vestas today has about 3,000 MW of standing machines.

According to Mr Ramesh Kymal, who headed Vestas for many years—he now heads Vestas’ competitor, Gamesa India—the Danish company’s business model was not appropriate for India, as it refused to do the “project development work”—such as buying and developing land and putting the transmission infrastructure.

Also, Vestas India had to report into Singapore, rather than Denmark, and as such those in Denmark were not fully aware of the realities in India, Mr Kymal told Business Line today.

Vineeth Vijayaraghavan, Founder-Editor of the online newsletter, Panchabuta, says that the Indian wind energy market is “shifting to a smaller number of customers and larger size of wind farms”. Against this new backdrop, “Vestas's approach on scaling down sales force and focusing on value added service and maintenance is the best approach given that they do not do project development in India," Vineeth said.

senthilkumark · September 26th, 2012, 06:24 AM

Uttar Pradesh plans to set up canal-top solar power plants

On the lines of innovative canal-top solar power project on Narmada canal in Gujarat, the Uttar Pradesh (UP) government is planning to take advantage of its vast canal network by covering them with solar panels.

This plan on the part of the UP government is a firm step towards its ambition of becoming one of the leading solar power producing states in India. The canal network in the state is immense spanning over 74,000 km, and in the first phase, solar panels will be installed on canals in five districts- Jhansi, Ghaziabad, Etawah, Ballia and Lucknow, producing 10 MW of solar power each.

According to sources from UP New Energy Development Authority (UPNEDA), this ambitious project is a part of the state’s new solar power policy that is almost in its final stages. “By making use of the canals, we will not only be replacing the need for acquiring land, which is anyway a disputed issue these days, but we would also prevent the loss of water from the canals through evaporation,” a senior official from UPNEDA was quoted as saying in FE.

UPNEDA will be the nodal agency for executing the can-top solar power projects in the state, and it is believe that the areas where the projects are to come up have been earmarked. The Union Ministry of New and Renewable energy (MNRE) is said to have allocated Rs 200 crore to the state government for the pilot projects, and once the project becomes successful, it is likely to attract investments from private developers in solar power in the state in a big way.

senthilkumark · September 28th, 2012, 10:00 AM

Storage key to renewable energy growth, says IREDA chief

The drivers of renewable energy are storage and dispatch, said Debashish Majumdar, Chairman and Managing Director, Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA).

He was addressing the media at ‘Renewable Energy Conference - Policy, Regulation, Technology and Finance,’ organised by the European Business and Technology Centre and Council of EU Chamber of Commerce in India here on Tuesday.

As of now no grid manager wanted renewable energy due to issues of dispatch. The solution lies in storage as it would help streamline supply according to gird requirements. The storage can be in the form of heat or in case of solar through thermal storage, he said.

Majumdar said smart grids, storage and forecasting were crucial to further accelerate renewable energy growth. Research had proved that it was possible to forecast wind with an accuracy of up to half-an-hour, he said.

There was potential for generation at point of use as also in off-grid locations. Here, technology would have to play a major role as like telecom where prepaid cards helped in expanding the networks to rural areas.

On parity of solar tariff with conventional energy sources, he said it was possible not because of the declining cost of solar panels but also due to the rising cost of conventional energy over the last 24 months.

On financing for renewable energy sector, he said availability was not an issue but the poor health of the public utilities, which should take up the power, was of concern.

The Ministry of Renewable Energy also funded projects based on new technology which could translate to higher efficiency. One such project had been tried out at a sugar mill near Pune, where German technology helped molasses generate gas to run the boiler.

Plans were on to replicate this at other sugar mills. Similarly, talks were on with Spain for electricity storage through thermal and molten salt.

On States coming up with renewable energy policies, he said by and large they were in sync with the Central norms.

Krishnamoorthy K · October 3rd, 2012, 06:16 PM

Quote:

Press Trust of India / Chandigarh September 30, 2012, 18:05

Punjab is all set to set up Solar Photo-voltaic Power Packs in households across the state in a major move to encourage use of solar energy for basic electricity needs, Non-Conventional Energy Minister Bikram Singh Majithia today said.

He said the government was making all efforts to fulfil the gap in demand and supply of electricity by installing more generating capacity in the renewable energy sector as well as conventional sector.

Majithia said Punjab has considerable sun light available for more than 330 days in a year and this abundant energy could be utilised for generation of power during the day time through solar photo-voltaic power plants.

He said the state is endowed with vast potential of solar energy estimated at 4-7 KWH per one sq mt of solar insulation level and added that Punjab Government was committed to tap this resource.

He also said the Punjab Energy Development Agency (PEDA) has planned installation of Solar Power Packs at households in the state of capacity 500Wp to 1000Wp.

Majithia said the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy has sanctioned the Central Financial Assistance of Rs 3.03 crore as first instalment and with total project cost of Rs 10 crore.

He said that besides generating power, Solar Photo-voltaic Power Packs were environment friendly and carbon neutral and were easily produced and consumed.

