Bharat Rakshak

namaskar,

I still do not understand it what is going on in India. There is so much sunshine in India, but there is no massive program for Solar energy, funded by the government. With the CSP technology it is possible to produce enough solar energy for the whole of India. I think that only ten percent of all deserts in India need to be used to produce CSP energy.

We must organise a solar energy movement in INDia to develop a green economy. Anyone interested can mail me. I have published one text on my site about solar energy but it is in Dutch.

Is there a solar energy program in India? Does anyone has information? Please post it here.

Dewanand
Holland.
Critical Podium Dewanand

@ Chaanakya

Chaanakya Bandhu,

Sorry for my ignorance. From the posts in other thread you seem to be related with solar energy management. Is there any effort in cell development in any Indian fabrication facility?
Chinese quality is well known so any quality conscious supplier who wants to seriously establish himself would not venture for it.

What I meant by research that was even with existing panels efficiency can be increased by concentrating reflectors/tracking etc. Simple but effective solutions exist in web-space for these purposes. If someone brings in that efficiency, the development efforts will surely pay off in sales volumes if it is properly projected.
The buyers can be convinced of specific advantages of such systems. They can be told of features which have to be included in tender document so that low efficiency suppliers can be weeded out even if they are cheap. Anyone ( I mean any, including a govt official ) would like to have a better system.
Any link or reference for Farookh Abdulla and Deepak gupta in solar energy space?

The Spectrolab group experimented with concentrator multijunction solar cells that use high intensities of sunlight, the equivalent of 100s of suns, concentrated by lenses or mirrors. Significantly, the multijunction cells can also use the broad range of wavelengths in sunlight much more efficiently than single-junction cells.

What I meant by research that was even with existing panels efficiency can be increased by concentrating reflectors/tracking etc. Simple but effective solutions exist in web-space for these purposes. If someone brings in that efficiency, the development efforts will surely pay off in sales volumes if it is properly projected.
The buyers can be convinced of specific advantages of such systems. They can be told of features which have to be included in tender document so that low efficiency suppliers can be weeded out even if they are cheap. Anyone ( I mean any, including a govt official ) would like to have a better system.

^^^^
Oh a great information flood ... thanks for the same.


I have no business or monetary interests. Still sending ideas does not cost anything so will attempt it surely.

Using a small tank of water in a Colorado laboratory, Air Force researchers have captured 99 percent of the energy of a model ocean wave, proving it’s possible to use aeronautical principles to harness the power of the oceans.
The researchers used a cycloidal turbine, a lift-based energy converter, to grab the energy of a simulated deep-ocean wave. It can change direction almost instantly, and its structure is similar to that of a Voith Schneider propeller, which is used to power tugboats.
It involves a main power shaft and a few hydrofoils whose angle of attack can be adjusted to meet the wave. The main shaft is aligned parallel with the wave crests, according to a paper describing the system presented at an American Society of Mechanical Engineers conference.
The entire concept is not unlike a helicopter propulsion system, which involves shifting the angle of attack of the main rotor blades to move the helicopter sideways or to pitch forward and back. That explains why Air Force aeronautics researchers are involved — some of the people working on this project have studied fluid dynamics for military aircraft and NASA spacecraft, according to an Air Force news release.

By Natalie Obiko Pearson - Mar 10, 2011 1:30 PM GMT+1100
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India, which has an average 300 sunny days a year, will impose fines on solar-power plants that delay start-ups in the country’s largest program to harness energy from sunlight, a state government official said.

“There will be some penalty,” S.B. Patil, senior executive of solar and wind at the state-run Gujarat Energy Development Agency, said in an interview. Five of six projects that agreed to start operating by 2011 were delayed, including one by New Jersey-based Zeba Solar Inc., he said.

Gujarat state has led India’s nascent solar industry, awarding licenses for 959 megawatts to developers seeking a foothold in a state-subsidized renewable energy market. The first 48.5 megawatts were required start operating by Dec. 31, according to a list obtained by Bloomberg News from Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Ltd., the state-run company that will buy the power.

How Gujarat deals with delayed projects sets a precedent for India’s Solar Mission, a nationwide program that calls for 20,000 megawatts of capacity by 2022, or the equivalent of about 18 new nuclear reactors. The Solar Mission awarded its first 620 megawatts of capacity in December.

“The way these defaulting projects are dealt with would set examples for other projects in the pipeline,” said Bharat Bhushan, a New Delhi-based analyst with Bloomberg New Energy Finance. “If deadlines are not strictly enforced, more project defaults could be expected.”

Rains, Technology Delays
India is seeking to ramp up the sector with estimates showing it may have among the highest solar potential in the world. The nation’s sunny days may provide as much as 5,000 trillion kilowatt-hours per year of solar energy equivalent, far exceeding its total energy consumption of 848 billion kilowatt- hours, according to the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.

