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Tamil Nadu Plans for Thermal Power Plants – North Chennai, Mettur, Vallur

By • Jan 20th, 2012

With power deficit becoming a pressing problem, the Tamil Nadu state government is not surprisingly pushing through many thermal projects in the state. Here is a list of the prominent thermal projects in various stages of development: North Chennai Thermal Power Station- Stage-II is being expanded, with two units of 600 MW each expected to [...]



EOS Energy Storage Claims Dramatic Zinc Air Battery Storage Breakthrough

By • Jan 9th, 2012

Energy storage is the Holy Grail of renewable energy – a cost effective and scalable energy storage system has the potential to make renewable energy far less costly and far more baseload compatible. A recent announcement by a US company EOS Energy made (Startup Promises a Revolutionary Grid Battery) me sit up and take note. [...]



GridWeek Asia’s Smart Grid Summit Jan 16-18 Mumbai

By • Jan 8th, 2012

Now, this appears to be a seminar on a topic not often discussed in the country. We are all rather tired of the same stuff on solar and wind, so here’s something more exciting – smart grid. I have my reservations on discussing about smart grid for a country where 70,000 villages don’t even have [...]



Green Jobs in India to Grow at 60%

By • Jan 8th, 2012

Ladies and gentlemen, the green jobs in India is expected to grow at a hectic pace, by about 60%, according to some estimates. This should not exactly be a surprise; in fact, the only surprise should be “why just 60%?”, given that the green sector is young and employment in this sector currently has a [...]



Rs 15 vs. Rs 7.5 = Diesel vs. Solar

By • Dec 16th, 2011

If you are a follower of the solar scene in India, unless you had been in a cave, you would have heard about the celebrity (or notoriety)  status achieved by Solairedirect – with their audacious (or atrocious) bidding of Rs 7.49 per kWh in the Batch II of Phase I NSM. Now, let’s for a [...]



If diesel is a necessary evil, make the most out of it – through CHP

By • Dec 16th, 2011

All right, so I am also a diesel basher. But like all others like me, I am a closet diesel user – psst, let it be between us. The sad fact is, I know that I cannot completely avoid diesel. For my transport, yes – well, make that may be. But for backup power? Not [...]



MNRE to introduce quality check system for solar products

By • Dec 16th, 2011

Tarun Kapoor, Joint Secy, MNRE was a prominent fixture at the Intersolar Mumbai 2011 edition. He appears to be getting quite quick into his role and also appears to have gathered a lot of inputs quickly enough. Anyways, to the point of this post. I heard in one of his speeches that MNRE plans to [...]



Diesel prices could go through the roof? Here’s solar!

By • Dec 16th, 2011

I recently read an opinion piece in the Hindu Businessline which argued that the subsidy given to diesel for non-priority sectors should be removed. Sane enough, and who knows, our even our government might become sane enough to do it! Just imagine the consequences. At about Rs 45 per liter, a number of industries (in [...]



Intersolar Mumbai 2011 – And the Bandwagon Chugs On…

By • Dec 16th, 2011

One would have thought the solar fatigue would have set in. Heck, who would like another solar show in which the usual suspects (in order words, people like me), spoke the same faded and jaded words! Somehow, the just-concluding Intersolar edition 2011 at Mumbai appears to have done a decent job. The conferences were reasonably [...]



Natural Gas Production Down in India, and That’s Not Good News for Clean Energy

By • Aug 24th, 2011

I work in renewables, so anything fossil should make me shake my head. But I try my best to be a realist, so I know we got to live with fossils for a while. Within fossils however, natural gas is the better evil, to use an oxymoron. Natural gas is the least polluting of the [...]



Unleashing the Indian Genius in Cleantech

By • Aug 23rd, 2011

When he had called me two weeks back to say he would be meeting me at the 5th Renewable Energy Expo at Pragati Maidan, I was almost tempted to say No. Here were a number of excellent conference sessions going on, in a range of exciting renewable energy topics, and why would a sane man [...]



EAI India Renewable Energy Advisor Released

By • Aug 23rd, 2011

EAI India Renewable Energy Advisor Presents Highlights of the Indian Renewable Energy Industry. The Indian growth story is well known; what is not as well known is the Indian renewable energy growth story, which has been putting in impressive performances last few years. This guide from EAI provides the highlights of renewable energy in India. [...]