The Punjab Government has set up Akshey Urja shops in all districts of the state, where people can buy these at 30 per cent subsidy.

BS

US, India to set up panel to discuss financing for renewable energy
EU keen to partner India in renewable energy sector
Solar Power Plant inaugurated at Pushpa Gujral Science City, Kapurthala
Vestas to scale down India operations
Kerala has potential for wind, solar energy generation

senthilkumark · October 4th, 2012, 07:57 AM

Tax cut likely for biogas households in Kerala

The State government would explore the option of reducing building tax for households with biogas plants. Speaking to newspersons here after commissioning a biogas plant in the backyard of Cliff House, his official residence, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy stressed the need for encouraging decentralised waste management plants in the State. The Rs 28,000-plant at Cliff House was set up by Biotech, the city-based centre for development of biogas technology. It works on bacteria culture, and can treat up to 5 kg of degradable waste and 20 litres of waste water.

Krishnamoorthy K · October 4th, 2012, 01:24 PM

That is what I was expecting when I asked this question.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Krishnamoorthy K

Does restriction on number of subsidized LPG cyclinders lead to bio-waste based biogas units at homes?

Hope GoI will also find ways to encourage home based biogas units.

Krishnamoorthy K · October 6th, 2012, 03:07 PM

Quote:

India's Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) plans to provide viability gap funding (VGF) for solar projects in the nation under phase 2 of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM), according to the latest report by Bridge to India (New Delhi, India).

The firm's latest India Solar Compass states that VGF is being considered under phase 2 due to insufficient private investments, but warns that this could make projects relying on the solar renewable energy certificate (SREC) mechanism in India unviable.

Policy changes could lead to collapse in REC prices.

Bridge to India estimates that under JNNSM's Phase 2 3 GW of solar will be supported through policy based allocations and another 6 GW through the Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO) and the SREC mechanism.

This would give utilities the choice of meeting their RPOs through either purchasing electricity from JNNSM projects or buying SRECs.

However, the company notes that the floor price of SRECs at INR 9.3 per kWh (USD 0.18 per kWh) is much higher than estimated costs of electricity from PV at between INR 4 and 6 per kWh (USD 0.08 - 0.12 per kWh), and predicts that this will lead to a collapse in the price of SRECs.

Bridge to India also argues that VGF support for projects under the JNNSM is likely to have a detrimental impact on allocation procedures, plant performances, bankability of projects and project timelines.

SolarServer

Krishnamoorthy K · October 6th, 2012, 03:10 PM

Quote:

IANS
Bangalore, October 04, 2012

India's energy needs can be met entirely by solar and other renewable sources, says a new study by two professors at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore. Their report published in the journal Current Science may add ammunition to the anti-nuclear agitation in India.

The analysis by Hiremath Mitavachan and Jayaraman Srinivasan of IISc's Divecha Centre for Climate Change overturns the argument that nuclear power is essential for India because the country does not have enough land to exploit the potential of solar energy in India.

According to their study, 4.1 percent of the total uncultivable and waste land area in India is enough to meet the projected annual demand of 3,400 terawatt-hour (TWh) by 2070 by solar energy alone (1 terawatt-hour per year equals 114 megawatts). The land area required will be further reduced to 3.1 percent "if we bring the other potential renewable energy sources of India into picture", they claim. They conclude that land availability is not a limiting constraint for the solar source as believed.

They say their calculations are based on present-day solar photovoltaic (PV) technology and do not include higher efficiencies achieved by new solar cells. Neither have they considered roof-top PV systems that can be established without any need for additional land.

The IISc researchers' conclusion is in conformity with that of a report prepared last year by the Australian government which said: "There is more than enough suitable land in India, with high direct beam solar, to meet the entire nation's electricity needs in principle."

Convinced that sunlight differs from other energy sources in the way it uses the land, the researchers compared the land-use pattern of three primary energy sources - coal, nuclear and hydro - with solar energy. They then calculated the percentage of India's land area that would be required to meet the future projected energy demand.

Coal power plants not only transform the land around the facility but also require land for mining coal and its upstream processing, the authors note. An average dam displaces 31,340 persons and submerges 8,748 hectares of land. The direct land footprint of a nuclear power plant includes power plant area, buffer zone, waste disposal area and the land that goes into mining uranium.

"Our study shows that solar power plants require less land in comparison to hydro-power plants and are comparable with coal and nuclear energy power generation when life-cycle transformations are considered," Srinivasan said.

While nuclear and fossil fuel-based technologies must continuously transform some land to extract the fuels or dispose of the waste, this is not the case with solar plants. In fact, the same land used for PV solar power plants can be utilised for other purposes like grazing.

The roof-top solar power technology, along with that proposed by IISc professors, "will be able to meet most of the electricity demand, and has the potential to transform the power sector," says Shankar Sarma, a power policy analyst and author of forthcoming book "Integrated Power Policy."

