Satyendranath Bose

Satyendranath Bose is one of the greatest Indian Physicists, who made remarkable contribution to the advance of science. In 1924 he gave a new derivation of Plank's law, treating radiation as gas of photons. He discovered particles of zero or integral spins that cannot be distinguished from one another. These particles are known as bosons in honor of bose. These particles were seen to obey Bose Einstein statistics.

Neutrinos faster than light??

            A fundamental subatomic particle, the neutrino seems to be capable of travelling faster than the speed of light (that is, the speed of a photon through a vacuum). Earlier, Albert Einstein  asserted that speed of light is a fundamental constant and the maximum speed anything can travel. If the new theory is proved right, the basic laws of physics have to be rewritten.
           
            Neutrinos are electrically neutral particles that have a tiny (but non-zero) mass. They interact very weakly with normal matter, making them almost impossible to detect. Tens of billions of neutrons pass through our fingers every second. They are created in certain types of radio active decay, during collisons between atoms and cosmic rays and during nuclear reactions such as those that occur in the heart of the sun. Neutrinos are considered to be mysterious particles. They have a minuscule mass, no electric charge, and pass through almost any material as though it was not there.

            The speed of light in a vacuum is 299,792,4508 m/s and that of neutron is 299,798,454 m/s.

Energy-efficient street lamps to dot Puducherry soon

Street lighting in Puducherry could soon become more energy efficient, thanks to an initiative to outsource the management and maintenance of street lights to private agencies. According to the new plans, all the street lights will be retrofitted with LED and other energy efficient bulbs to increase power saving. As a conservative estimate, the new plans will consume 50 per cent less energy, Managing Director of the Renewable Energy Agency, Puducherry, P.K. Jha said. All the street lights will be controlled using a centralised control room and the implementing company will provide 10 years of maintenance and operations as well as a five year replacement warranty.

Solar PV power generation companies in AP get time till Sep 30 to submit proposals

Solar photovoltaic power generation companies who have submitted bids to set up units in Andhra Pradesh or those who are now interested, have been given time till September 30, to submit their proposals.

The Government had recently decided to allow more companies interested in taking part in the projects under the State solar power policy.

As a part of development of green power, particularly solar, the Andhra Pradesh Government represented by AP Transco has given opportunity to all solar developers, including those who have not participated in the recently concluded competitive bidding for 1000 MW, to submit their applications for executing the solar projects.

They can do so with the tariff offer of Rs 6.49 per unit as decided by Group of Ministers.

Suresh Chanda, Chairman and Managing Director of AP Transco, while reviewing the progress of solar power projects bidding, has issued guidelines for prospective solar power developers to submit their applications along with non-refundable processing fee of Rs 2 lakh/location to execute the solar project at a fixed tariff of Rs 6.49/unit for a period of 20 years. They have been given time till September-end.

In all, 109 sub-stations were offered under this open offer for grid connectivity. However, solar developers will also be allowed to connect to any other sub-station in the State subject to technical feasibility. Also the draft power purchase agreement, list of sub-stations and the detailed guidelines are being published in AP Transco Web site www.aptransco.gov.in.

This decision to harness solar power has given an opportunity to those solar power developers who have not participated in the bidding process to submit their bids subject to conforming to the tender specification issued earlier.

The State Government had come out with a solar power policy and issued orders for encouraging solar power projects under captive and for third party sale.

AP Transco and distribution companies are in the process of issuing technical feasibility clearances commissioned under this policy. Approximately, 1200 MW have been given sanctions for grid connectivity. Further, the State has issued directed AP Transco to ensure setting up of 1000 MW solar power plants through the process of competitive bidding route.

Wind: Generating little interest

A couple of years ago, the wind power sector looked very robust, with 3,200 MW of capacity added in 2011-12 alone. Last year, the US-based Lawrence-Berkeley National Laboratory said that India’s wind power potential is about 2 million MW— ten times its total installed power capacity. Over the years, as many as 26 wind turbine manufacturers had come up in the country. So, it looked as though a rural industry would develop, relying on local manufacturing and employment. Today, however, the wind industry is down in the dumps. In 2012-13, installations fell to 1,700 MW, and the shrinking market has left little room for smaller turbine manufacturers.

Climate change makes Sunderbans farmers opt for traditional seeds

Climate change is inspiring farmers in the Sundarbans to go back in history to a time when their forefathers grew indigenous varieties of rice using green manure. Giving the modern high-yield varieties of rice a miss, farmers are going back to the pre-Green Revolution days and opting for traditional seeds which have unique properties such as ability to tolerate salinity and floods. “The switch over was difficult but slowly we realised that our traditional rice varieties like ‘Dudheswari’ has low input costs and tolerates salinity more easily than the modern ones,” farmer Uttam Maity who lives in one of the islands under Pathar Pratima block says.

WWF India opens nominations for climate solver awards 2013

Environment advocacy group WWF-India invited nominations from small and medium enterprises for its Climate Solver Awards 2013. "WWF-India is taking new initiatives to make the world a cleaner place to live in, inviting all small and medium enterprises to participate, with criteria of low carbon emissions by 20 million tonne annually from 2023 onwards," said the statement.

