Bhutan to further open up its hydropower sector

Hydropower hot spot Bhutan takes a plan to reach hydropower operatives from global arena for better utilization of its untapped potential of over 25,000MW. 

"With known high potential in hydropower, Bhutan is a place of interest for many big players from the whole globe. It was clearly visible during all our recent business road shows in many countries. It is a good opportunity for Bhutan to utilize foreign investment," said Consul General of Bhutan Dasho Tsering Wangda.

This village in Bangalore shows how to manage waste

A village tucked away on the outskirts of Bangalore has been successfully doing what the IT capital has been struggling to do for the past many months - scientifically managing its waste.

A visit to Anneswara, 35 km from Bangalore, shows how will power and civic awareness can change attitudes. Long before the BBMP made segregation at source mandatory in the city, Anneswara's inhabitants have been practising it for long. Every household segregates waste as dry and wet. This village has done everything that Bangalore should have done - be it waste segregation or banning plastic in its environs. 

Solar Plus starts operations in Kerala by launching 39 products

Solar Plus Power Solutions, a Mumbai-based company, has launched 39 solar energy lighting products in the State.

Among the products launched are solar invertors, mobile chargers, DC ceiling fans, solar conversion kits for existing invertors etc.

Speaking to reporters here on Monday, Anil R. Thampi, director, that the company proposes to provide the benefits of solar energy at reasonable costs to the domestic-industrial customers.

With the sunlight which falls on one square feet for six hours, five units of power can be produced. The objective is to make India self-sufficient in power production with technical support from the US, the UK, Hong Kong, Canada and Australia.

Some of the products such as solar power generators have been given subsidy by ANERT under the scheme of Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. The company has also plans to work with Kerala Government to provide cost-effective power solutions to consumers using solar energy, he said.

Kumar Thakkar, company's chief Innovator and Advisor, said that they can provide complete lighting solutions for each household. The company is confident of achieving a sales turnover of Rs 25 lakh a month from Kerala as the demand is high, especially during the time of power cuts.

The products, which have already been launched in rural Maharashtra, will be launched in Tamil Nadu soon, he said.

Gamesa’s wind turbine installations set to double in the coming year

Gamesa India, the Indian arm of the global wind turbine major, intends to take a plunge into the growing Indian solar industry. Gamesa’s Chairman and Managing Director, Ramesh Kymal, told journalists today that the company would start doing solar ‘engineering, procurement and construction’ jobs, which is basically building solar power plants for others.

Gamesa will soon make a formal announcement about its solar foray, Kymal said, on the sidelines of a meeting held here to announce the company’s tree planting initiatives.

The Spanish major already sells solar inverters in the Indian market. It has a range of inverters, starting from 100 kV to 1 MW. When it announced its entry into the Indian solar inverter market earlier this year, Gamesa joined a long list of multinationals who have got into the market. The list includes global big names such as SMA, Power One, RefuSol and Switch.

Now, Gamesa forays into the solar EPC market, which is also getting crowded. Other officials of Gamesa said that the company would start with doing rooftop solar projects, and would later get into large, utility-scale projects.

General Motors plans to make 500,000 electrified cars a year by 2017

Yesterday, General Motors made a provocative announcement: by 2017, the company plans to produce 500,000 electric and partially electric vehicles each year.

To put that in perspective, in 2011 GM sold just over 9,000,000 vehicles worldwide. If the U.S. auto industry continues its rollicking pace -- and if auto markets in the rest of the world keep growing (China, India) or recover (Europe) -- GM could easily pass the 10,000,000 mark within five years. That would make electrics and partial electrics about 5% of the company's total output. 

But what kind of vehicles will these be? As our colleagues at Green Car Reports point out, GM isn't planning to focus much of its attention on hybrids. Yes, it will continue to work on its eAssist hybrid system, which is already found on certainBuick and Chevrolet models. As of October 31, GM had sold about 26,000 eAssist vehicles in 2012.

But GM Product Chief Mary Barra seems to be betting on plug-in hybrids and extended-range electric cars like the Chevrolet Volt, which has sold more than 19,000 units this year. In yesterday's videoconference, she said, "We think plug-in technology will plan an increasingly important role over the years to come." 

The next of those plug-ins should be the stunning 2014 Cadillac ELR, a swanky, two-door sibling to the Volt. Later this year, at the 2012 Los Angeles Auto Show, GM will also debut the fully electric 2014 Chevrolet Spark EV.  

Our take

GM could be onto something, and it's not hard to see why. Thought the all-electric Nissan Leaf is about $4,000 cheaper than the extended-range Chevy Volt, the Volt has been selling about three times as well.

Part of the difference could be related to distribution, but we have a hunch that range anxiety plays a bigger role. For $4,000 more, eco-conscious consumers can purchase a well-built sedan that's not limited by battery range. Though the Volt initially had trouble explaining itself to consumers, recent ads poking fun at owners' "gas anxiety" seem to be having an effect.

GM's may also be banking on cheaper electric-car technology and increasing economies of scale, which would cut the cost of producing fully electric and range-extended vehicles. If those bets pay off, GM could leapfrog to the front of the eco-friendly pack by forgoing mild hybrids in favor of more advanced-tech vehicles.

