Sustainability Outlook Headlines

India to Double Renewables in Energy Mix, Minister Says

India plans to more than double the share of renewables in the mix of fuels it consumes, an effort to reduce the dominance of coal. Renewables such as solar and wind may account for 15 percent of India’s energy supply in the next five years, up from 6 percent currently, said Piyush Goyal, a government minister in charge of power, said at a conference in New Delhi.

“While coal will continue to dominate our energy mix for sometime, we are taking steps to protect the environment,” Goyal said today. “Neither India nor the world has the luxury of time when it comes to protection... Read more..

Date : Nov 26

Source: Bloomberg

Narendra Modi Roams The World In Attempt To Secure India's Energy Supply

Exactly six months after taking oath as India’s prime minister and logging state visits to at least eight countries in the period, a pattern has begun to emerge on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s foreign excursions. Foremost on Modi’s travel agenda, it appears, is securing India’s energy supply, a vital ingredient for the country’s economic growth.

This week, Modi has hit Nepal nestling in the Himalayas. There, his government has just overseen an agreement between the Nepalese government and an Indian firm to build a 900 MW hydroelectricity plant that will export three-... Read more..

Date : Nov 26

Source: Forbes

This Israeli startup makes robots that dry clean solar panels

Every night, nearly a hundred robots come to life in the arid desert of southern Israel and get busy cleaning rows and rows of solar panels. The robots are designed by startup Ecoppia as an alternative to the conventional, but also labor-intensive, method of sending human workers to hose and wipe down panels manually or use a truck-mounted sprayer to do so.

Dirty panels produce less electricity, but the need to use water for cleaning those panels, especially in dry regions, makes even a clean power project less eco-friendly. And in certain remote corners, water extracted from... Read more..

Date : Nov 26

Source: GigaOm

Nepal signs $1 billion deal during Modi's visit for Indian company to build hydropower plant

Nepal signed an agreement Tuesday for an Indian company to build a $1 billion hydroelectric plant to boost supplies in the energy-starved Himalayan nation and export power to India.

The move comes as regional leaders, including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, arrived in Nepal for a meeting of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation.

Under the $1.04 billion deal, Indian company Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam Ltd. will build the 900 megawatt Arun III hydropower station, which is expected to begin producing electricity in 2020. More than three quarters... Read more..

Date : Nov 26

Source: Star Tribune

Smart Villages: Lending A Rural Flavour To Modi’s Growth Agenda

After unveiling his ambitious '100 Smart Cities' and 'Digital India' plans, Prime Minister Narendra Modi—last month launched another audacious scheme Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (Parliamentarian's Model Village Scheme; this is also known as SAGY). This is his strategic move to prepare rural India for the digital age and ensure that benefits of the government's growth endeavours are effectively percolated to communities residing on the fringes of the mainstream society.

In a nutshell, the scheme aims at creating 2,500 smart villages by 2019—Each MP should ensure that one... Read more..

Date : Nov 26

Source: Busines Insider

India's solar surge; SunEdison's wind play

The sun was shining brightly for the solar industry last week, as India announced an ambitious energy goal and two big US developers revealed a surprising acquisition plan.

India last week said that it is seeking to generate five times more power from solar by 2022 than its previous target. Renewables need to be a "self-sustained industry and not dependent on government subsidies", coal and power minister Piyush Goyal said in an address at an event in New Delhi on November 17. The government is targeting 100GW of solar capacity in the next eight years, putting India’s... Read more..

Date : Nov 26

Source: Business Spectator

New and renewable energy ministry takes cue from PM Narendra Modi, starts work on solar projects

Installing solar panels on the Pakistan border, using super-chilled LNG to build cold storage and warehousing facilities, and putting barcodes to stop illegal use of subsidised cooking gas — the Modi mantra is making its presence felt in the energy domain and forcing officials to sit up and think out of the box.

Officials say that during discussions about seemingly routine and uninspiring energy issues, Prime Minister Narendra Modi comes up with unusual ideas, which soon become tightly monitored instructions. The Cabinet Secretariat maintains a log of efforts made by... Read more..

Date : Nov 26

Source: Economic Times

Stung By Rising Coal Prices, India’s Tata Power Plans Renewable Energy Acquisitions

Private sector power companies in India seem to have realised the business case behind the fuel cost advantage of renewable energy projects over conventional power projects and are now looking to expand their renewable energy portfolios.

The second-largest private sector power generating company in India, Tata Power, is planning to expand its renewable energy portfolio through its subsidiary Tata Power Renewable Energy Limited (TPREL). The company is planning to acquire wind energy projects from three generators, CEO Rahul Shah said recently.

