Central Electricity Regulatory Commission, guided by the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) has envisaged increasing the share of renewable energy in total electricity consumption of the country. Despite sufficient resource potential to achieve Renewable energy Purchase Obligations (RPO’s) prescribed by various State Electricity Regulatory Commissions, the geographic distribution...

I read an interesting article in the Economic Times ( Jun 25, 2010), written by R.S.Pandey, former petroleum secretary, about the potential for energy savings and reducing our import bill through the use of natural gas. It was a very interesting read, and the following were stuff that made me...

A number of small and medium enterprises in Punjab are putting up wind energy plants. While they are on record stating that they are doing this for a clean environment, I guess they are not going to be unhappy in getting the tax benefits from these wind mills. Some of...

Oil India Limited (OIL) has secured an extension for petroleum licenses for 10 out of 16 independently held blocks in Assam and AP. Through these blocks (some of which it had to surrender for lack of potential), OIL held a total area of over 5,000 sq km. OIL produced 3.6...

Changzhou Trina Solar Energy Company intends to enter the solar energy market. It has signed an agreement with Chennai-based GEMAC Energy Ltd for entry into the Indian market. Trina manufactures mono and multi-crystalline silicon cells and modules. It is China's third and the world's eighth largest solar cell manufacturer and...

RIL had acquired two shale gas assets in the US in the last couple of months, and this should not have surprised anyone. There is currently a shale gas mania, with analysts predicting that shale gas based natural gas could become the leading energy component in the US and perhaps...

Oh, well, we finally did have the decontrol of the petrol and other fossil fuel prices. Economics experts have almost unanimously lauded it saying it is a step in the right direction. Well, it is going to be a bit of discomfort - with prices of petrol and diesel rising...

Despite there being more than 10 different Solar CSP technology combinations in the market now, and more than 400MW installed capacity worldwide, India's role in the CSP sector has been comparitively reticent - However, latest government incentives are set to reverse that trend. Writing for CSP Today, Giles Parkinson  notes that the...

Since they were first developed in the 50s, there have been no major changes to the basic crystalline silicon solar cell. But significant improvements are now taking place with several competing innovations vying for the first position; in fact, crystalline silicon cells are now being referred to as "first generation"...

Thin-films are being called 2nd generation solar PV cells, and it is a tradition nowadays to classify them by virtue of differences in the technologies involved in their manufacturing.  We will presently have a look at the 3 currently popular types of Thin-Film 1. The first to be established, selling...