That said, it's important to point out that even though GM's goals are intriguing, the company still expects that 95% of its vehicles will be sold with conventional combustion engines.

Juwi builds off-grid hybrid PV system in Egyptian desert

German renewable energy specialist juwi has constructed its first project in Egypt — an off-grid hybrid system which consists of a 50kW PV system, four small wind turbines and a battery storage unit.

Located in Wadi El Natrun, a valley surrounded by barren desert land situated between Cairo and Alexandria, the hybrid system will generate electricity to power several water pumps for irrigation as well as a plant for desalination of groundwater. The battery system, which has a storage capacity of 500kWh, will ensure that the water pumps and desalination plant are able to operate 24 hours a day. 

Mexico is in pole position in the race for PV grid parity

The Eclareon PV Grid Parity Monitor, which will be updated in each U.S. academic semester, evaluates how close each of the 14 cities studied across seven countries – Brazil, Chile, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Spain and the U.S. – is to residential grid parity in terms of LCOE, and also how regulation in each of the regions will assist or handicap grid parity.

The criteria Eclareon used to assess photovoltaic grid parity took the form of a scale ranging from one to six, where one represented "very far from grid parity" and six represented "full grid parity". Meanwhile, it assessed national regulatory frameworks for PV self-consumption on a scale ranging from "very poor" to "excellent".

Although Germany’s three-bar rating ("Close to grid parity") for proximity to grid parity in Berlin, and four-bar ("Partial grid parity") score for Munich compare favorably to scores of two and three in the Brazilian cities of Sao Paolo and Itacarambi, respectively, Germany’s three-star rating for regulation was outshone by a top rated four-star showing from Brazil, thanks to its recent net-metering legislation.

The assessment of Germany was critical of changes to the EEG's (Renewable Energy law) photovoltaic FIT program, which eliminated the premium formerly paid to encourage self-consumption, and lamented  the fact the FIT paid for small-scale systems to feed excess power into the grid is now lower than the cost of retail electricity in the country.

Mexico is the initial poster boy in the grid parity stakes with Hermosillo, like Las Palmas in Spain, boasting a top rating of six bars, or full grid parity, because the highest photovoltaic LCOE is lower than the standard price of retail electricity, or the lowest peak electricity cost. Mexico City was rated as a five-bar "grid parity" city, meaning the lowest photovoltaic LCOE – rather than the highest – was used for comparison.

This result was again mirrored by Spain, where Madrid was rated "grid parity", but Mexico’s perfect four-star regulatory regime – an accolade also shared by California and Brazil – meant it topped the rankings.

The top rating is achieved in countries where the net metering incentive is equal to the cost of retail electricity and was secured by Mexico’s Medicion Neta regime, which allows solar households to accrue credits in KWh against their electricity bills.

Spain was given the lowest one-star, or "very poor" rating, since the embattled government has yet to pass the draft Balance Neto legislation into law, meaning there is neither a solar support mechanism like FIT, nor an incentive for self-consumption.

With Los Angeles and San Francisco, the cities studied in California, Italy (Rome and Palermo) and Chile (Santiago and Copiapo) completed the line-up.

The measure of proximity to grid parity was in part based on the narrowing of the gap in price terms between the two sources of electricity – PV LCOE to retail electricity prices – from the first semester of 2009 to the present.

Eclareon defines PV Grid Parity as the "moment when PV LCOE becomes competitive with retail electricity prices, assuming that 100% of the electricity is self-consumed instantaneously." It points out, however, that "since 100% of instant self-consumption is not likely to happen in residential systems, net metering/net billing or equivalent mechanisms will be crucial to achieve economic feasibility for this kind of installations."

It further adds that "in order to make the development of a PV self-consumption market possible, policymakers should concentrate their efforts on reducing administrative barriers and creating or improving regulatory mechanisms."

Adopt energy conservation measures: CS

Chief Secretary Minnie Mathew has directed the government departments to adopt energy conservation and energy efficiency measures to reduce power consumption.

Ms. Mathew, who chaired the meeting of the State Energy Conservation Mission which she heads, wanted the departments to emulate the Vidyut Soudha, the headquarters of APTransco, in this regard. Putting in place conservation measures, Vidyut Soudha achieved saving of 192 units a day.

The meeting resolved to ask the employees of power sector to take the responsibility of creating awareness among consumers about the energy conservation measures. The APTransco and CPDCL are expected to submit a report to the Energy Department and the SECM shortly in methods that should be adopted for energy savings, according to a press release.

'India yet to capitalise on its potential to tap energy from biomass'

India is yet to capitalise on its potential to tap energy from biomass and to achieve it networking of expertise is needed, said K Ramasamy, Vice-Chancellor, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University in the city on Saturday.

Addressing the annual G B Joshi Memorial lecture at Agharkar Research Institute (ARI) Ramasamy said, “India has the expertise to use biomass as an alternative source of energy but the question is how? Networking the expertise will be the key.”

Kalyan Banerjee, President MACS (Maharashtra Association for the Cultivation of Science) and DR Ranade, Officiating Director, ARI were present.

“Sharing of expertise is the need of the hour. This, unfortunately, is not happening,” added Ramasamy.

“Bacteria based fermentation systems are not established in India and it is high-time that we concentrate on fermentation,” he said.

