Yuken India Limited, set up in 1976 under a technical and financial collaboration with Yuken Kogyo Company Limited, Japan, is a manufacturer of oil hydraulic equipment. Yuken has achieved one of the fastest growth rates in the Indian oil hydraulics industry, in the last 29 years. Clenergen India Private Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of [...]

The three primary routes for biomass to power are: Combustion, Gasification and Anaerobic Digestion. Combustion is easy to understand – instead of using coal or other fossil fuel, use biomass to produce steam that runs a turbine. Combustion of biomass for power could either be in the form of co-firing (when it is burned along [...]

Azure power is the first commercial private power plant generating and supplying 1 MW power. For each unit of electricity pumped into the grid, the company gets Rs 15 from the Punjab State Electricity Board, of which Rs 6 is borne by the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE). The first MW-scale plant [...]

Several VCs/PEs/Companies have created funds which invest in clean technology or companies with partial clean technology operations, and have either invested, or are interested in investing in India. Some of these organizations and their investments are summarized as follows. Company Energy/Cleantech Specific Fund Activity/Investment Shell Group through their Shell Foundation (invested directly or through other [...]

The second EAI club meet of the year was held after a long hiatus on 8thMay, 2011 at the “Integree House”, Nungambakkam. People came together on a hot Sunday morning to create a very unique platform; to promote and catalyze clean renewable energy. The meet was represented widely by an eclectic mix of individuals coming [...]

Risk assessment is an essential part of decision making process for a lender or an investor. There are different types of risks at each stage of starting the module production venture and each risk has to be mitigated in different ways. Before making an investment decision in the solar PV modules segment, one has to thoroughly [...]

Captive power generation is plagued with some issues. The main idea behind setting up solar based captive power plants was to get uninterrupted power supply and reduce the diesel cost. Industrial users who have the required resources to set up their own power plants for internal consumption can put up SPV captive power plant. But, [...]

Biomass gasification utilizes renewable feed stocks for liberating the synthesis gas by thermal decomposition under high temperature conditions. Among the factors affecting the production protocol, cost economics play a critical role and is well pronounced in cases when the scale of operation is magnified. Entrepreneurs of gasification technology often make contracts with farmers or traders [...]

Biomass for power generation by combustion or gasification is normally variable in its chemical composition of electron rich reactants, ash content, moisture, sulphur and nitrogen content etc. As a result, selection of the most convenient feedstock is an issue of debate. The degree and diversity of contaminants strongly influence the production and purification of synthesis [...]

India has initiated its power generation from renewable sources by several different principles namely gasification and combustion. Biomass gasification is carried out at different power capacity levels ranging from 25 kW to 2 MW and above. When a comparative analysis is made between combustion and gasification of biomass, the former technology is best operational under [...]

There are a whole lot of benefits from biomass gasification, both economy wise and ecology wise. Speaking of environmental benefits, gasification plants produce significantly lower quantities of air pollutants, which is really a good thing.  The process can also reduce the environmental impact of waste disposal because it can use waste products as feedstock, generating [...]

Agricultural residues never go to waste. Not when they can be used for generating energy. In this context, the government of Punjab, India, plans to produce about 1,000 MW of green energy from livestock residues by 2015. When you think about it, this has huge economical and environmental benefits. In a region where large quantities [...]

Large industrial facilities have set up captive power generation to mitigate the effect of frequent shortages of electricity from the national grid. 70% of electricity generated under captive power in the case of wind power was set up by large industrial facilities. It’s worthwhile to look at cement industry, which utilizes more energy for its [...]

Whoever thought rice husk can generate power needs a medal! Considering how much rice husks go to waste in a country where rice is the staple food, it is comforting to know fossil fuels are not our only resort for power production. Thanks to Manoj Shinha, a renewable energy entrepreneur pioneered using discarded rice husks [...]

Solar PV is the trend of the decade. All major industries are turning to solar power to turn sustainable. Both worldwide, and in India, solar energy roofs are being built to turn buildings into power stations. Looking at the global trend, in the UK alone, there are more than four billion square metres of roofs [...]

About 50 companies are actively engaged in manufacturing a variety of PV systems. The overall production in the country during 2008-09 was estimated to be over 175 MWp of solar cells and 240 MWp of PV modules. Nearly 90% of the solar modules manufactured in India use crystalline silicon C-Si technology, while only 10% of [...]

Poor quality of grid supply (low voltage, fluctuating frequency and frequent interruptions), high tariffs (much higher than actual cost of supply), unfair impositions (peak hour restrictions and unplanned load shedding) and unresponsive attitude of State Electricity Boards have forced many industries to isolate themselves totally from the state grid and be on their own.  For [...]

Biomass gasification is a process where materials are transformed by thermal decomposition under partially oxygenated conditions to generate syn-gas for power generation. It seems to be a powerful technique where energy can be produced in a sustainable way along with valuable products such as green oil and biochar but it is multi step process where [...]

When I think of the off grid solar applications, one main sector that has tremendous captive power requirement is telecommunications. With consistent fall in the average revenue per user and a whopping 86% increase in the minutes of usage in the past decade, India is one of the countries with increasing market competition and highest [...]

India is at the leading front in the successful implementation of the biomass gasification technology. The society and science of India have well realized of its significance in ecology and economy. The technological developments in gasification indigenously achieved throughout the nation by private firms, public-private collaborations and national institutes like IISc made a tremendous leap [...]

India is primarily an agricultural nation with an extensive cultivation of different types of crops including cereal, pulses, oilseeds, fibre crops, spices and plantation crops. With the cultivation of these crops, availability of residual biomass after economic harvest makes power generation in a sustainable way. These raw materials are normally available in variable quantities depending [...]

There are seven steps involved in designing a successful captive solar PV installation Scoping of the project Calculating the amount of solar energy available Surveying the site Calculating the amount of energy needed Sizing the solar system Component selection and costing Detailed design As with any project, you need to know what you want to [...]

Biomass based power generation is a choice of reality under the geographical regions where a sustainability exists in the flow of biologically raw materials for the production of power and India is one of the most notable universal giants for the production of biomass based power which can be best understood from the estimates of [...]

Steps involved in setting up a hybrid system deserve extra attention because of its importance or uniqueness. The key factors to be determined are The load mix between PV and generator, The size and type of generator, and The battery size. The sizing method assumes that a stand-alone PV system has already been considered–the load [...]

Increasing demand from industrial consumers, who are suffering from inadequate power supply and high tariff rate charged by State Electricity Boards (SEBs), find captive generation as the best alternative for meeting their demand. As a result, Captive Power Plant (CPP) capacity grew at a CAGR of 5% during the period FY04-FY08. Currently, coal-based generation dominates [...]