Atul Chokshi of the IISc Department of Materials Engineering and an expert on solar energy agrees. He reported recently that a three kilowatt rooftop solar panel system on the 425 million households can generate a total energy per year 1900 TWh - half of the projected energy demand by 2070.

HT

Krishnamoorthy K · October 6th, 2012, 03:16 PM

Praj offers details on cellulosic biofuels plans in India
Land sold off and used for biofuels could have fed 1 billion people – report
Most Biofuels Are Not ‘Green’

barrykul · October 6th, 2012, 07:23 PM

http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-...e1-939583.aspx

Quote:

India's energy needs can be met entirely by solar and other renewable sources, says a new study by two professors at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore. Their report published in the journal Current Science may add ammunition to the anti-nuclear agitation in
India.

The analysis by Hiremath Mitavachan and Jayaraman Srinivasan of IISc's Divecha Centre for Climate Change overturns the argument that nuclear power is essential for India because the country does not have enough land to exploit the potential of solar energy in India.

According to their study, 4.1 percent of the total uncultivable and waste land area in India is enough to meet the projected annual demand of 3,400 terawatt-hour (TWh) by 2070 by solar energy alone (1 terawatt-hour per year equals 114 megawatts). The land area required will be further reduced to 3.1 percent "if we bring the other potential renewable energy sources of India into picture", they claim. They conclude that land availability is not a limiting constraint for the solar source as believed.

They say their calculations are based on present-day solar photovoltaic (PV) technology and do not include higher efficiencies achieved by new solar cells. Neither have they considered roof-top PV systems that can be established without any need for additional land.

The IISc researchers' conclusion is in conformity with that of a report prepared last year by the Australian government which said: "There is more than enough suitable land in India, with high direct beam solar, to meet the entire nation's electricity needs in principle."

Convinced that sunlight differs from other energy sources in the way it uses the land, the researchers compared the land-use pattern of three primary energy sources - coal, nuclear and hydro - with solar energy. They then calculated the percentage of India's land area that would be required to meet the future projected energy demand.

Coal power plants not only transform the land around the facility but also require land for mining coal and its upstream processing, the authors note. An average dam displaces 31,340 persons and submerges 8,748 hectares of land. The direct land footprint of a nuclear power plant includes power plant area, buffer zone, waste disposal area and the land that goes into mining uranium.

"Our study shows that solar power plants require less land in comparison to hydro-power plants and are comparable with coal and nuclear energy power generation when life-cycle transformations are considered," Srinivasan said.

While nuclear and fossil fuel-based technologies must continuously transform some land to extract the fuels or dispose of the waste, this is not the case with solar plants. In fact, the same land used for PV solar power plants can be utilised for other purposes like grazing.

The roof-top solar power technology, along with that proposed by IISc professors, "will be able to meet most of the electricity demand, and has the potential to transform the power sector," says Shankar Sarma, a power policy analyst and author of forthcoming book "Integrated Power Policy."

Atul Chokshi of the IISc Department of Materials Engineering and an expert on solar energy agrees. He reported recently that a three kilowatt rooftop solar panel system on the 425 million households can generate a total energy per year 1900 TWh - half of the projected energy demand by 2070

Toothgrass · October 7th, 2012, 10:16 AM

Govt to develop two smart cities in every state
New Delhi, October 2, 2012

The government is planning to develop two ‘smart’ cities with a host of modern features like intelligent transport and carbon neutral status in each of the states in the second phase of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM).

“We have an urban renewal mission which means that the central government funds the cities and one of our programmes is that we propose to have two smart cities in every state,” Urban Development Minister Kamal Nath told reporters in New Delhi on Tuesday.

The minister said medium-sized cities with half a million to one million population will be developed as smart cities and the government has sought the expertise of Austrian Institute of Technology for the purpose. Mr. Nath was speaking after meeting a delegation led by Austrian Minister of Transport, Innovation and Technology Doris Bures in Delhi.

“Now how do we define these smart cities, what will it cover....right from broadband, intelligent transport to carbon neutral (features), these are so many components...that is what we propose to collaborate with the Austrian Institute of Technology,” he said. “We want to seek assistance from the Institute on what kind of model smart cities we should look at,” he added.

Mr. Nath also said that medium-sized cities like Ujjain or Jabalpur would be considered for the proposal to create smart cities. “We cannot take on very large cities for smart cities at this stage, we must recognise that. We have to take our medium-sized ones, so we want to look at cities with half a million population to one million population instead of trying to take on cities with ten million population,” he said.

“We have discussed the possibility of collaboration between the Austrian Institute of Technology and the National Institute of Urban Affairs which comes under the ministry of Urban Development,” Mr. Nath said.

Keywords: urban planning, urban development, smart city

senthilkumark · October 8th, 2012, 07:30 AM

Cross linear concentrated solar power (CL-CSP) on Rajiv Gandhi Technical University campus soon

According to reports, Rajiv Gandhi Technical University (RGTU) will soon boast of being the first university in the country to have the facility of low-cost and most efficient solar-based futuristic power plant on cross linear concentrated solar power (CL-CSP) concept. The construction of the plant will start later this month with the help of the Tokyo Engineering Corporation, Japan. The university will use the power generated by the plant.