Biomass power plants in crisis in Andhra Pradesh

Even as the demand for power is shooting up in Andhra Pradesh, almost all biomass power plants have gone out of business as the activity has become unviable. 

Of the 40 plants with a combined capacity of 190 MW, only seven are operational now. Three plants, with a capacity of 12 MW, are located in rice-rich East Godavari district, where there is no dearth of paddy husk, the main ingredient to run the plants.

However, none of these three plants is functional now as there is a huge gap between the input costs and the price being offered by the AP Transco, the sole purchaser of biomass power. All the plants were set up between 2001 and 2005 when the non-conventional energy movement was at its peak. 

GPT Infraprojects to sell wind power business

GPT Infraprojects Limited is planning to sell, transfer or otherwise dispose off its wind power business. It has two Wind Turbine Generator based power plants each having 1.25 M.W. capacity both located in Tamilnadu. GPT Infra has received the board approval for the same.

GPT Infraprojects Limited (GPTIL), the flagship company of GPT Group was incorporated in 1980. The company operates primarily in two division – the Sleeper Division and the Infrastructure Division.

Gamesa to lay off 135 people in India

India contributes 13 per cent to worldwide sales of the global wind power major Gamesa but nevertheless, market compulsions have caused the company to decide to lay off 135 people in India.

The number of people laid off in India is the least globally. In China — which for Gamesa is the only manufacturing hub other than its home country, Spain — as many as 680 people are to be laid off. The most employee reduction is, not surprisingly, happening in Europe, where the company will lay off 1,280 people. In the US, 505 Gamesans will need to look for other jobs.

Gamesa’s action in India is yet another symptom of the tough conditions prevailing in the Indian wind power industry. In wanting to reduce its manpower, Gamesa is in good company — wind turbine manufacturers such as Suzlon and Vestas have also announced manpower reduction. Only, Regen Powertech seems to be bucking the trend and has plans to hire.

Despite the current slowdown in the Indian market, Gamesa, which is one of the top five wind turbine manufacturers in the world, sees India as one of its major markets. In the current year, it sold machines for 210 MW and the sales contributed 13 per cent to its worldwide sales according to information made available by the company. Gamesa has global orders worth 1,578 MW on hand, and India accounts for 16 per cent of it.

Though India is a major market for sales, Gamesa does see it as big enough for integrated manufacture. All the key parts for Gamesa’s turbines are imported, mostly from China. Gamesa says the machines sold in India are 70 per cent indigenised. However, since it counts logistics costs and customs duties in the calculations, the actual value of made-in-India items is less than 70 per cent.

The level of indigenisation is a key data point in the context of an unfolding development. The Government of India is working on a ‘generation-based incentive’ scheme for the wind industry (basically, reviving a similar scheme that existed until March). The GBI is a fixed amount per kWhr produced. There is a call in the industry to provide higher incentives for those who buy machines that have higher local content.

Wind industry upbeat over possibility of re-instatement of sops

Since the beginning of the current financial year, the wind power industry has had much to despair about. With the removal of both ‘accelerated depreciation’ and ‘generation-based incentive,’ (GBI) the interest level among the investors to put up wind power projects waned considerably. As a result, the country added only 851 MW of wind power capacity in the first six months of the current year, compared with 1,402 MW in the corresponding period last year.

The tepidity is because of more than the absence of GBI, the uncertainty regarding the coming back of the incentive, no investor would want to look like a fool by having rushed into a machine installation and find that if only he had waited a little longer he would have been eligible for an incentive valid for the next, say, 20 years.

The GBI has been promised by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy in various forums and there is a great expectation about it. Investments into the wind sector are hanging fire as the industry is waiting in watch for the GBI re-instatement.

Be that as it may, a very recent development has brought fresh cheer to the industry — the possibility of re-instatement of the other benefit — accelerated depreciation.

This is said to be due to the efforts of the Indian Wind Power Association. The Association’s Chairman, K. Kasturirangan, met the Union Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram, a few days back in Coimbatore, to follow up on his own previous presentation to the Ministry of Finance.

In that presentation, Kasturirangan endeavoured to make the case the ‘accelerated depreciation’ is only a revenue deferral, and not sacrifice to the Government.

“I am confident that the Government will bring back AD,” Kasturirangan toldBusiness Line .

The Indian Wind Power Association has 1,500 members.

Dr K. Venkatachalam, Chief Advisor, Tamil Nadu Spinning Mills Association (TASMA), fully shares Kasturirangan’s optimism.

Recently, when asked if TASMA’s members would look at solar power projects with accelerated depreciation in mind, he said he was confident that AD would be given for wind projects also.

Environ Energy ties up with Canadian co for providing lithium ion batteries for solar-powered telecom towers

 

Kolkata-based Environ Energy Corporation (formerly Bhaskar Solar) has tied up with a Canadian company called Electrovaya for providing lithium-ion-based batteries for use in solar-powered telecom towers.

Environ Energy’s Managing Director Jyoti Poddar told Business Line today that the company has orders for energising 3,000 telecom towers with solar power over the next one year, and 15,000 towers over the next three years. At present, the company uses the ‘deep cycle tubular batteries’ for storage of power (storage is necessary because telecom towers need to be up all the time, even, for instance, when a cloud passes overhead.)