Companies agreed to penalties that were laid out in their power purchase agreements, Patil said. “They will be charged accordingly,” he said. The penalties for delays in beginning operations are 10,000 rupees ($222) a day per megawatt for the first 60 days and 15,000 rupees thereafter, according to the state power company that contracted to buy the electricity.

Lanco Infratech Ltd. (LANCI), the Hyderabad-based developer that completed its 5-megawatt allotment on Dec. 20, is the only company that met the deadline. Five projects awarded to Azure Power of New Delhi, Zeba Solar, Germany’s Dreisatz GmbH and MI MySolar24 Ltd. weren’t completed.

Azure, which built a 2-megawatt plant in Punjab, said the first phases of two plants were delayed to the end of March by unseasonably heavy rains. The company was supposed to have completed 3.5 megawatts by now, according to the list.

“We declared force majeure,” said Inderpreet Wadhwa, the company’s chief executive officer, whose investors include Helion Venture Partners, Foundation Capital and the private investment arm of the World Bank. Force majeure is an exemption to contract obligations due to unanticipated or uncontrollable events.

Zeba Solar decided to switch to thin-film technology to build a more efficient plant, pushing its completion date back to August, said President Shahal Khan by telephone.

“We were okay with delaying for a few months and paying penalties to have something we can showcase,” Khan said. “There are many people out there that are just rushing to meet deadlines without really looking at quality control.”

Dreisatz was assessing the situation, said Dirk Detzner, a project manager at the company, declining to comment further.

The owner of MI MySolar24 couldn’t be identified.

To contact the reporter on this story: Natalie Obiko Pearson in Mumbai at npearson7@bloomberg.net.

Country's largest private power producer Tata Power announced its partnership with Australian company Sunengy for executing a solar power project in India this year.

"Australia-based solar power company Sunengy has entered into a partnership with Tata Power that will allow it to build a pilot plant for its low-cost, floating on water, solar technology in India by the end of this year," Tata Power said in a statement on Tuesday.

However, the company did not specify the financial details of the partnership.

Construction of the pilot plant in India will commence in August, 2011.

"This nascent technology will be demonstrated in natural environment, utilises the water surface for mounting and does not compete with land that can be used for other purposes," Tata Power Executive Director Banmali Agrawala said.

The deal was significant for the future use of solar globally, Sunengy Chairman and Executive Director (Business Development) Peter Wakeman said.

Portable solar device creates potable water
March 22, 2011


Jon Liow

By harnessing the power of the sun, a Monash University graduate has designed a simple, sustainable and affordable water-purification device, which has the potential to help eradicate disease and save lives.

The Solarball, developed as Mr Jonathan Liow’s final year project during his Bachelor of Industrial Design, can produce up to three litres of clean water every day. The spherical unit absorbs sunlight and causes dirty water contained inside to evaporate. As evaporation occurs, contaminants are separated from the water, generating drinkable condensation. The condensation is collected and stored, ready for drinking.

Liow’s design was driven by a need to help the 900 million people around the world who lack access to safe drinking water. Over two million children die annually from preventable causes, triggered largely by contaminated water. It is an increasing problem in developing nations due to rapid urbanisation and population growth.



‘After visiting Cambodia in 2008, and seeing the immense lack of everyday products we take for granted, I was inspired to use my design skills to help others,’ Mr Liow said.


Mr Liow’s simple but effective design is user-friendly and durable, with a weather-resistant construction, making it well suited to people in hot, wet, tropical climates with limited access to resources.

‘The challenge was coming up with a way to make the device more efficient than other products available, without making it too complicated, expensive, or technical,’ Mr Liow said.







Mr Liow, and a working prototype of his Solarball, was featured on ABC1’s ‘The New Inventors’. The product has been named as a finalist in the 2011 Australian Design Awards - James Dyson Award. It will also be exhibited at the Milan International Design Fair (Salone Internazionale del Mobile) in April 2011.

Provided by Monash University

Expert Opinion


Sunlight and Water to Power Homes




With some sunlight and less than two bottles of water, MIT professor and entrepreneur Daniel G Nocera says he can produce enough electricity to power an entire household in the developing world. The technology has attracted the attention of Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata, who has invested $9.5 million in Nocera’s firm — Sun Catalytix — as part of its series B funding round with participation from existing investor, Polaris Venture Partners, as well as other investors. Nocera spoke to Peerzada Abrar of The Economic Times, on the sidelines of a technology conference organised by MIT’s magazine for innovation, ‘Technology Review’.