Solar power plants running on the existing technology are less efficient. According to RGTU vice-chancellor professor Piyush Trivedi, “The existing solar energy is 15% efficient while the CL-CSP concept is 30% efficient. Besides, it is low-cost power generation concept in long-term.”

“The concept will replace the coal in conventional thermal plants in India within a time-bound manner,” Trivedi said.

Talking about the CL-CSP concept, Prof Trivedi said the new technology will help achieve the solar thermal power as per the Jawahar Lal National Solar Mission (JLNSM). Under this, the target is to produce 10,000 MW solar thermal power by 2022.

“The immediate aim of the mission is to focus on setting up an environment for solar technology penetration. The first phase (up to 2013) will focus on capturing of the low hanging options in solar thermal; promoting off-grid systems to serve populations without access to commercial energy and modest capacity addition in grid-based systems,” Trivedi said.

Trivedi said the CL-CSP concept brings an interface between universities and industries of India and Japan to demonstrate commercial use of CL-CSP technology. Talking about the technology, RGTU rector Dr V K Sethi said under the CL-CSP technology, 10% of coal consumption can be reduced which stands for Rs 1,000 crore every year in the country. “Existing plants can be the best beneficiaries to save the coal by getting direct steam at 600 degree during the day. Currently, the steam could be generated up to 200 degree C only,” Sethi claimed.

Asked the reason of selecting RGTU for installing CL-CSP based power plant, Trivedi said, “We have shown keen interest in the technology. Besides, the concept works on solar flux which is available in abundance on our campus.”

In the first part, the electricity generation from the 30 KW plant, to be installed at RGTU, will be used for air-conditioning purpose on the campus. Later, 1 MW plant will be installed for getting further electricity for different purposes. RGTU uses 600 kw electricity on its campus. “RGTU would be able to save Rs 10-12 lakh every month after installing 1 MW power-plant,” Trivedi claimed.

senthilkumark · October 8th, 2012, 12:31 PM

Self deleted.

senthilkumark · October 10th, 2012, 08:45 AM

MNRE targets 45,000 sq m of solar collectors, identifies five user industries

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has said it would facilitate the installation of 45,000 square metres of solar collectors — panels that generate heat from the sun’s rays — by March 2017.

(Only last month the Ministry had indicated a target of 15,000 sq m by 2016. Yet, the estimated reduction in carbon di-oxide reduction has been kept unchanged at 39,200 tonnes.)

The Ministry has identified five user industries which require low and medium temperature heat (60 to 250 degrees) for a demonstration of ‘concentrating solar technology’. These are dairy, textiles processing, hospitals, chemical processing and miscellaneous institutions that require low temperature process heat.

“The industrial sector is the second largest energy user in India after the residential sector,” says an advertisement of MNRE, which calls for consultants for preparing feasibility reports and detailed project reports to “help the beneficiaries take decisions on the installation of systems at their places.”

The Ministry estimates that about a fifth of India’s energy consumption is accounted for by industries that need low and medium heat. The heat requirement is met by burning conventional fuels such as coal, furnace oil, natural gas and electricity.

“Use of solar concentrator technology integrated with system process heat demand can help replace/reduce conventional fuels which, in turn, will help reduce GHG emissions,” MNRE says.

October 6th, 2012, 03:16 PM	#755
Krishnamoorthy K hazaron ke anna Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 9,999	Praj offers details on cellulosic biofuels plans in India Land sold off and used for biofuels could have fed 1 billion people – report Most Biofuels Are Not ‘Green’ __________________ Davanagere, the future capital of Karnataka ... Builders of Mangaluru & Udupi... Green Building... Energy... Environment... Wildlife & Marinelife...

October 8th, 2012, 12:31 PM	#759
senthilkumark Registered User Join Date: Oct 2011 Posts: 772 Likes (Received): 77	Self deleted. Last edited by senthilkumark; October 9th, 2012 at 06:08 AM.

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September 18th, 2012, 06:46 AM	#741
senthilkumark Registered User Join Date: Oct 2011 Posts: 772 Likes (Received): 77	25 renewable energy firms bid for supplying power to tower firms At least 25 Renewable Energy Service Companies (Rescos) have expressed interest in supplying energy to telecom tower companies. Tower companies, including Indus, Bharti Infratel, American Tower Corporation and Viom, had floated a joint proposal for the project. Under this project, the Rescos will set up renewable energy-based power plants near the telecom towers and sell power to the telecom company at a predetermined cost on a pay per use model. The power generated by the Rescos will be off-grid. But additional power generated by them can also be sold to commercial users living in areas where the power plants are located The Tower and Infrastructure Providers’ Association had floated the Request for Proposal inviting NGOs and private green power companies to generate and supply off-grid power to telecom towers in the country. TRAI REGULATION This comes in the wake of TRAI’s recent regulation directing all telecom service providers to ensure that part of the power that is used for the towers comes from renewable sources. Under the new rules, at least 50 per cent of towers and 20 per cent of the urban towers are to be powered by hybrid energy sources (renewable and grid) by 2015. The move is aimed at reducing carbon emissions due to increased dependence on diesel. However, the tower companies are not too happy with the regulations. According to them, the dictate from the regulator was unfair as they are being forced to adopt a particular technology. “It is okay to tell us that we need to reduce carbon emissions but why tell us how to do it,” posed a Delhi-based tower firm. Tower companies currently spent 20 per cent of their operational expense on buying diesel for powering tower sites. “We ourselves want to reduce the cost on diesel but the Government should give us alternative power supply. Why should tower firms start generating energy?” posed another tower firm.