Environ Energy, which has received private equity funding from the SREI group, has so far solar-powered 500 telecom towers and is now in a ramp-up mode. The company operates on the ‘resco model’, (or, renewable energy service company, which sells energy rather than equipment.) This means, Environ Energy will provide (and own) the equipment used for energising telecom towers — the telecom operator will pay the company on the basis of energy supplied.

Typically today using a diesel generator costs the telecom operator Rs 50,000 per tower, whereas with Environ Energy it would typically spend Rs 35,000, Poddar said.

“We look at this as a $2-billion opportunity, over the next three-five years,” Poddar said.

Environ Energy is today a Rs 150-crore company. Poddar is confident of reaching Rs 400 crore by March 2014.

Lithium ion batteries are the more storage-efficient solutions that are becoming popular today, particularly, in electric vehicles. Incidentally, Electrovaya has also tied-up with the Hero group for providing these batteries for Hero’s electric bikes.

Poddar said the company would initially buy lithium ion batteries from Electrovaya, but as volumes pick up, would look at local manufacture.

Electrovaya Inc. designs, develops and manufactures proprietary Lithium Ion batteries, battery systems, and battery-related products for clean electric transportation, utility scale energy storage and smart grid power, consumer and healthcare markets. The company's mission is to accelerate clean transportation as a commercial reality with its advanced power system for all classes of zero-emission electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. The company's other mission is to deliver utility scale energy storage systems for the highest efficiency in electricity storage, whether the electricity is generated from intermittent wind and solar power or from other sources. Founded in 1996 and headquartered in Ontario, Canada, Electrovaya has production facilities in Canada, the US and Europe with customers around the globe.

Solar-powering telecom towers

Although the government of India has been talking of replacing diesel gensets (which used subsidised diesel) with solar-based solutions for powering telecom towers, the progress has not been on a scale that is consistent with the need. That has been for a number of reasons, but one perspective that Business Linehas been given is that it was mainly because the Resco’s had not emerged. For a telecom operator, diesel is still cheaper on a per kWhr basis than solar. But it makes sense for a Resco because the company can sell surplus power to, say, a nearby town.

Now, with the Resco system maturing and with more efficient storage solutions and interest, diesel replacement with solar for telecom towers is set to happen on a faster clip.

Today, in India, there are over 300,000 tower sites of which over 30,000 are in off-grid areas, most of them powered by diesel. The total annual consumption of diesel fuel by these towers is 2 billion litres, as a result of which 5 megatonnes of CO{-2} is produced annually. TRAI has recently made it mandatory for telecom companies to use renewable sources of energy for powering their towers. 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. In the second phase, the telecom companies will be required to convert 75 per cent of the rural towers and 33 per cent of the urban towers to run on hybrid power.

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy is supporting off-grid solar telecom applications by providing capital subsidy of 30 per cent to a maximum subsidy of Rs 90 per watt peak. Alternatively, soft loans at 5 per cent interest rate subsidised by the India Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) are being offered for such projects.

Solar-powering telecom towers will also be one of the thrust areas in the upcoming Phase II of the National Solar Mission according to Tarun Kapoor Joint Secretary MNRE.

Karnataka government approves setting up solar parks in Gulbarga and Dharwad districts on PPP model

‘Land has been identified in Chincholi taluk for the park’

The State government has approved setting up solar parks in Gulbarga and Dharwad districts on a private-public participation model.

Sunil Valyapure, Minister for Infrastructure Development, told The Hindu here on Friday that while the solar park in Gulbarga district would be established in Chincholi taluk, the location for the one in Dharwad district was yet to be identified.

Mr. Valyapure said the cost of the projects would be known after the detailed project report (DPR) was prepared.

He added that the government was appointing consultants to prepare DPRs.

He said it had been originally proposed to establish 100 MW solar parks in both the districts; however, this had been scaled down to 50 MW each in the first phase.

The Minister also stated that there was a possibility of increasing the production capacity of the parks. The exact production capacity would be known after the DPRs were prepared and expressions of interest submitted by entrepreneurs and industries. The final approval would be announced after the preparation of DPRs.

Mr. Valyapure said the construction of a world convention centre near the Bengaluru International Airport was also being considered. Consultants had been appointed to prepare DPRs for final approval, he said.

Mr. Valyapure said a meeting between the Principal Secretary, Infrastructure Development, and the Principal Secretary, Ports, Union government, would be held to finalise the proposal for development of the Tadadi port on 500 acres of land on PPP basis.

A final decision in this regard would be taken on November 26, he added.

Indian railways’ ambitious project to run trains on biodiesel receives a setback in Pune

The Indian railways’ project to run trains on biodiesel has received a setback in Pune. The Pune division of the central railways had planted over 7 lakh Jatropha saplings to use them for making biofuel. However, the plan had to be scrapped as the Jatropha plants did not grow even a year after they were planted in various parts of the division.

YK Singh, public relations officer of the central railways’ Pune division, said, “We had planted these saplings for the purpose of biofuel, but we did not get the desired results and the plants could not be grown.”

With the rise in the price of diesel, the railways has to spend crores of rupees on fuel. According to the railway officials, use of the biofuel would reduce diesel consumption and prove economical in the long run. However, now since the project in Pune has failed, the central railways will have to find a new location for Jatropha plantations.