EcoValuePoints -- Get paid to save the planet

EcoValuePoints carbon-based coupons earn you money and lower the CO2 footprint with each $ you spend. It pays to save the planet. Technology alone is not going to solve the problem of global warming. It will take culture change and incentives that motivate everyone, and that can be done best with the help of commerce and industry. Currently, individuals can make only small, almost symbolic efforts to lower their carbon footprint: buying a carbon offset here, buying an energy-saving product, riding a bike there. While businesses have focussed their efforts on reducing the carbon impact of their supply chains and processes, their marketing departments have no real tools that can harness their customers' desire to be ecologically effective, and most are "greenwashing" -- offering a veneer of "green" talk.

Tamil Nadu govt to supply solar pump sets to farmers

No more power woes to operate pump sets for farmers in Tamil Nadu. The state government plans to supply five high-power photovoltaic pumping systems with a capacity of 4,800 WP to farmers across the state. In the first phase of the project, 2,000 such systems will be installed in drought-hit districts. “In Tamil Nadu, farmers face power outages constantly and this affects their crops a lot. This will be implemented in all the regions in a phased manner,” a senior official from the agriculture engineering division, a wing of the Agriculture Department, said. Though each of these units would cost about Rs 5 lakh, farmers need to pay only Rs 1 lakh, with the balance being covered by the government as subsidy. The solar photovoltaic module (SPV) will be coming with a 25-year warranty and there will be complete maintenance for five years.

Thin-film solar tops India panel performance, BNEF says

Indian solar plants using silicon-free panels, mostly supplied by First Solar Inc. (FSLR), emerged as the best performers in the first year of operation, Bloomberg New Energy Finance said.

An analysis of 33 projects in Gujarat, India’s biggest state for solar installations, found that those using thin-film panels without silicon achieved an average capacity utilization factor of 19.6 percent, compared with 18.5 percent for competing technologies, the London-based researcher said in a note to clients.

“This is consistent with thin-film performing better at high temperatures,” said Bharat Bhushan Agrawal, BNEF’s New Delhi-based solar analyst. Projects that bought equipment from Tempe, Arizona-based First Solar also probably benefited from better advice from U.S. engineers on design and siting, he said.

Developers and their lenders are seeking data on how technologies fare in new markets, where higher temperatures and dust can reduce panel performance, as growth shifts from Europe, home to 68 percent of global solar installations.

The data shows that worries about inexperienced engineers, poorly designed plants and India’s hot and humid climate were unfounded, BNEF said. Overall, the Gujarat plants recorded an average capacity utilization factor of 18.7 percent, in line with initial estimates by regulators and project developers, Bhushan said in an e-mailed response to questions yesterday.

Capacity utilization factor measures how efficiently a plant produces energy, compared with its maximum capacity. Traditional crystalline modules are silicon-based, while First Solar makes thin-film panels with cadmium telluride, a substitute for silicon.

Bangalore: Chicken poo can be used to reduce electricity bills too

Here is good news for poultry farmers who are worried about the disposal of poultry manure that has become a bone of contention between the so-called fringe organisations and the farmers. Nanda Group, a poultry at Arohalli near Bangalore, has installed an automatic manure collection system - the manure is collected, transported to biogas plants and the farmers are given a source of renewable energy, cutting down on electricity costs, considerably. “We are able to collect the poultry manure on a daily basis and load into trucks that carry it to the biogas plant to produce biogas/bio-methane,’’ said Narendra K Pasuparthy, director, Nanda Group. The gas is then fired in a biogas generator to produce electricity to run the hatchery that produces a million one-day old chicks per month.

National Institute of Engineering, Mysore, to organise biofuel symposium on Oct 10

National Institute of Engineering (NIE), Mysore, and Oel-Waerme-Institute, Germany, will jointly organise a two-day Indo-German Symposium on Biofuel Technologies (IGSBT-2013) and Renewable Energy Exhibition on October 10. The themes of the symposium will be biofuel for automotive and captive power and heating application, biofuel standards setting and biofuel policies. The main objective of the symposium is to provide a platform for those from the academia, research organisations and industry to present their research work.

Solar energy startups out to power rural India with cost-effective and less toxic solutions

Numerous solar energy startups are delivering cheap and accessible power to rural India. These ventures have come up with solutions - ranging from solar off-grids to solar-powered home systems - that are not just cost-effective but also less toxic than traditional fuels like kerosene. "In a country, where large swathes of population have little or unreliable access to basic power, off grids is the solution," said Shyam Patra, 36, founder of Naturetech Infrastructure. The four-year-old, Lucknow-based startup provides electricity to more than 25 villages across Uttar Pradesh and Bihar by offering power directly to homes and micro and small enterprise.

Hindustan Zinc saves Rs 280 Cr from green initiatives

The green initiative undertaken by Hindustan Zinc, part of the Vedanta Group, has resulted in an annual saving of Rs 280 crore. The company generates wind energy of 273.5 MW across five States, including Gujarat (88.8 MW) and Karnataka (49.40 MW), Rajasthan (88.8 MW), Maharashtra (25.5 MW) and Tamil Nadu (21 MW). The wind energy project is registered under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) programme by the United Nations Framework Convention on climate change and earns carbon credits, which can be sold to generate revenue.