The wind energy... Read more..

Date : Nov 26

Source: Clean Technica

Protecting biodiversity with rigour

The Prime Minister recently reorganised his National Council on Climate Change and called on an indigenous answer, yoga, to alter consciousness and tackle climate change. The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) is currently working on the National Democratic Alliance’s position on climate change, with two major United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change meetings coming up. While some say that these recent developments have rightly raised the profile of climate change in the new government, others believe that India needs to do more, particularly in the face of a new U.S.-... Read more..

Date : Nov 26

Source: The Hindu

Cumulative solar Installations in India reach 3 GW; Mercom forecasts installations to double in 2015

Mercom Capital Group (Austin, Texas, U.S.) released its quarterly update on the Indian solar market and reports that cumulative solar photovoltaic (PV) installations in India crossed the 3 GW mark with 734 MW installed so far this year. However, 2014 will be a disappointment with calendar year installations forecasted at about 800 MW, a 20 percent drop year-over-year, Mercom notes.

Raj Prabhu: “The Indian solar industry is visibly upbeat since the elections and especially after getting past the anti-dumping case”

Land acquisition delays due to elections and... Read more..

Date : Nov 25

Source: Solar Server

Can’t spare land for solar power: MoD

The NDA government’s ambitious goal to install 1000 MW of solar energy at Indian defence establishments has been slashed to less than a third following the Defence Ministry’s refusal to spare the required land. The Defence Ministry’s argument is that its vacant lands are earmarked for military purposes.

“The scheme is focused on defence establishments on assumption that Department of Defence and the Services have large tracts of surplus land which can be used for setting up solar plants. However, it is necessary to highlight that defence lands are earmarked for military... Read more..

Date : Nov 25

Source: Indian Express

Cleantech Fund Infuse Ventures Plans Investments

Infuse Ventures, a VC fund aimed at backing early stage ventures in the clean technology space, is looking out for targets for making seed investments.

The initial infusion will be used to validate the concept or mould the concept into a prototype and going ahead Infuse might make a further investment of another million dollors for scaling-up.

The company would be targeting ventures focused on the renewable energy segment such as solar, wind, biomass, geothermal. It would also be looking at ideas in the alternative fuel like electric vehicles.

... Read more..

Date : Nov 25

Source: Deal Curry

New and renewable energy ministry takes cue from PM Narendra Modi, starts work on solar projects

Date : Nov 25

Source: Economic Times

The green economy works

Last month, a study released by the Imperial College London Business School showed that public policies which encourage innovation in businesses that use clean technologies – think electric cars and wind mills – lead to greater positive impacts on economic growth than the polluting industries they replace, because green tech innovations tend to result in more frequent knowledge ‘spillovers’ in which novel developments benefit not only the originator but many other companies as well.

Now, a comprehensive new review published by the UK Energy Research Centre puts the spotlight... Read more..

Date : Nov 25

Source: News24

Karnataka among 12 states to get mega solar parks

A step ahead in the government's ambitious plan of setting up 25 solar parks, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has identified 12 locations in various states where such power projects can come up.

The scheme envisages setting up of 25 solar parks over the next five years with a total capacity of around 20,000 Mw, with each park housing a plant with a capacity ranging from 500-1,000 Mw. The installed solar capacity has touched 3,000 mw in the country, according the latest ministry data, and the government aims to increase it to 100,000 Mw by 2022.

"... Read more..

Date : Nov 25

Source: Business Standard

World Bank: No Matter What Governments Do — Big Climate Change Is Coming

Some future impacts of climate change, such as more extremes of heat and sea level rise, are unavoidable even if governments act fast to cut greenhouse gas emissions, the World Bank said on Sunday.

Past and predicted emissions from power plants, factories and cars have locked the globe on a path towards an average temperature rise of almost 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times by 2050, it said.

"This means that climate change impacts such as extreme heat events may now be simply unavoidable," World Bank President Jim Yong Kim told a... Read more..

Date : Nov 25

Source: Busines Insider

Switching to LED

Replacing conventional streetlights and domestic incandescent lights with LED lights will result in conservation of billion of units of power every year, according to Saurabh Kumar, Managing Director of Energy Efficiency Services Limited, a joint venture company of PSUs of the Ministry of Power of the Government of India.

The total number of streetlights in the country is estimated at 3.5 crore and 99.5 per cent of them are conventional lights, he says.

“If all the lights are replaced, it will conserve 50 per cent power and save 5 billion units of power every... Read more..

Date : Nov 25

Source: The Hindu

India: low carbon energy transition could free up US$600 billion in investment capacity

New analysis by Climate Policy Initiative (CPI) demonstrates that, with the right policies, India’s transition to a low carbon energy system could free up significant financial capacity over the next 20 years to invest in better development and economic growth.