According to the railway officials, the biofuel can be used on trains without making any change in the engine. It can also be mixed with diesel so that less diesel will be required to run the engine. There will be reduction in air pollution because of the use of biofuel.

The Pune division of the central railways had planted over 7 lakh plants of Jatropha near Ghorpadi washing centre and at the side of the railway tracks from Saswad Road to Jejuri. However, the division was not successful in growing the plants.

ABB hails breakthrough for green power grids

Swiss firm ABB announced a breakthrough in technology to carry electricity over long distances, making desert solar plants and ocean wind farms much more viable.

Its new circuit breaker makes it easier to send electricity through high-voltage direct-current (DC) lines into the grids that link power stations to consumers, the engineering company said on Wednesday.

DC lines are much more efficient over long distances than the alternating current (AC) lines that are largely used at the moment. They are also more compatible with some forms of renewable power generation.

But using DC lines widely has been impractical without a heavy-duty circuit breaker that can cut power when need be.

The search for such a circuit breaker has taken more than 100 years and ABB has been battling rivals Alstom and Siemens to invent one first - potentially giving it an important advantage in what it hopes will be a multi-billion dollar market for DC grids.

"If they've managed to do this it's very significant," said Roger Kemp, an engineering professor at Lancaster University in northern England. "DC transmission is a much higher efficiency way of moving electricity around."

It could bring closer the idea of huge solar power arrays in the Sahara Desert supplying electricity to Europe, Kemp said.

ABB Chief Executive Joe Hogan hailed what he said was "a new chapter in the history of electrical engineering."

High voltage DC is already used to connect wind farms to the power grid and for delivering power to offshore oil and gas platforms. But without a breaker, its use is very limited.

If you try to switch off direct current at the very high voltages needed for power transmission, it can cause a spark across the switch which simply keeps the electricity flowing. That is not a problem with alternating current because there is a window to interrupt the flow.

STOPPING A TRUCK

The challenge of breaking direct current can be compared to quickly stopping a truck hurtling down a highway at top speed, ABB's chief power engineer, Claes Rytoft, said.

ABB's circuit breaker works by combining mechanical and power electronics that are capable of interrupting power flows equivalent to the output of a large power station within five milliseconds - 30 times faster than the blink of a human eye.

Conventional AC grids are also not compatible with the DC power produced by many renewable sources, particularly solar energy. Computers, televisions and mobile phones also run on DC, meaning electricity has to be converted from AC.

The two systems have been at odds since their proponents, Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison, battled for supremacy in the new technology a century ago.

India wants comprehensive climate talks in Doha

ndia has demanded that environment ministers gathering in Doha for climate talks in November-end discuss not just greenhouse gas emission reductions but finance, technology and other issues closer to developing countries' interest too.

In its latest submission to the UN, the government has demanded that ministerial round-tables being organized must be comprehensive in nature and should not focus on a particular issue to the exclusion of others.

The special ministerial round of discussions is being held to develop a quicker consensus on the shape that the new global climate change regime, which is to be negotiated by 2015, should take.

The demand reflects India's wariness that the developed countries would push for discussions only on reducing emissions at the cost of forwarding talks on transfer of finance and technology from the rich to the poor countries.

India has reiterated that the legal form of the new deal should not be pre-judged. Instead, the meat of the new deal — what elements and principles it shall have — should be carved out before the countries decide how to give it legal form.

Similarly, India has demanded that the Doha talks not decide a 'work-plan' with specific time-lines and milestones until the basic scope of the new global compact has been decided upon. Worries abound in the developing world that fixing deadlines for the coming three years of talks will permit the developed world to slip in elements on which consensus has not been generated.

The developing world would prefer the guiding principles and elements of a new compact to be fleshed out with consensus as a priority.

Hero Eco Ltd ties up with Canadian co Electrovaya for lithium ion-powered electric bikes

Hero Eco Ltd, part of the Hero group, has tied up with Electrovaya of Canada under which the Canadian company will “work with Hero Eco to implement lithium ion-powered electric bikes for Hero’s markets worldwide”.

Hero Eco, the umbrella entity that includes Hero Electric, Hero Exports, Hero Cycles, Mediva, Winn and Hero Ecotech, recently expanded its operations in Europe and North America through its overseas acquisition. As a result of this acquisition, Hero will now market lithium ion-powered electric bikes in the less price-sensitive markets of Europe and North America, expanding its market reach to 22 countries.

“Hero's expansion into Europe fits well with Electrovaya's recent acquisition of Miljobil Grenland in Europe. Miljobil is a lithium ion battery pack integrator, which was earlier part of Tata Motors,” says a press release from Electravaya.

The Indian Government's recent EV policy calls for a Rs 23,000-crore plan to promote the production of electric (EV) and hybrid vehicles over the next eight years, and set a sales target of 6 million units by 2020. The policy includes aspects such as incentives to customers, charging infrastructure, research and development funding and creation of EV zones.

Electrovaya Inc. designs, develops and manufactures proprietary lithium ion batteries, battery systems, and battery-related products for clean electric transportation, utility scale energy storage and smart grid power, consumer and healthcare markets. The company's mission is to accelerate clean transportation as a commercial reality with its advanced power system for all classes of zero-emission electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.

