Sustainability Outlook Headlines

MNRE invites applications for setting up 1000 MW Grid-Connected Solar PV Power Projects

Ministry of New & Renewable Energy has announced the launch of scheme on for setting up of 1000 MW of Grid-Connected Solar PV Power Projects by Central Public Sector Undertakings (CPSUs) and Government of India Organizations under various Central/ State Schemes/self-use/ 3rd Party Sale/ Merchant Sale with Viability Gap Funding (VGF) under Batch-V of Phase-II of JNNSM.

Till date, 500 MW have been allocated to NTPC, Railways, KVIC, NIFTEM and Solar Energy Corporation of India.

The project will be allocated on following criteria:

• The proposals shall be in... Read more..
  Date : May 21
  Source: Energetica-India

C40 Initiative Will Help Developing Cities Access Climate Funds

The cities of the world are playing an important part in mitigating and adapting to climate change. The 10-year-old city-founded C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group now comprises over 75 of the world’s greatest cities. In this role it represents a quarter of the world’s economy and nearly 8% of its population. Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes chairs the C40, and Michael R Bloomberg, three-term mayor of New York, is President of the Board.

This week the C40 kicks off a new effort that will help cities, especially in developing nations, gain swifter access to financing for... Read more..

Telangana solar policy aims to offer swift solutions for developers

The Telangana Government has come up with a new solar policy for 2015, which will be valid for five years with incentives.

It provides for a 100 per cent refund of VAT/GST for all inputs required for solar power projects, which is to be provided by the Commercial Taxes Department. There is also a provision for 100 per cent stamp duty refund for land purchased for the solar power project.

Grid-connected solar power projects based on both photo-voltaic as well as solar thermal technologies set up for sale of power to TS discoms or for sale of power to third parties within the... Read more..

Going green: Infosys will spend Rs 400 crore to become carbon neutral

InfosysBSE 1.33 % will spend about Rs 400 crore over the next four years to achieve carbon-neutrality on commuting and travel by its nearly 1.8 lakh employees and in doing so deepen its commitment to sustainability, a senior executive at India's second-largest software services company said.

The Bengaluru-based company will have to offset 3.74 lakh tonne of carbon dioxide attributed to employees' travel, and it will spend Rs 70 crore this year on initiatives such as installing solar projects for rural electrification, biogas plants and distribution of smokeless cook-stoves in... Read more..

Team from Himachal inspects districts eco sanitation programme

Inspired by the eco sanitation drive in the district, which has successfully tackled the issue of open defecation among women, a team of officials from Himachal Pradesh on Saturday visited the sanitation parks in villages here. The team including rural development minister Anil Sharma also visited other projects like compost yards and eco sanitary toilets.

The projects had been set up with aid from the district rural development agency (DRDA). The team inspected the eco-friendly toilets, also called sanitary parks, which were set up in Navalur Kottapattu panchayat with the help of... Read more..

An interview with Morgan Stanley's Audrey Choi on investing sustainably

An important question in the field of sustainable investing is whether there is a performance trade-off if you start to consider ESG (environment, social, governance) factors in your investment portfolio, as if “doing good” somehow doesn’t give you the same kind of financial returns from traditional investing.

There hasn’t been much number-crunching analysis to figure out if there really is a trade-off if you want to make a positive impact with your investments. But thanks to a new report from Morgan Stanley, we now know that this perception is actually a misperception.

In... Read more..

EPDCL targetting 100MW rooftop solar power units

VISAKHAPATNAM: Visakhapatnam MP Kambhampati Hari Babu on Saturday said that the Eastern Power Distribution Company of AP Limited (APEPDCL) has set a target of installing 100MW rooftop solar power units in Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) limits to make the city a role model in the country. Solar power units will be set up at the household level under the net-metering project of APEPDCL. 

Addressing an interactive meeting on the promotion of rooftop solar power units at the APEPDCL office here, the MP said the discom requires 1 lakh consumers to reach the target. As... Read more..

More Efficient Solar Panels, Thanks To Eye Of Moth And Leaf Of Lotus

When scientists at the Oak Ridge National Lab went rifling through nature’s drawers on their hunt for a more efficient solar panel, they missed the eye of newt, but they did find inspiration in a couple of other natural ingredients, the moth’s eye and lotus leaf. The result is a “revolutionary” souped-up superhydrophobic coating that could mean an increase in solar conversion efficiency in the range of three to six percent.

That may not sound all that awesome, but the new solar panel coating hits the trifecta when you count in brownie points for two other factors that contribute to... Read more..

India Plans $1.3-Billion Sewage Plants in Towns Along the Ganges

India plans to order 80 billion-rupees ($1.3 billion) of sewage plants before next June to clean waste water in 118 towns on the banks of the Ganges, its holiest river, according to the nation’s water ministry.

The government, which is working on 50 treatment projects, will call for tenders to build another 68 sewage plants by next month, according to a presentation made by the water ministry. The remaining tenders will be out by June next year, it said.

Funds will be made available under the Namami Gange plan to operate and maintain projects for at least 10 years, the... Read more..

Earth wins time as land and seas absorb more carbon

Half of all the carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels remain in the atmosphere. The good news is that only half remain in the atmosphere, while the rest have been taken up by the living world and then absorbed into the land, and the ocean. That is, as carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have risen, so also has the planet’s capacity to soak up atmospheric carbon.

The implication is that what engineers call “positive feedback” – in which global warming triggers the release of yet more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere to accelerate yet further warming – doesn’t seem to be... Read more..

Germany offers help in solid waste management, vocational training in skill development in Valley

Germany has offered to help Jammu and Kashmir government in solid waste management and providing vocational training for skill development.

The offer of cooperation comes as Michael Steiner, Ambassador of Germany to India, met Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed on Sunday. Steiner is on a visit to India with his wife, Eliese Steiner.

Several issues of mutual interests were discussed in the meeting, especially those related to increasing footprint of tourists to Kashmir from European countries, adopting best practices in solid waste management and developing skills through... Read more..

Tomato extract powers solar cell

RAJKOT: The humble tomatoes could do much more that just spicing up your curry! They can potentially light up your house using solar power.

Researchers of Saurashtra University (SU) have invented a low-cost solar cell using a mixture of tomato extract, carbon and titanium dioxide, a thin film of which can generate solar power once pasted on glasses. This means even the glass windows of your house or car can be potential solar power generators once this invention is scaled up commercially.

They have also received the provisional patent for this invention called carbon nano-dot... Read more..