September 18th, 2012, 06:47 AM	#742
senthilkumark Registered User Join Date: Oct 2011 Posts: 772 Likes (Received): 77	Agartala to be Northeast India’s first solar city According to reports, to reduce dependency on conventional energy, the Tripura government Wednesday announced ambitious plans to make Agartala a ‘solar city’, replacing at least 10 percent of usual power use by solar energy.”Agartala city would be the first ‘solar city’ in northeast India within the next few years,” Tripura’s Urban Development Minister Manik Dey said after inaugurating a 50 kilowatt solar power plant at the Agartala Municipal Council head office here. He said: “Solar power is the sustainable and viable energy for both cities and remote areas. Electricity crisis would not be solved in the country unless we use non-conventional energy like solar power in a big way.” An official of the Agartala Municipal Council said a master plan of Rs.452.32 crore has been undertaken to make Agartala a ‘solar city’. The union ministry of new and renewable energy (MNRE) would bear 90 percent of the cost and the remaining would be borne by the Tripura government. As part of the master plan, solar hot water systems would be installed in all hotels, nursing homes, school hostels, government circuit houses and bungalows, hospitals and health centres, tourist lodges, temples and the governor’s residence. According to the official, the Agartala solar city project is part of MNRE’s plan to turn 60 Indian cities into solar cities. “The Tripura Renewable Energy Development Authority (TREDA) and urban development department, in association with MNRE, would implement the ambitious scheme,” the official added. The city’s street lights and other lights in public places would also be operated on solar energy. “Theft of battery and solar panel is a major problem facing the authorities in implementing the solar electrification programme,” Tripura’s Science, Technology and Environment Minister Joy Gobinda Debroy said. The minister said 700 hamlets and 50 villages in remote areas in the northeastern state have already been provided solar energy, benefiting more than 35,000 families, mostly tribals. “Solar energy would also be provided to hundreds of more remote villages in the state under the remote village electrification (RVE) scheme during the current financial year,” the minister said. According to Debroy, through the TREDA, 80,000 solar lanterns have been distributed among poor people residing in urban as well as rural areas in Tripura. Over 66,000 small and medium hot water plants have been installed across Tripura. “To popularise ‘solar energy’, lakhs of specially-designed ‘solar caps’ and ‘solar torches’ would be distributed among students in the state,” he stated. Of India’s 60 proposed solar cities, eight cities have been identified in the northeastern region by MNRE. The cities include Itanagar in Arunachal Pradesh, Agartala in Tripura, Guwahati and Jorhat in Assam, Aizawl in Mizoram, Imphal in Manipur and Kohima and Dimapur in Nagaland.