The company's other mission is to deliver utility scale energy storage systems for the highest efficiency in electricity storage, whether the electricity is generated from intermittent wind and solar power or from other sources. Founded in 1996 and headquartered in Ontario, Canada, Electrovaya has production facilities in Canada, the US and Europe with customers around the globe.

Madurai Kamaraj University to tap solar energy to tackle power crisis

In the wake of severe power crisis, Madurai Kamaraj University is all set to join the solar bandwagon soon. Having completed a comprehensive review of power requirements in its campus, the university is betting on solar power. 

A proposal has been prepared under the ‘green campus’ initiative and submitted to the appropriate authorities, including Finance Committee, for fund support. “The total consumption of power in the university was studied in detail and it was found that there is misuse of power to a great extent. While drastic steps are to be taken to tackle power crisis, a major plan is to tap solar energy,” Vice-Chancellor Kalyani Mathivanan said.

Voltech starts new venture 'Solacon Energy Park Pvt Ltd' with Arab Gulf Pearl Trading Co and NanoPV

Attempting to expand its solar energy business, Voltech Group today started a new venture 'Solacon Energy Park Pvt Ltd' amalgamated with Arab Gulf Pearl Trading Co, UAE and NanoPV, USA. Solacon would have a solar park established over 100 acres of land at Kadaladi near Madurai, M Umapathi, Chairman, Voltech Group, told reporters here.

"The operation and production of Solacon is intitially set up a 2 MW plant by end of March 2013 and gradually ramp to 10 MW. The plant will be using NanoPV technology," he said.

Anna Selvan John of NanoPV, USA said the company's technology was based on amorphous and nano-crystalline silicon and proprietary light-trapping and transparent conductive light-trapping oxide technologies.

"Based on this, compared with conventional solar cells, NanoPV's cell manufacturing involves one-thord the process and takes one-third he cost and 300 times less amount of material consumption," John added.

All the three companies - Adam Sheikh of Arab Gulf Pearl Trading Company, UAE and Dr Anna Selvan John of NonoPV, USA - also signed the corporation certificate, in the presence of the media. City-headquartered Voltech is also involved in power, steel, oil-gas, infrastructure and cement sectors.

British government won't get European Union funding for CCS projects

CCS technology captures carbon emissions from power plants before they enter the atmosphere and then stores them in long-term storage sites.

The British government has included CCS technology in its plans to meet its emissions reduction targets and says it has earmarked 1 billion pounds ($1.59 billion) to fund a commercial scale pilot CCS program.

One EU source speaking on condition of anonymity confirmed that no British projects had qualified for the so-called NER300 competition "because of lack of funding detail."

Britain's Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) said it had not yet been informed of the decision or what the arrangements might be for the second round.

"We are not going to comment on speculation or rumors," a DECC spokesperson said.

The European Commission, together with the European Investment Bank and EU member states, jointly operate the NER300 financing competition in which governments can shortlist renewable and CCS projects for European subsidies.

EU member states can apply for NER300 funding to finance half of a renewable or CCS project if the national government guarantees funds to cover the remaining 50 percent of the costs.

A second round of projects will be launched early next year and British projects will be able to participate again, the EU source said.

Chris Davies, a British Liberal Democrat politician who led discussion of the funding in the European Parliament, said the failure was "a devastating blow" to hopes of Britain and Europe becoming a world leader in the development of CCS technology.

"The government has no excuse. The EU funding mechanism was only introduced as a result of British pressure and for us not to take advantage of it is simply woeful," he said.

Although proven to work technologically, CCS is a controversial technology because it has not yet been tested at commercial scale and is considered to be expensive since it adds to the cost of electricity generation without adding a value beyond emissions reductions.

Under the NER300 initiative, 300 million EU emissions allowances - which are rights to emit one metric ton (1.1923 tons) of carbon dioxide - on the EU European Emissions Trading Scheme were made available to raise financing for installations of innovative renewable energy technologies and carbon capture and storage, or CCS.

The initiative plans to sell the 300 million allowances in two rounds. The sale of the first tranche of 200 million allowances was completed on 28 September 2012, with a second NER300 tranche of 100 million allowances next year.

The European Investment Bank said that it wants the second round of sales to be completed by the end of 2013.

One allowance is valued around 8.30 euros ($10.55) per metric ton, exchange and broker data on Reuters shows.

Details of the Britain's list of CCS projects shortlisted for NER300 funding can be seen under: here($1 = 0.6286 British pounds) ($1 = 0.7868 euros)

Welspun Energy to invest Rs 1,000 Cr on 100 MW solar project in Chattisgarh

Welspun Renewables Energy Ltd (WREL) has inked a memorandum of understanding with the Chattisgarh Government for installing a 100 MW solar power project.

The renewables unit, part of Welspun Energy Ltd, will invest about Rs 1,000 crore on the project.

The Chattisgarh government will facilitate approvals, permission, land acquisition, registration and clearances for the project.

Recently, the company won a 130 MW solar power project mandate through a bidding process in Madhya Pradesh.

Vineet Mittal, Co-founder and Managing Director of Welspun Energy, in a statement said, “WEL is confident of sourcing appropriate funding for this project in time. The company recently achieved financial closure for a 50 MW solar project in Rajasthan. A consortium of banks led by Central Bank of India have supported this project.”