Over 200 Speakers and 15,000 Trade Visitors Attend the 5th Renewable Energy India 2011 Expo

By • Aug 23rd, 2011

Here is the press release from the Exhibitions India Group on the event: (and oh, by the way, EAI released the EAI India Renewable Energy Advisor at the event. The Advisor is a comprehensive collection of all key data and statistics of the Indian renewable energy sector. A free copy of the Advisor can be [...]



EAI City Connect – Get Linked with Other RE Enthusiasts in Your City

By • Aug 8th, 2011

How cool it would be if you could easily connect with many other folks in your city who are interested in renewable energy! You don’t have to yearn anymore – EAI launches City Connect. Whichever renewable energy area you are interested in, and whichever Indian city you belong to, EAI City Connect will help you [...]



Getting Our Kids into the Cleantech Habit…

By • Jul 30th, 2011

I read about how a local private school is working with elementary schools and the Nevada Discovery Museum to teach children as young as preschoolers about solar energy. The Aleph Academy, a private Jewish preschool, has used a grant from NV Energy and the Department of Energy to install a solar panel array on its [...]



Tirupur Dyeing Units to Use Brine or Nanotech for Zero Discharge

By • Jul 29th, 2011

Those who have been following the textile industry will be aware of the closure of over 750 dyeing units in Tirupur owing to pollutants being discharged in their waste water. The Madras high court had ordered the closure of 752 dyeing units along Noyyal river some months back, based on an apex court ruling on [...]



Harish Hande Wins Magsaysay Award

By • Jul 29th, 2011

All of us at EAI are pleased to know that Harish Hande of SELCO has won the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay award – considered Asia’s Nobel Prize. A fully deserved one. How many IIT-ians do we find coming back to India? How many among those few coming back actually taking up social entrepreneurship? And how many [...]



Leading Responsible Growth – HUL Chairman’s Speech at their AGM

By • Jul 29th, 2011

Harish Manwani’s AGM speech on how Unilever is looking at sustainable business – a useful read. An excellent analysis of sustainability by a global leader. “The Unilever Sustainable Living Plan has three big goals: To halve the environmental footprint of our products across the value chain, to source 100% of our agricultural raw materials sustainably [...]



Private Firms Leading in Conventional Power Generation in India

By • Jul 27th, 2011

An item in The Economic Times (Jul 27 2011) caught my interest. This was about the fact that the private sector power generation firms were having a much higher success in meetings their capacity addition targets than have public sector firms. So what’s the big surprise, you might ask. Granted, no surprises, but am glad [...]



SAIL Looking for Joint Ventures to Fulfil RPO

By • Jul 27th, 2011

Read an interesting article in the Business Line today on SAIL (Steel Authority of India Limited) exploring options to float joint ventures with “green” power producers to meet its renewable energy commitment. I guess you could replace the name SAIL with ONGC, BHEL, NTPC and more, and the news item could be true for all [...]



The Powerful Italian Connection

By • Jul 13th, 2011

No, the title has nothing to do with Sonia Gandhi.  It is literally a more electrifying connection that Italy is keen to have with India. I spent the last week in the pleasant city of Milano (Milan), the financial capital of Italy. I was there because the nice folks from Agici Finanza d’Impresa (http://www.agici.it/ ), [...]



NanoJosh XXL – Adding a Clean Zing to Your Fuel

By • Jul 12th, 2011

It was a few weeks back that I met the young and cheerful Zulfiqar Varawalla of NanoJoshXXL at his office at Navi Mumbai. I had been working with my team on an assignment for one of my clients where my job was to find out some interesting cleantech products in India. And one of the [...]



Mandatory for Companies to Make CSR Disclosures to Stakeholders

By • Jul 11th, 2011

The government of India made it mandatory for companies to disclose their CSR activities and has released a set of guidelines for all companies – including MNCs – for disclosing the same. Observing these guidelines is however voluntary, it is reported. A bit confusing, I must say. Why make these guidelines voluntary? So what sort [...]



Mahan Coal Block Clearance Withheld by the Environment Ministry

By • Jul 11th, 2011

It’s yet again the tussle between the power ministry and the environment ministry, more specifically the environment minister Jairam Ramesh. The Mahan coal block was originally allocated to Essar Power and Hindalco industries to fuel their power projects. But the environment ministry has decided that allowing mining in this coal block. located in a biodiversity [...]



Village power = decentralised power. Isn’t that a no-brainer?

By • Jul 3rd, 2011

I recently read a post from the excellent Panchabuta blog about the government’s sudden realisation that in order for the thousands of Indian villages to get access electricity, extending the grid down there is not the answer, but use of renewables for distributed power generation is. Governments never cease to amaze the masses who elected [...]





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