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 [...]

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. [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 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. [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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/ ), [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]