Sustainability Outlook Headlines

Hydel projects to generate 10,000 MW by 2020

The Indian Public Sector Units (IPSUs) and the Druk Green Power Corporation (DGPC) of Bhutan have ironed out their differences at the Eighth Empowered Joint Group Meeting held at New Delhi recently to start work on four joint venture projects in Bhutan as part of an initiative to generate 10,000 MW of hydel power by 2020.

The implementation of the four joint venture projects — Kholongchu, Bunakha, Amochu, and Wangchu is to start by the middle of this year, said a write up in the Kuensel Online Bhutanese daily news site in a recent issue.

As per the agreement, DGPC will hold... Read more..

Don’t burn fossil fuels, warns Farooq

Farooq Abdullah, minister for new and renewable energy, in his inaugural address at the international conference on renewable energy resources at Amrita University, advised not to burn fossil fuels as it was detrimental to the environment.

The world has woken up to the global warming, remarked Abdullah. "Glaciers are rapidly melting and we have realized that we will run out of fuel shortly, making it urgent for us to conceive alternate ways to get renewable energy," he added.

"India now ranks fifth in wind energy. We generate 17,000MW power from wind energy. By 2013, we... Read more..

Stiff resistence to proposed solid waste treatment plant

The MC’s efforts to garner public support for the proposed Rs 92-crore solid waste management plant at the Bhagtanwala garbage dump site has met with stiff resistance from residents and environment lovers, who have opposed the project and demanded shifting of dump. Residents said the MC

had neither taken an NOC from the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) nor the Airport Authority of India. The dump falls within the 14-km periphery of the airport at Raja Sansi. Environment lovers said the dump is situated near the grain market in violation of the Environment and Forest... Read more..

Sustainability is good business, not just a matter of ethics, say business leaders at FICCI’s India Sustainability Conclave

Business leaders from a wide spectrum of industrial  sectors today shared their perspectives at FICCI's 'India Sustainability Conclave 2012' on sustainability and how business leaders could drive it across their organizations, percolating down to each individual functional units.

Dr. Mukesh Aghi, Managing Director, Steria India, said that with the widespread use of IT, there has been a paradigm shift in power away from governments and businesses to consumers and the society. "A sense of transparency is being demanded by consumers in the way products are being produced and supply... Read more..

President of India Presents 6th National Grassroots Innovations Awards and Inaugurates Exhibition of Innovations

The award winning innovators were identified for recognition by National Innovation Foundation-India (NIF) during its 6th National Biennial Competition, which ran from January 1, 2007 to January 31, 2009 and saw over 36,000 submissions.

The President gave away 15 National and one lifetime achievement award. The awards have been given in seven categories: - life time achievement, national, state, consolation, diffusion, idea, appreciation, and special student awards.

A tractor mounted machine for aerating and mixing bio-wastes, a tree pruner, an electric painting brush,... Read more..

Biomass producers facing uncertain future

Toby Price
While India is working feverishly to ramp up its solar sector, biomass producers are stuck in a hiatus as costs rise and tariff structures remain stagnant. The sector is calling for an urgent review of the feed-in tariffs on offer to biomass plants.
Biomass producers facing uncertain future

The Hindu newspaper reported recently that the Indian Biomass Power Association (IBPA) has written a letter to the Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy, Dr Farooq Abdullah, seeking his attention and intervention in addressing the concerns of its members.

... Read more..

Financing highlighted as PV Project Development's Top Challenge in India

During a recent PV Insider webinar, Chandan Guha, CEO of Mahindra Solar One; provided an outlook on the PV utility scale market in India and identified financing, as the major challenge currently facing the project development industry.

“Financing will challenge technology at all times and will remain key” affirmed Chandan Guha, while explaining the main challenges of the PV industry in India during the recent webinar organized by PV Insider: ‘Spotlight on Indian PV’.

Guha provided a confident scope about the present and future of the PV industry in India, highlighting... Read more..

How India Inc can slash the energy bill of its old buildings by 20-30%

Most old buildings can be converted to 'smart' buildings, saving a bunch of energy. Yes, it involves capital investment, but it pays for itself. ET reports why and how a handful of companies are 'retrofitting' their old buildings.

In Infosys Technologies' army of 135,000 employees in India providing software solutions to companies, a team of seven has a different obsession: how to shave off 1 MW from the 10-11 MW of power each of its five large campuses currently draws. They call it 'the 1 MW challenge'. "We are taking highly unreasonable goals and thinking out of the box," says... Read more..

India: Tata Favors Wind, Solar as Coal-Fed Plants Impossible to Build

The power unit of Tata Group, India’s biggest, said its new investments will favor wind and solar farms over coal-fired projects which have become “impossible” to develop.

Tata Power Co. (TPWR) bid for its first overseas wind and solar farms in South Africa with Pretoria-based Exxaro Resources Ltd. (EXX) this week in a renewable-energy tender whose results will be known by May, said Tata Power Executive Director S. Padmanabhan. He declined to say how much capacity their joint venture Cennergi is seeking, citing auction rules.

Tata Group, which owns Corus Group and Jaguar Land... Read more..

Surat Municipal Corporation yet to take concrete steps to ban plastic bags

It is a year since Plastic Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 2011, framed by Union ministry of environment and forest, came into force but Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) is yet to take concrete steps to implement them. SMC's health department has so far been unsuccessful in implementing the ban on the use of plastic bags below 40 microns in the diamond city.

This was evident on Monday when the health department seized about 400 kilograms of banned plastic bags from seven municipal zones and collected fines amounting to Rs 1.22 lakh.

A one day campaign was launched in... Read more..

Agromet advisory services to help farmers fight climate change

To enhance resilience of farmers to vagaries of nature, the Government will provide timely weather-based information along with crop-based advisories through Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) from next fiscal.

The AWS network and Agromet Advisory Services (AAS) under the National Initiative on Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) aims to enhance resilience of Indian agriculture to climate change and climate vulnerability through strategic research and technology.

“Through AWS and AAS, farmers will receive advice on appropriate field operations and management practices based... Read more..

Power tariff fixed for import from India ‘changeable’

The tariff of power to be imported from India will change from time to time as per its law and Bangladesh can place its opinion to Indian Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) when any revision will be made.

Power Secretary Abul Kalam Azad said this on Tuesday while briefing reporters at Bidyut Bhaban about Bangladesh’s power purchase agreement (PPA) with the neighboring country.

Dhaka signed the PPA with New Delhi to import 250 MW power for 25-year tenure at a tariff of Rs 2.40 per kilowatt hour. The price is equivalent to Tk 4.

Bangladesh is constructing a... Read more..