September 20th, 2012, 06:15 AM	#743
senthilkumark Registered User Join Date: Oct 2011 Posts: 772 Likes (Received): 77	Solar power on every rooftop A solar panel atop every house should be the model for providing electricity to all. The grid should merely serve as a back-up. With will and vision, India’s energy prospects can be changed from grim to green, and the world will benefit as a result. The failure of the country’s electricity grid on July 30 and 31 highlights its vulnerabilities and underscores a larger national need: about 400 million Indians are not connected to the grid at all, and those who are have unreliable access. At 571 kWh per capita, India’s electricity consumption is one-fifth of China’s (2,631 kWh) and less than one-twentieth of the US’ (12,914 kWh). India’s electricity demand will only grow. Burning coal for electricity is increasingly expensive, causes global warming, and jeopardises the planet’s health. In any case, India has ash-rich coal, limited oil, unknown amounts of gas, poor mining productivity and inadequate transport. Power plants struggle to get reliable fuel supplies. Solar electricity today at Rs 7.50 a kWh is economical compared with subsidised diesel-generated power at roughly Rs 15 a unit, but more expensive than coal-based electricity at about Rs 6. What, however, is the true cost of coal-based power? Prices are distorted by subsidies, State boundaries, vote-bank politics, and uncharged carbon-emission costs. Average prices matter less than peak prices. When India sheds load to manage peaks, customers use expensive diesel power. UNIVERSAL ACCESS How do we come out of this energy and infrastructure bind? Nothing short of a fundamental re-imagining, starting from first principles, of all energy solutions is essential to address India’s energy needs. Can India leapfrog into a clean-energy future rather than extend the conventional grid with fossil fuels at its core? In a nation blessed with abundant sunlight, to what extent should electricity be a networking service at all? Could India tap ambient solar energy for most of its needs? India’s single-minded focus should be massive and rapid solar deployment, not only through utility-scale solar plants, but also through distributed generation, household-by-household, nationwide. Electricity in Indian homes should be rooftop-to-room and solar based with energy self-sufficiency as the goal; the grid can complement and serve as back-up where available. Much as TV antennas once sprouted on rooftops, so should solar panels. Public policy should have a singular aim: universal electricity access. By implication, policies aimed at encouraging domestic manufacturing, local content requirements, or favouring one technology over another should be put aside as tertiary. The aim should be personal power just as we have personal computers. Slowly, we will get there. In the meanwhile, solar electricity is poised to become a friendly, industrial scale, cottage industry, like vegetable patches in home gardens. Photovoltaic technologies have matured sufficiently and present us with simple, affordable electricity alternatives to the traditional grid. Enabling public policy can unfetter entrepreneurial energies and give birth to millions of small and large solar-related businesses, and thereby generate employment. Distributed solar generation can spawn innovations. Standardised 1-kW solar kits, for instance, can be mass produced and installed easily. The household deployments can extend to communities and neighbourhoods resulting in self-sufficient micro-grids. PARTNERSHIP WITH CHINA Community micro-grids for tens and hundreds of households in villages, towns and cities should be India’s preferred electricity infrastructure. Anchored with solar, the solutions may include combinations with bio-diesel, batteries, wind, biogas, micro-hydro, etc. At night or when the sun is behind clouds, alternative yet local sources can assure electricity. Once solar energy takes root, India will need less of the colossal and wasteful transmission, distribution and generation infrastructure except for industrial operations such as running factories and trains. China has recognised the importance of solar energy and invested in numerous solar-panel factories. Taiwan is doing the same. Due to the manufacturing excess, prices have dropped by over 70 per cent in the past three years, and the fall continues. India presents a ready market for that production. The formula, ‘China produces, India deploys’, makes for a winning partnership. MORAL IMPERATIVE Among competing national priorities, what can be more catalytic of overall welfare than universal electricity? It can extend working hours, reduce pollution and diseases, and help prevent food waste. Beyond lighting homes, solar solutions allow for the spread of the Internet and therefore education, e-governance kiosks and ATM machines. Solar panels facilitate a parallel infrastructure for clean transport — charging batteries for electric bicycles, scooters and cars. Solar energy aids cooking, powers streetlights, operates irrigation pump sets and substitutes diesel burning for cellular towers. Stubborn problems such as efficient battery storage persist, but they can be dealt with as the market evolves. The grid failure has crystallized the solar market. There has never been an India-sized market for solar electricity, with relentlessly rising demand, talented people, old infrastructure and plentiful sunlight. The scale can establish new low-price benchmarks and thereby aid the entire world. Unfavourable economics has been the primary barrier to the spread of solar energy until recently, but no longer. Universal electrification is a human-rights, inter-generational-justice and human-capital-growth issue all in one. For how many decades should a third of India’s citizens use kerosene for light and cooking, children study by smoky, unhealthy flames, and income-earning opportunities fade with sunset?

September 26th, 2012, 06:07 AM	#747
senthilkumark Registered User Join Date: Oct 2011 Posts: 772 Likes (Received): 77	Vestas to scale down India operations Vestas, the world’s biggest wind turbine manufacturer, has decided to “scale down its sales efforts in the Indian market’’. Business Line had heard rumours that the Danish multinational was closing down its India operations and sent an email query. In response to the query, Mikkel Friis-Thomsen, Communication Partner, Media & External Relations, Vestas Wind Systems A/S, said that the global wind energy market is in a “challenging situation right now’’. As a consequence, Vestas is currently implementing a global re-organisation plan to develop a “more scalable and flexible organisation” and cut cost by €250 million by the end of 2012. Consequent to its efforts to “re-establish a more efficient and profitable business”, the company is “re-evaluating its current business set-up and approach in India’’. Therefore, “Vestas has decided to scale down its sales efforts in the Indian market to focus on providing value-added service and maintenance to existing Indian wind power plants,” Friss-Thomsen said. “Vestas will adjust the number of employees to match the reduced business scope,” he has said in the email. One of the earliest Vestas was one of the earliest wind turbine manufacturers to set up shop in India. It came into India in collaboration with RRB. Vestas-RRB was a well known brand in the mid-1990s and was the second highest selling turbine after NEPC Micon, which was a joint venture between NEG Micon of Denmark and the NEPC group. In 1996, NEG was taken over by Vestas in Europe consequent to which the partners of NEPC Micon had to split up. NEG was on its own in India, as a subsidiary of Vestas, even though Vestas was present also through Vestas RRB. In 2004, the partners of Vestas-RRB decided to part ways. Vestas was on its own and all the operations of NEG were subsumed under Vestas. Vestas today has about 3,000 MW of standing machines. According to Mr Ramesh Kymal, who headed Vestas for many years—he now heads Vestas’ competitor, Gamesa India—the Danish company’s business model was not appropriate for India, as it refused to do the “project development work”—such as buying and developing land and putting the transmission infrastructure. Also, Vestas India had to report into Singapore, rather than Denmark, and as such those in Denmark were not fully aware of the realities in India, Mr Kymal told Business Line today. Vineeth Vijayaraghavan, Founder-Editor of the online newsletter, Panchabuta, says that the Indian wind energy market is “shifting to a smaller number of customers and larger size of wind farms”. Against this new backdrop, “Vestas's approach on scaling down sales force and focusing on value added service and maintenance is the best approach given that they do not do project development in India," Vineeth said.