VISION

Science does a lousy job of addressing problems at the bottomof-the-pyramid and does very little to produce energy for the poor. The Energy sector demands a lot of capex and the belief is that a firm will not get any return on investment if they focus on the poor. This is what we want to change. We are not helping the poor; it is they who are helping us. The poor will teach the world new ways for generating energy.

CHALLENGES

Rising living standards of a growing world population will cause global energy consumption to increase dramatically over the next half century. Within our lifetimes, energy consumption will increase at least two-fold. The additional energy needed is simply not attainable from nuclear, biomass, wind, geothermal and hydroelectric sources.
Sunlight is by far the most abundant global carbon-neutral energy resource. Sunlight has the greatest potential of any power source to solve the world’s energy problems. In one hour, enough sunlight strikes the Earth to provide the entire planet’s energy needs for one year.

TECHNOLOGY

However, the major problem with solar energy is to have a cost-effective means of storing it. We have imitated photosynthesis performed by plants to crack water efficiently into hydrogen and oxygen and store the resulting hydrogen as fuel in a tank and later used to produce electricity. If I take one and a half bottles of water, it would give 2.5 kilowatt-hours in a day, which will run one little house. The stumbling block was developing a catalyst that would not corrode. We have recently overcome this problem by developing self-healing catalysts.

INDIA CONNECTION

Ratan Tata stands as an equal partner in our firm. He was very interested in us from the start. And I didn’t understand it, but now I do. It really is this idea of frugal innovation. Without knowing much about science, he figured out that at some point it is going to be sunlight plus water that will power the world. To do it low-cost is the whole mission of Sun Catalytix.

FUTURE PLANS

We need only one-third the amount of water in a swimming pool to be converted to hydrogen and oxygen per second to solve the world’s energy problems. At the end it has to be a full energy system. You might want many grids and then make a bigger system. We don’t know whether our first product will be for Tata Power. There are lots of options for renewable energy. That is what is being worked out now. I don’t have the answers for that. I am just a scientist.

Making Hay While The Sun Shines Bright

A clutch of emerging companies are piping solar power in to the national grid and building solar lighting devices as investor attention flares across the sector. Ahona Ghosh tracks the emerging sector.

India’s energy shortfall is proving to be the spur for growing entrepreneurial action in the solar power sector.
As the country grapples with nearly 10% less power than it actually requires, renewable sources such as solar are being viewed as a viable solution. This, in turn, is generating business for young companies and gaining investor attention. Investors have backed over a dozen solar companies in the past three years.

The National Solar Mission is expected to provide an investment opportunity of over $50 billion in the Indian market, with its target of generating 20 gw by 2020, according to the latest Cleantech Report by research firm Venture Intelligence.

“Solar sector has low construction and operating risks. Prices of solar panels are reducing every year, making this power source a competitive business sector in coming years,” says Shalabh Tandon, head of Power for Asia, IFC, the investment arm of the World Bank. It has invested in two solar companies in 2010.

In the last three years, a total of $294 million of private equity funding has gone into 13 solar companies. For investors, solar is where the action is, but it will take time for this interest to translate into deals, say industry watchers. The Indian Resource Centre, which tracks the power situation in the country, estimates that the gap between supply and demand for power in India will drop to 6% by 2020, down from 10% in 2009, with solar power viewed as a strong alternative power source.

This trend in India is contradictory to what is happening in developed markets, where investors are moving away from solar investments. In fact, clean tech seems to have lost momentum in the US. According to Siddhartha Das, general partner at VenturEast, the US is shifting its focus to other parts of the solar value chain. “Instead of investing in solar technology, they are focusing more on solar power projects now,” says Das.

Germany, a pioneer in the solar technology market where government policies required utilities to pay above market prices for solar-generated electricity, has now cut back on subsidies post the recession. Globally, solar markets have grown due to feed in tariff subsidies.

In India, however, entrepreneurs are innovating with a mix of business models and consumer financing options to drive this fast-growing market. For instance In India, the government does not give any subsidy to off-grid solar device players who make lanterns and other lighting devices.

So start-ups such as Dlight Design, which makes and markets solar lighting devices are partnering with organisations that have a last-mile reach in remote areas, such as NGOs, micro-finance institutions (MFIs), self help groups and rural retail chains.
The company has reached one million people in rural India with their solar power plug-and-play devices.

Mandeep Singh, managing director, Dlight Design, India and Nepal, says his biggest battle is against subsidy. “Compare the cost of acquiring a kerosene lamp at 150 to the cost of acquiring a decent solar lantern at 1,500, even though the latter investment pays back in 12-18 months and becomes virtually free from then on,” he says.

FUND IN NEED

Therefore the market for Solar in India will kick start only when business models package the financing aspect as seamlessly as a car loan. A case in point is Intelizon, a VenturEast funded company that addresses the power needs of rural homes using solar driven technologies.