However, an uncertain policy framework and payment security issues create edginess in investors to support power projects, he felt.

With this, WEL is developing more than 250 MW of solar and 800 MW of wind capacity in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka.

Schott Solar ships solar receivers for 50 Mw for CSP project in Rajasthan

 Schott Solar has shipped more than 17,000 solar receivers for use in a 50 MW parabolic trough concentrating solar power project in Rajasthan.
Schott delivered its PTR 70 receivers to Godawari Green Energy Ltd. (Raipur, India) for use in the plant, which is located near Nokh Village in the Jaisalmer District of Rajasthan. If completed before other CSP plants currently under development, this will be India's first CSP plant of this scale.
"Schott PTR 70 receivers were an easy choice for us to make after carefully analyzing this impressive product’s outstanding track record with other large-scale CSP installations in other parts of the world," stated Godawari Green Energy CEO J P Tiwari.

Tamil Nadu colleges all set to tap solar energy

From powering street lamps in colleges and water heating systems in hostels to lights and fans in classrooms, solar energy is the new kid on campus in Tamil Nadu.

In its solar policy, the state government imposes a solar purchase obligation (SPO) on colleges, mandating them to meet 6% of their power usage from solar energy, and colleges are getting down to business.

Going by the policy, commercial establishments, colleges, government buildings, residential schools, IT parks, industries, and buildings with a built-up area of 20,000sqm come under this obligation. They can meet this by generating their own power, purchasing solar power from the state electricity board, or purchasing power from private power producers.

"Colleges have vast expanses of land to put up solar panels. They are eligible for tax benefits. It also helps to avoid technical problems relating to transmission of power from plants to the college," said Vineeth Vijayaraghavan, an industry expert .

Vellore-based VIT University is going beyond the 6% obligation and is planning to source solar power for 30% of its needs. The college currently uses diesel gensets for 30% of its needs and is looking to replace this with wind and solar energy. "We have a four-acre lake inside our campus and will be putting up photovoltaic modules over the lake for 2MW, replicating Gujarat's set up over the Narmada River," said founder and chancellor of VIT University G Viswanathan. The college will also have an in-house 3MW solar power plant and is negotiating with a few companies to set up the plants.

Apart from setting up roof-top systems, Chennai-based Sri Venkateswara College of Engineering (SVCE) is planning to tap solar energy for street lighting on campus. "We had done a pilot project earlier and will expand this to other areas in phases," said college principal M Sivanandham. The college is planning to invest about Rs 7 lakh in the first phase.

Captive consumption saves colleges from wasting power, and thereby, funds. "Setting up an off-grid roof-top system in the college will save about 8% of the power they buy from the grid. The power generated can be used for captive consumption and energy isn't wasted. Even during holidays when power usage is low, the mandated 6% will be required for basic activities in the college and the college can use its own power," an expert said.

On the educational side, colleges will benefit as students will learn about solar energy. "Several PG students work on simulated solar projects using fictional data for their research. Having roof-top systems gives students the opportunity to work on real-time projects," Vijayaraghavan said. At SVCE, for instance, the solar street lighting project was done by students of electrical engineering, and the college will get students of other departments to work on such projects, Sivanandham said.

India, Canada keen to step up ties in energy sector

India and Canada have identified energy cooperation, particularly exports of Canadian oil and natural gas as well as renewable energy cooperation, as an area with enormous potential, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Tuesday.

Addressing the media after a meeting with the visiting Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Singh said a ministerial-level energy dialogue will supplement the strategic dialogue and promote specific projects.

“We also welcomed the recent progress made towards concluding the modalities for the effective operationalisation of the agreement on civil nuclear energy cooperation that we had signed in 2010,” the Prime Minister said.

Singh added that the memorandum of understanding signed between DRDO and York University was a “welcome foray into bilateral defence technology cooperation.”

Stating that India-Canada economic cooperation was below its potential, the Prime Minister said that the establishment of a bilateral CEOs forum and the commitment to a structured dialogue between the commerce ministers of the two countries, will help trade and economic interaction.

“We resolved to conclude negotiations for a comprehensive economic partnership agreement within the next year,” Singh said.

The two leaders also decided to take forward and strengthen the bilateral dialogue in the energy sector by elevating the discussions to the ministerial level, which will be led by the Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, on the Indian side and the Minister of Natural Resources on the Canadian side, and to explore the possibility of a memorandum of understanding in the field of oil and gas.

The two Prime Ministers endorsed the decision to start a financial sector policy dialogue to facilitate mutual understanding of developments in the financial sectors of the two countries and to discuss and coordinate positions on developments in the global fora.

Eco-friendly rickshaws to be introduced in Noida post-Diwali

Commuters are going to get a much-awaited Diwali gift from theDiwali. In order to phase out old three-wheelers plying without permits and provide easy feeder services to residents, new eco-friendly rickshaws will be introduced in Noida post-Diwali.The battery-operated rickshaws will be launched by the Authority in association with a non-profit organization, Samman Foundation. Earlier last month, the Authority had made this decision and a presentation on the feasibility and the design of the project was made by the Samman Foundation last week. Following that the Authority granted the final approval for the rickshaw project.