September 26th, 2012, 06:24 AM	#748
senthilkumark Registered User Join Date: Oct 2011 Posts: 772 Likes (Received): 77	Uttar Pradesh plans to set up canal-top solar power plants On the lines of innovative canal-top solar power project on Narmada canal in Gujarat, the Uttar Pradesh (UP) government is planning to take advantage of its vast canal network by covering them with solar panels. This plan on the part of the UP government is a firm step towards its ambition of becoming one of the leading solar power producing states in India. The canal network in the state is immense spanning over 74,000 km, and in the first phase, solar panels will be installed on canals in five districts- Jhansi, Ghaziabad, Etawah, Ballia and Lucknow, producing 10 MW of solar power each. According to sources from UP New Energy Development Authority (UPNEDA), this ambitious project is a part of the state’s new solar power policy that is almost in its final stages. “By making use of the canals, we will not only be replacing the need for acquiring land, which is anyway a disputed issue these days, but we would also prevent the loss of water from the canals through evaporation,” a senior official from UPNEDA was quoted as saying in FE. UPNEDA will be the nodal agency for executing the can-top solar power projects in the state, and it is believe that the areas where the projects are to come up have been earmarked. The Union Ministry of New and Renewable energy (MNRE) is said to have allocated Rs 200 crore to the state government for the pilot projects, and once the project becomes successful, it is likely to attract investments from private developers in solar power in the state in a big way.

September 28th, 2012, 10:00 AM	#749
senthilkumark Registered User Join Date: Oct 2011 Posts: 772 Likes (Received): 77	Storage key to renewable energy growth, says IREDA chief The drivers of renewable energy are storage and dispatch, said Debashish Majumdar, Chairman and Managing Director, Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA). He was addressing the media at ‘Renewable Energy Conference - Policy, Regulation, Technology and Finance,’ organised by the European Business and Technology Centre and Council of EU Chamber of Commerce in India here on Tuesday. As of now no grid manager wanted renewable energy due to issues of dispatch. The solution lies in storage as it would help streamline supply according to gird requirements. The storage can be in the form of heat or in case of solar through thermal storage, he said. Majumdar said smart grids, storage and forecasting were crucial to further accelerate renewable energy growth. Research had proved that it was possible to forecast wind with an accuracy of up to half-an-hour, he said. There was potential for generation at point of use as also in off-grid locations. Here, technology would have to play a major role as like telecom where prepaid cards helped in expanding the networks to rural areas. On parity of solar tariff with conventional energy sources, he said it was possible not because of the declining cost of solar panels but also due to the rising cost of conventional energy over the last 24 months. On financing for renewable energy sector, he said availability was not an issue but the poor health of the public utilities, which should take up the power, was of concern. The Ministry of Renewable Energy also funded projects based on new technology which could translate to higher efficiency. One such project had been tried out at a sugar mill near Pune, where German technology helped molasses generate gas to run the boiler. Plans were on to replicate this at other sugar mills. Similarly, talks were on with Spain for electricity storage through thermal and molten salt. On States coming up with renewable energy policies, he said by and large they were in sync with the Central norms.

October 4th, 2012, 07:57 AM	#751
senthilkumark Registered User Join Date: Oct 2011 Posts: 772 Likes (Received): 77	Tax cut likely for biogas households in Kerala The State government would explore the option of reducing building tax for households with biogas plants. Speaking to newspersons here after commissioning a biogas plant in the backyard of Cliff House, his official residence, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy stressed the need for encouraging decentralised waste management plants in the State. The Rs 28,000-plant at Cliff House was set up by Biotech, the city-based centre for development of biogas technology. It works on bacteria culture, and can treat up to 5 kg of degradable waste and 20 litres of waste water.

