Sustainability Outlook Headlines

Aemetis biodiesel plant in India upgraded to increase production

Aemetis announced earlier this month that its 50 MMgy biodiesel and refined glycerin production facility in Kakinada, India, has been upgraded to produce high-quality distilled biodiesel.

The plant was built in 2008 using advanced technology to produce biodiesel and refined glycerin using nonfood byproducts from the edible oil industry as feedstock to supply the biofuel, pharmaceutical and industrial markets.

Upgrading the plant will increase its production levels in order to supply Europe and... Read more..

US firms keen on investing in Bengal, says Amit Mitra

KOLKATA, FEBRUARY 25: After a gap of 10 years, investors from the US have shown interest in investing in West Bengal. This was possible following a change in attitude towards the State, Finance and Industry Minister Amit Mitra said here on Tuesday.

Following a meeting with a 13-member delegation of American Chamber of Commerce in India (Amcham–India), Mitra told reporters that the US was keen to invest across a number of sectors in the State.

“We are happy with US companies evincing interest in... Read more..

Co-Operation in Renewable Energy

New Delhi: A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Renewable Energy Cooperation was signed with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on 18th January 2014. Cooperation between India and the United Arab Emirates is for establishing an institutional relationship to encourage and promote bilateral technical cooperation on new and renewable energy on the basis of mutual benefit, equality and reciprocity with the Government of United Arab Emirates.

Both the countries agreed to constitute a Joint Working Group for better coordination and undertake collaborative... Read more..

DDA landfill plan may pollute river

NEW DELHI: Creating landfills in two villages of Zone P-II in north Delhi, a part of Yamuna floodplains, may contaminate groundwater and further pollute the river. A proposal for this has, however, been made in the zonal development plan by DDA.

Though Delhi's 4 landfills are nearly saturated, necessitating setting up of alternative sites, environmentalists say locating landfills in floodplains can be disastrous. Members of Yamuna Jiye Abhiyan have written to the lieutenant governor and Delhi Development Authority for identifying a... Read more..

This is India's greenest building

New Delhi:  India's environment ministry has a new 'green' address. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today inaugurated the new headquarters in New Delhi which took three years in the making and cost more than Rs. 200 crores.

"It's the greenest building in India" said Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh, who was the Environment Minister when the building plans were finalised and approved.

Located in Jor Bagh, the eight-storey building stands out in the upmarket neighborhood of the capital. The... Read more..

New tariff guidelines to dent earnings

 The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC), the country’s power sector regulator, on Monday announced the final five-year tariff guidelines for companies, squeezing regulated returns, cutting incentives and tightening operating norms for power stations.

According to analysts, through rationalisation of return on equity (RoE), the new guidelines will dent earnings per share (EPS) of companies like NTPC by up to 15 per cent.

They said the move was on expected lines, as the regulatory mechanism in power yielded very high returns, which often rose to over 18 per cent.... Read more..

Missing links in solar metering system a barrier to boost output

 Missing links in the net metering system is turning a barrier for a increasing the number of smaller captive solar power generation plants. Net metering records net energy between export of generated energy and import of discom energy for a billing month.

According to Sriphani Vissamraju, chief executive officer of YES SV Solar, there are missing links in the solar metering ecosystem and many sub-stations need a clear understanding on the net metering. He said there is a huge opportunity to tap the roof top segment and this will considerably reduce the load pressures.

The... Read more..

Close all waste plants in residential areas, parliamentary body recommends

Indian government moots four more giant PV projects totalling 2GW

India’s finance minister, Shri Chidambaram, announced 2GW worth of new large-scale solar projects as part of his interim budget speech earlier this week.

The finance minister said following the success of India’s JNNSM national solar mission, the government wanted to see four “ultra mega solar power projects” each with a capacity of over 500 MW in 2014-15.

According to local press reports, the projects will be in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir and form part of the JNNSM.

... Read more..

Delhi Metro to install solar power plant at Dwarka station

 In its attempt to conserve environment, Delhi Metro has become the country’s first mass transit system to begin installing solar power plants on the roofs of its stations.

The first 500 kwp ‘Roof Top Solar Power Plant’ is being installed at Dwarka Sector 21 metro station and is expected to be functional in six months.

A Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) for installing the plant was signed between Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) and the developer, a multinational firm engaged in the installation and production of solar power worldwide, in the presence of DMRC’s Managing... Read more..

Sector 46 school gets solar cycle stand

The Sector 46-based Government Middle School is ready to power itself with a solar cycle stand, inaugurated on Saturday. It will serve dual purpose of providing a shaded space for parking and generate power.

The 15kw solar cycle stand is expected to generate generate more than 20,000 units of electricity per annum. With an annual consumption of roughly 18,000 units per annum, the school plans to give away the rest of the power generated by the plant to power department.

The cycle stand was... Read more..

'Biofuel Potential Under-utilised Despite Development'

Though biofuel development has been reasonably well over the last 4 years, its potential has not been utilised fully. Coordination between different stakeholders is required to take forward the development of bio-fuel as an energy source, said Additional Chief Secretary and Development Commissioner G V Krishna Rau here on Saturday.

Speaking at a national conference on accelerating biofuel programmes in India, organised by the Karnataka State Biofuel Development Board (KSBDB) and supported by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy... Read more..