India is trying to meet ambitious renewable energy goals, as well as development needs, with finite financial resources. CPI’s two new reports, ‘Moving to a Low Carbon Economy: The Financial Impact of the Low-Carbon Transition,’ and ‘Moving to a Low Carbon Economy: The Impact of Policy Pathways on Fossil Fuel Asset... Read more..

Date : Nov 25

Source: World Cement

JNNURM scheme turns into a burden for Vijayawada Municipal Corporation

The Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) scheme has become a burden for the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation and made it suffer in financial crisis. As the last date is approaching fast, the officials are in a hurry to complete projects as much as possible.

The Mission started in 2005 and is intended for renewal of the civic infrastructure in cities with 10lakh and above population. At that time, Vijayawada has a population of 8.5 lakh, but shown Mangalagiri as part of VMC to get the funds from the central government. The scheme is approved for Vijayawada... Read more..

Date : Nov 25

Source: Deccan Chronicle

Bosch eyes India’s emerging energy-efficiency market

German engineering major Bosch wants to position itself as an ‘energy services company’, or ESCO — an area it feels is beginning to take off in India. An ESCO typically executes energy-efficiency measures in other units for a fee, under a ‘performance contract’. Mostly, the fee is paid out of the savings achieved, but there could be other payment models, too.

Bosch is a Grade I ESCO, meaning ‘very high’ in a joint rating system of the agencies ICRA and CRISIL and the state-run Bureau of Energy Efficiency. The company is in advanced discussions with three entities — an IT... Read more..

Date : Nov 24

Source: Business Line- The Hindu

Chilling truth: Your fridge, AC are heating up the planet

The rise in incomes in India has nearly doubled the number of domestic refrigerators and air-conditioners in the country since 2000. This, in turn, has meant India has become one of the top producers of greenhouses gases in the world, along with the US and China.

According to energy experts, this rise in emission of greenhouse gases is a result of the lack of awareness about the link between energy efficiency of appliances and pollution.

“While the understanding is better in urban areas, the market is far from maturity for some products,” said Bharath Jairaj,... Read more..

Date : Nov 24

Source: Hindustan Times

Electric Car Value Chain Upended on Way to $188B

The market for hybrid and pure electric cars homologated as such is set to be $188 billion in 2025 according to IDTechEx analysis.
However, the world has changed for cars overall and now big is not always beautiful for mainstream car manufacture. EVs will reflect this. Although Sergio Marchionne boss of Fiat Chrysler famously said six million units a year is needed for a car maker to be profitable, his head of research Pietro Perlo left to successfully make small pure electric vehicles in a start-up. The car company that has shocked the industry by proving it wrong about the... Read more..

Date : Nov 24

Source: PCB007

Mytrah Energy raises $70m of new debt

Mytrah Energy has raised $70m of new debt from Merrill Lynch International and funds managed by affiliates of Apollo Global Management.

The new finance takes the form of an INR 3,977m (about $65m) India-listed non-convertible bond issued by Mytrah Energy (India) Ltd., and a $5m loan to Mytrah Energy Ltd.

The Bond is a long-term 5-year instrument with a cash coupon of 12% per annum. The proceeds from this issue will be used primarily to refinance an existing INR 900m (about $15m) mezzanine facility provided by IDFC and for development of new wind power projects... Read more..

Date : Nov 24

Source: The Telegraph

Govt identifies 12 locations for setting up new solar parks

A step ahead in the government's ambitious plan of setting up 25 solar parks, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has identified 12 locations in various states where such power projects can come up. The scheme envisages setting up of 25 solar parks over the next five years with a total capacity of around 20,000 mw, with each park housing a plant with a capacity ranging from 500-1,000 mw.

The installed solar capacity has touched 3,000 mw in the country, according the latest ministry data, and the government aims to increase it to 100,000 mw by 2022. "We have... Read more..

Date : Nov 24

Source: Business Standard

Proactive Government Policy Can Double Wind Energy Market Instantly: Gamesa

Spanish energy major Gamesa has pointed out that a proactive government policy on Wind energy could instantly double the market for Wind energy generation, from 2500 MW to 5000 MW, in the country.

The market leader in wind turbine manufacturing in the country is also planning to invest over 100 million Euros in India in the next five years.

Speaking to reporters while inaugurating a new production line for their G114-2 MW turbine in Mamandur, Gamesa Group's Executive Chairman Ignacio Martin said that it was a good sign that the new government has lended a much... Read more..

Date : Nov 24

Source: New Indian Express