October 7th, 2012, 10:16 AM	#757
Toothgrass Registered User Join Date: Jun 2012 Posts: 45 Likes (Received): 0	Govt to develop two smart cities in every state New Delhi, October 2, 2012 The government is planning to develop two ‘smart’ cities with a host of modern features like intelligent transport and carbon neutral status in each of the states in the second phase of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). “We have an urban renewal mission which means that the central government funds the cities and one of our programmes is that we propose to have two smart cities in every state,” Urban Development Minister Kamal Nath told reporters in New Delhi on Tuesday. The minister said medium-sized cities with half a million to one million population will be developed as smart cities and the government has sought the expertise of Austrian Institute of Technology for the purpose. Mr. Nath was speaking after meeting a delegation led by Austrian Minister of Transport, Innovation and Technology Doris Bures in Delhi. “Now how do we define these smart cities, what will it cover....right from broadband, intelligent transport to carbon neutral (features), these are so many components...that is what we propose to collaborate with the Austrian Institute of Technology,” he said. “We want to seek assistance from the Institute on what kind of model smart cities we should look at,” he added. Mr. Nath also said that medium-sized cities like Ujjain or Jabalpur would be considered for the proposal to create smart cities. “We cannot take on very large cities for smart cities at this stage, we must recognise that. We have to take our medium-sized ones, so we want to look at cities with half a million population to one million population instead of trying to take on cities with ten million population,” he said. “We have discussed the possibility of collaboration between the Austrian Institute of Technology and the National Institute of Urban Affairs which comes under the ministry of Urban Development,” Mr. Nath said. Keywords: urban planning, urban development, smart city

October 8th, 2012, 07:30 AM	#758
senthilkumark Registered User Join Date: Oct 2011 Posts: 772 Likes (Received): 77	Cross linear concentrated solar power (CL-CSP) on Rajiv Gandhi Technical University campus soon According to reports, Rajiv Gandhi Technical University (RGTU) will soon boast of being the first university in the country to have the facility of low-cost and most efficient solar-based futuristic power plant on cross linear concentrated solar power (CL-CSP) concept. The construction of the plant will start later this month with the help of the Tokyo Engineering Corporation, Japan. The university will use the power generated by the plant. Solar power plants running on the existing technology are less efficient. According to RGTU vice-chancellor professor Piyush Trivedi, “The existing solar energy is 15% efficient while the CL-CSP concept is 30% efficient. Besides, it is low-cost power generation concept in long-term.” “The concept will replace the coal in conventional thermal plants in India within a time-bound manner,” Trivedi said. Talking about the CL-CSP concept, Prof Trivedi said the new technology will help achieve the solar thermal power as per the Jawahar Lal National Solar Mission (JLNSM). Under this, the target is to produce 10,000 MW solar thermal power by 2022. “The immediate aim of the mission is to focus on setting up an environment for solar technology penetration. The first phase (up to 2013) will focus on capturing of the low hanging options in solar thermal; promoting off-grid systems to serve populations without access to commercial energy and modest capacity addition in grid-based systems,” Trivedi said. Trivedi said the CL-CSP concept brings an interface between universities and industries of India and Japan to demonstrate commercial use of CL-CSP technology. Talking about the technology, RGTU rector Dr V K Sethi said under the CL-CSP technology, 10% of coal consumption can be reduced which stands for Rs 1,000 crore every year in the country. “Existing plants can be the best beneficiaries to save the coal by getting direct steam at 600 degree during the day. Currently, the steam could be generated up to 200 degree C only,” Sethi claimed. Asked the reason of selecting RGTU for installing CL-CSP based power plant, Trivedi said, “We have shown keen interest in the technology. Besides, the concept works on solar flux which is available in abundance on our campus.” In the first part, the electricity generation from the 30 KW plant, to be installed at RGTU, will be used for air-conditioning purpose on the campus. Later, 1 MW plant will be installed for getting further electricity for different purposes. RGTU uses 600 kw electricity on its campus. “RGTU would be able to save Rs 10-12 lakh every month after installing 1 MW power-plant,” Trivedi claimed.

October 10th, 2012, 08:45 AM	#760
senthilkumark Registered User Join Date: Oct 2011 Posts: 772 Likes (Received): 77	MNRE targets 45,000 sq m of solar collectors, identifies five user industries The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has said it would facilitate the installation of 45,000 square metres of solar collectors — panels that generate heat from the sun’s rays — by March 2017. (Only last month the Ministry had indicated a target of 15,000 sq m by 2016. Yet, the estimated reduction in carbon di-oxide reduction has been kept unchanged at 39,200 tonnes.) The Ministry has identified five user industries which require low and medium temperature heat (60 to 250 degrees) for a demonstration of ‘concentrating solar technology’. These are dairy, textiles processing, hospitals, chemical processing and miscellaneous institutions that require low temperature process heat. “The industrial sector is the second largest energy user in India after the residential sector,” says an advertisement of MNRE, which calls for consultants for preparing feasibility reports and detailed project reports to “help the beneficiaries take decisions on the installation of systems at their places.” The Ministry estimates that about a fifth of India’s energy consumption is accounted for by industries that need low and medium heat. The heat requirement is met by burning conventional fuels such as coal, furnace oil, natural gas and electricity. “Use of solar concentrator technology integrated with system process heat demand can help replace/reduce conventional fuels which, in turn, will help reduce GHG emissions,” MNRE says.