Winds benefit the wings of a turbine on Altinho hillock, Panaji

The Ministry of new and renewable energy (MNRE) has approved a grant of Rs 53 lakh to the University of Pune (UoP) to facilitate the establishment of a testing facility, for evacuated tubes used in solar water heaters, at its school of energy studies (SES).

Director of UoP's board of college and university development V B Gaikwad said, "The university will also help in creating a similar test facility at the solar energy center, Gurgaon near Delhi."

Ramanathapuram most favoured district for solar in Tamil Nadu

MANGALORE: The project team at College of Fisheries here has developed a solar-biomass hybrid dryer which can dry fish in 20 hours under hygienic condition. This is part of research project 'Securefish' which aims at improving food security by reducing post harvest losses in the fisheries sector.
The European Union funded project is in operation at the college since May last year. The Euro 39,65,592 project involves 13 institutions including four small and medium entrepreneurs. There are four partners each from the Europe (The Netherlands, Portugal), Asia (India, Malaysia), Africa (Kenya, Namibia and Ghana) and one from South America (Argentina).

Nazlin Howell, University of Surrey, UK is coordinating the project. BA Shamasundar, professor and head, department of fish processing technology and KM Shankar, dean, College of Fisheries are investigators from India are Shamasundar and Shankar, who are in The Netherlands in connection with the project meeting told

The advantage of this dryer is that during night times, the cheap biomass available in plenty, can be made use of. The biomass dryer can be used even during rainy days. The special feature of this design is use of poly carbonate sheets for collector instead of glass sheets.
Regarding the specific objectives of Securefish, the investigators said: The project will undertake comprehensive and significantly useful post harvest research and reduce post harvest losses in the fisheries sector to improve food security, particularly in low income (Kenya, Namibia, Ghana) and medium-income (India, Malaysia, Argentina) countries
The sustainable technologies include improved solar tunnel drying, solar assisted low-value food extrusion and fast freezing/continuous atmospheric freeze drying (CAFD) to reduce post-harvest losses in conventional fish supplies (marine, aquaculture and freshwater) and to reduce adverse environmental impact. The project also wants to implement improved technology, added-value products and a total quality management tool in real-life third-country conditions in Africa, Asia and Latin America using three fish product chains that can be produced by SMEs sustainably after the life of the project.
The project will involve relevant food chain actors, setting real improvement targets and achievements that will be benchmarked against existing processes, creating a legacy of best practices for future wider implementation.

Godawari Green Energy to commission first CSP plant under JNNSM

KOLKATA: National Aluminium Company Limited (Nalco), a Navratna PSU, has set up its 2nd wind power plant at Ludarva in Jaisalmer district of Rajasthan with a capacity of 47.6 MW. The move is part of Nalco's plan to diversify into other metals and the energy sector. One part of the project has been commissioned successfully and power production has commenced from 18 wind energy generators.

The Rs 283-crore wind power project is being executed through Gamesa Wind Turbines Private Ltd.,which involves erection of 56 Wind Turbines, each of 850 KW rating. This is Nalco's second green initiative towards promoting sustainable development by harnessing the unconventional and renewable energy sources, which would credit the company with incentives from the government. The project is scheduled to be completed by August 2013.

Earlier, the company commissioned its first Wind Power Plant of 50.4 MW capacity at a cost of Rs 274 crore at Gandikota in Kadapa district of Andhra Pradesh, in December, 2012. It is also planning to set up the third wind power plant in its own mined out area of Panchpatmali bauxite deposit in Odisha's Koraput.