Wind energy sees some activity in India

 Four large transactions in wind energy have brought back some activities in the sector in India during the quarter ended September 30, according to a report complied by Mercom Capital Group.

Nagarjuna Agrichem, an Indian agrochemicals maker, sold off its entire wind power business to an undisclosed investor for Rs30 crore (~$5 million) as part of its strategy to consolidate on core business.

Goyal MG Gases, an Indian manufacturer and supplier of industrial gases, acquired an 11.2 MW wind project from DLF for Rs29.52 crore ($4.9 million).

Continuum Wind Energy, a wind project developer, backed by Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners has acquired DJ Energy and Uttar Urja Power Projects from Delhi based Sravanthi Group totaling 178.7 MW for an undisclosed amount.

Green Infra, a renewable energy power producer has acquired a majority stake in TVS Energy, a subsidiary of TVS Motor, for an undisclosed amount. With the latest acquisition, Green Infra has added 59.75 MW of wind farms across Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, taking its operating capacity to 377 MW.

Nevertheless, Wind venture capital (VC) funding dropped slightly to $135 million compared to $210 million in Q2 2013 globally. Total funding in the wind sector came in at $5.6 billion in Q3 2013, including VC funding and other equity financings, debt financings and announced project funding deals.

Mainstream Renewable Power, an independent renewable energy project developer, raised $133 million fromMarubeni Corporation making it the largest VC deal this quarter. Brazilian utility Cemig's $621 million investment in project developer Renova Energia, and the $52 million raised by wind developer Rabbalshede Kraft, were the other equity financing deals this quarter. Large-scale project funding in Q3 2013 totaled $3.7 billion in 28 deals compared to $3.2 billion in 24 deals in Q2 2013. There were a total of 59 investors that participated in project funding deals this quarter.

"With the capital markets thawing and renewable energy industry maturing - especially wind and solar - we are seeing more IPO activity," commented Raj Prabhu, CEO and Co-Founder of Mercom Capital Group, llc.

This quarter Mercom recorded three IPOs, one each in the United States (Pattern Energy), Canada (TransAlta Renewables) and Brazil (CPFL Renovaveis), resulting in almost $1 billion raised.

Tata wind power generation up 43% in 2012-13

Tata Power said that the generation by its wind farms had gone up 43 per cent in 2012-13 to 800 million units (mu) from 569 mu logged in the previous year. The company has an installed capacity of 398 MW in wind power with plants across Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

The growth was mainly due to its Agaswadi wind farms, which had an increased generation of 85 mu, and Poolavadi 140 mu. Anil Sardana, Managing Director, said the company is developing wind power projects of over 160 MW in India. The increase in wind generation capacity by a record of 43 per cent proves the company’s commitment towards generating 20-25 per cent of its total generation capacity from clean energy sources.

Green Cotton

Chinese and the Arabs discovered gun powder. Gun powder is a mixture of Potassium Nitrate, sulphur and charcoal. This was replaced in 1845 by nitrocellulose usually known as green cotton. Later, a terribly unstable explosive nitroglycerin was discovered.

Alfred Nobel combined nitroglycerin with silaceous earth (later with wood pulp) to make dynamite in 1867. It was Alfred Nobel who instituted the coveted Nobel prizes out of the profit made by selling dynamite.

The more modern explosives ammonium nitrate, trinitrotoluene, (TNT) and mixtures of such compounds.

Another very powerful explosive always in news is RDX or Research Department Explosive. Chemically it is known as Cyclotrimethylene trinitranine and is one and half times more powerful than TNT used in the military.

The most powerful explosive is Hexa nitro iso wurtzitane (CL20).

Plastics in Space

Space suits contain eight or nine layers of plastic fibers that can extremes of cold and heat. Outer surface of the suit is made of superstrong plastic fibre called Kevlar. Inner suit is of polyurethane coated nylon mixed with polyester fibre.

Robonauts

NASA Johnson Space centre in Houston, Texas has built and designed a dexterous humanoid robot named Robonaut. Robonauts are machines that can help  humans works and explore in space by working side by side with them, or going where the risks are too great for people.

Dirty Snowball

The only permanent part of a comet is its solid nucleus, or core. It is typically very dark, irregularly shaped, and several miles in diameter. The nucleus is often described as a DIRTY SNOWBALL because it consists of ice mixed with large amounts of fine, sooty dust particles. Some comets have more dust than ice.

Goa govt moots plastic waste management plant at Bicholim

Goa government is planning to set up a plastic waste management plant in Goa and has already identified a site in Bicholim for the purpose, said deputy chief minister Francis D'Souza. The plant will be environment-friendly and work on a technology that converts plastic into fuel, D'Souza said. "There will be no emissions from the plant," D'Souza stressed. Replying to queries , D'Souza said that the two solid waste management plants proposed to be set up at Calangute and Curchorem will work on "in-vessel" technology and therefore emanate no foul order. "The technology used for the garbage treatment plant at Sonsoddo is primitive," he said.