Sustainability Outlook Headlines

Indian solar capacity to hit 20,000 megawatt by fiscal year 2017

India’s ambitious target of 100 GW solar power generation is achievable and the government is confident that it will have a capacity of 20,000 MW by end of the next financial year.

India has set an ambitious target of adding 175 GW power generation capacity from renewable sources by 2022, of which 100 GW will be solar and 60 GW will be wind energy. MNRE in a recent report has said the total installed solar... Read more..

Indian Ministry For Renewable Energy Seeks $1.5 Billion In Budget Allocation

The Indian Ministry of New & Renewable Energy will seek a budgetary allocation of more than twice the amount it received in last year’s budget.

According to Indian media reports, the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy has sought allocation of Rs 10,000 crore (around $1.5 billion) in the budget for the next financial year to be presented later this month. This is a significant increase over the amount... Read more..

SoloPower Systems and Bharat Light and Power Team Up for Indian Rooftop PV Market

 Key Highlights:

• SoloPower and Bharat Light and Power sign long-term collaboration agreement
• First commercial project secured for New Delhi area
• Agreement represents entry into significant target... Read more..
  Date : Feb 23
  Source: benzinga

LED lamps for streetlights

Sights set on savings, the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation would replace all conventional streetlights with LED lamps within three years.

Municipal commissioner Rajeev Jadhav said the civic body was mulling over installing around 25,000 LED lamps every year. "The cost of the LED lamps have reduced significantly in the past few years. The use of LED lamps also results in reducing the power bills... Read more..

Plugged-in campuses get solar pay-off

Institutions across Gujarat are now plugging into the biggest source of free energy , the sun. This new affinity for the solar power has led colleges and even schools to cut monthly electricity bills to almost a fifth.

St Xavier's College used to pay between Rs 1.4 lakh to Rs 1.92 lakh for electricity every month. The college recently installed 238 solar panels with a maximum capacity of 75 kW .Together they... Read more..

Apple is first U.S. tech company to issue green bonds

Apple frequently uses debt rather than its flush cash coffers to finance corporate initiatives, such as stock repurchase programs — it makes sense to do so for tax reasons.

But, the company’s latest appeal to the public debt markets includes another “first” for Apple and the tech industry at large: Apple is issuing $1.5 billion in green bonds to pay for a wide range of environmental initiatives. The issue is... Read more..

The oil industry is using solar power in an ironic new way

There’s a huge project taking shape in the deserts of Oman. It will extract crude oil from the ground by pumping vast quantities of steam into it. To produce the steam, water will be brought to a boil using as much as a gigawatt of energy. The source of that energy: the sun.

Using solar power to get fossil fuels out of the ground will strike some as ironic—especially since, if that method weren’t available,... Read more..

NTPC arm ties up with German institutes for solar power research

NTPC Energy Technology Research Alliance (NETRA), the research and development arm of the public sector power generator, said on Thursday that it is collaborating with two German institutions for research in solar thermal and solar photovoltaic technologies.

With DLR Cologne, the company is carrying out research in the field of solar thermal and Institute of Solar Energy Fraunhofer, the research is in the... Read more..

Make in India: Solar Industries signs MoU with Maharashtra to set up Nagpur plant

Industrial explosives manufacturer Solar Industries India has signed a pact with the Maharashtra government to set up a facility in Nagpur with an investment of Rs 1,550 crore to manufacture ammunition for armed forces.

The memorandum of understanding (MoU) was formalised by the company through its 100 per cent subsidiary Economic Explosives during the ongoing Make in India week here.

... Read more..

Building industry poised to double green certifications by 2018

Demand for green certified buildings is continuing to soar with the market doubling every three years.

That is the central conclusion of a major new report backed by the World Green Building Council (WGBC), which found that a sharp increase in interest in green buildings in emerging markets such as China, India and the Middle East will see demand for green certification double as early as 2018.... Read more..

Approved solar parks up at 33 in 21 states; solar power capacity crosses 5,000 MW: Piyush Goyal

The total number of approved solar parks has risen to 33 in 21 states with an aggregate capacity of 19,900 MW, an official statement said on Saturday.

"As against 25 solar parks planned, the ministry (of new and renewable energy) has approved 33 solar parks in 21 states with aggregate capacity of 19,900 MW," said Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) managing director Ashvini Kumar in a statement.... Read more..

Haryana uses mapping tech to trace groundwater

Haryana will become the first state in the country to have aquifer mapping done for its groundwater resources by May.

An aquifer is an underground layer of water-bearing rock, from which groundwater can be extracted. The mapping will assist the state in estimating the quantity and quality of groundwater in an aquifer and would help it in assessment of sustainable level of water extraction.... Read more..