Air pollution in Delhi touched alarming levels, set to get worse after Diwali

Data taken from six places in the Capital between October 22 and November 2 show air pollution is hovering at frightening levels even before Diwali on November 13.Carbon monoxide presence was between 1.2 mg/m3 and 2.5 mg/m3 on Diwali last year, and between 0.87 mg/m3 and 9.75 mg/m3 in 2010.
The Centre for Science and Environment(CSE) says the levels of air pollution have already gone back to the pre-CNG days.

Debate begins on thumping up biofuel use

BANGALORE: Rashtra Bandhu, an NGO debated on switching over to biofuel will make environment and ecology pay a heavy price. The symposium with eminent environmentalist and environment activists in Bangalore asked several questions to the decision of the state government to increase consumption of biofuel recently.

Scientists like Harini Nagendra, AN Yellappa Reddy, MK Ramesh and Sharadchandra Lele who master in biodiversity, environement and ecology and laws related to the subject asked why public consultation has not been done before such major decisions are taken which could deteriorate the future of common property, grazing lands and forests lands.

It also discussed that encouraging large scale biofuel species of plants like jetropha, pongamia and neem will have adverse effect on pollination and hence threaten the species which have a big role to play in agriculture.

It also saw several discussions on the diversion of Common Property Resources (CPRs) that directly affects the livelihood of landless and livestock owners for their livelihood. Enough care should be taken before converting them into productive assets, echoed the bright brains. They suggested that the government should utilize the schemes MNERGA to alleviate the poverty of the stake holders.

Finnish engineering company Metso plans to expand its biomass business in India and China

Metso Oyj, a Finnish engineering company, plans to expand its biomass business in China and India as growing urban populations drive up energy demand, while European governments cut back support for clean power.The growth of Asian cities adds to waste as well as energy consumption, offering opportunities to use that waste as biomass, Martin Ridderheim, vice president of Helsinki-based Metso’s power business, said.
“If the current urbanization trend continues in China, nearly 1 billion people will live in Chinese urban centers by 2025,” Ridderheim said. In India, more than 590 million people may live in cities by 2030, or twice the population of the U.S. today, he said. 

How Coca-Cola’s low-cost solar cooler is helping Coke spread its wing in villages

KOLKATA: As the first rays of the winter sun hit the small solar It's just another Coke sold, except that the sale has been made panels perched on the roof of Roop Devi's kirana store in a remote village in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, a direct current compressor motor whirrs into life. It refrigerates a small, opaque, boxstyled cooler inside her shop. A few hours later Devi opens the box and makes her first sale — an ice-cold bottle of Coke.in a village that doesn't have any electricity. As the thirsty villager gulps down the fizzy chill gushing out of the bottle, Coca-Cola India moves another step closer to prying open the market in 80,000 Indian villages that do not have any electricity. Of these, 25,000 have little chance of being connected to the power grid in the conventional way

National Solar Mission Phase II policy to be announced in a month

The basic contours of the policy for the Phase II of the National Solar Mission will be announced in a month’s time, according to Tarun Kapoor, Joint Secretary, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.Under this phase, the Government of India intends to engender the creation of 3,000 MW of solar power capacity, in batches.
Speaking at the Sixth Renewable Energy India 2012 Expo, Kapoor said that all means of financing the ‘feed-in tariff’ would be used, including viability-gap funding, generation-based incentives and bundling of solar power with conventional power that has not been earmarked for sales under any power purchase agreements, so that the weighted average cost of the ‘bundled’ power becomes affordable to the electricity distribution companies.

Vestas to reduce workforce by another 3,000 employees

Vestas said Wednesday it would reduce its workforce by another 3,000 employees as the company reported a $225 million loss for the third quarter vs. a $77 million loss last year. It did not say where the cuts could come.
The Danish wind turbine company, which has factories in Windsor, Brighton and Pueblo, also is seeking to sell a stake of as much as 20 percent, CFO Dag Andresen told Bloomberg News. 
"What's important is that we have investors who understand the company, the segment that we are working in and also have a longer-term view," Andresen said. 
Vestas planned to reduce the number of its employees to 16,000 by the end of next year. The company employed more than 22,700 people at the beginning of this year and had already announced job cuts of 3,700. 
The workforce reduction will help Vestas save $510 million, the company said. 
This year, Vestas has trimmed its manufacturing workforce in Colorado from more than 1,700 to about 1,200 people at four factories, a figure which includes attrition, relocations and reductions. The company has blamed a slowdown in the U.S. wind industry largely due to uncertainty over a wind tax credit set to expire at the end of the year.
"This has led to a significant reduction in turbine orders for 2013, and the market slowdown is affecting Vestas' manufacturing facilities in Colorado," spokesman Andrew Longeteig said in a statement last month. 
CEO Ditlev Engel said Vestas expected next year to be "tough" for the wind industry. The reductions will help the company adapt to future uncertainty in the wind market. 
"However difficult it is to make further cost savings and also further reduce the workforce, it is simply necessary in order to create an even leaner and more agile Vestas to ensure the company's continued profitability in a very uncertain and unstable wind turbine market," Engel said in a statement. "I am, however, pleased to say that we expect a part of these reductions to happen through divestments, which means that our employees will maintain their jobs, only they will be working for a different employer than Vestas."
Vestas reported third-quarter revenue of $2.5 billion, 49 percent higher than a year ago, though the company's losses have totaled $440 million so far this year.