Kushant Uppal, CEO of Intelizon, says the company’s sales jumped up 3 to 5 times when he tied up the financing with microfinance institutions, banks and distributors.

Similarly, in New Kalinga village in Orissa, Dlight tied up with SKS microfinance to sell solar lighting devices. SKS gave loans to the villagers who paid an EMI for their solar lanterns. But now, Singh is looking for alternative ways to ease consumer financing because of the ongoing MFI crisis. Dlight has garnered a total investment of $12 million from a clutch of VC investors such as Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Nexus Venture Partners and Gray Matters Capital.

POWER BOOST

While everyone is talking of large-scale power plants, Hari Kiran Chereddi, managing director of Sujana Energy, believes the future lies in smaller, modular and distributed power plants as each community can then generate their own energy locally. This cuts transmission loss when power is piped in from high-voltage transmission lines over long distances.

Sujana is in talks with PE investors to raise $100 million for scaling up. “The Indian market has a lot of traction and is gearing up for a spurt of growth,” says Chereddi. Till date, they have made an investment of $25 million from their parent company. They are at various stages of developing 400mw of solar power and concentrated photovoltaic power plants by FY 2014 and are also looking to accelerate growth through acquisitions.

Chereddi says a key idea for sustainability is innovation. “Companies with holistic energy strategies and newer business models are poised to succeed.”

CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

While the cost of solar power per watt has been coming down dramatically (globally at 18-22 cents/kWh), it is still not at par with conventional sources priced at between 10 and 15 cents/kWh. Inderpreet Wadhwa, CEO of Azure Power, a solar power generation company, says the challenge is to get takers to buy this power at higher cost.

Unlike conventional power prices, which are dependent on the cost of raw materials, there is no raw material cost for solar power. When prices of coal rise, so will conventional energy prices. “The benefit for solar technology is that I can guarantee a fixed price 10, 20, 30 years down the line,” says Wadhwa. The only cost solar power projects have to bear is that of capital required to set up the plant. Price predictability over the life of a plant, usually around 25 years, is the benefit. “The government in India understands this and is playing the role of a buyer of power through its policy framework,” says Wadhwa.

Azure has received funding from Helion Venture Partners, IFC and Foundation Capital. Azure is currently constructing a 17 mw plant. In three years, Wadhwa plans to scale up to 100mw by increasing the existing capacity and adding newer projects.

“Several private companies are investing in solar energy sector and PE firms are likely to benefit by investing early in these companies with reducing input costs,” says Tandon of IFC. Applied Solar Technologies, one of the companies IFC invested in, is an off-grid based hybrid power provider to telecom towers in India. IFC invested $5.5 million in equity and provided $10 million loan to the company.

Despite the support of the ecosystem, there are concerns for entrepreneurs. The bidding process for power purchase agreements goes to the lowest bidder who may not have the necessary technological abilities to set up such a plant. “Today, existing technology from Spain or Germany or US is being applied in India, we need to create our own innovative technologies localised to our needs,” points out Chereddi.

Other challenges include the lack of depth in debt markets and the lack of talent in the sector. Indian banks look for balance sheet funding, because of which a lot of growing companies are unable to attract projectbased funding, driving up the cost of debt. Says Ramesh Venkat, CEO of Reliance Private Equity: “In solar technology, particularly many of the emerging opportunities in India lack scale, though over the years this will change dramatically.”

Apart from scale, solar companies also need a longer gestation period. According to Venkat, it makes them more suitable for VC funding rather than PE. “PE firms require different set of skills to work with. Such companies offer an exit window of 5-7 years,” says Venkat.

Industry watchers point out that the return on investment in solar is pitched between 12-18%. Solar power projects, on a utility scale, would give higher returns and is more a PE play as is the manufacturing sector like the Moser Baer PV cell manufacturing project. For off-grid devices like solar lamps and technology innovation, venture capital is a better option.

Clearly, with both money and government support available, entrepreneurs can quite literally make hay while the sun shines.

Lanco Solar, a subsidiary of Lanco Inbfratech, sees big potential in the solar energy sector in Gujarat and is making large investments in the state to make the most of the opportunity, a senior company official said on Thursday.

Lanco Solar has already setup a 5mw solar power generation plant in Gujarat and plans to scale it up to 35mw by the end of the year. The company is also eyeing Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) projects in solar power sector in the state.

“Our 5mw solar power plant in Patan is already operational. We are setting up two more solar power plants, totalling 30mw, which are going to be commissioned before 2011 end," V Saibaba, CEO, Lanco Solar, told DNA.

Saibaba said that Lanco has already invested Rs140 crore in solar power generation in the state and would invest an additional Rs400 crore in the coming months to increase solar power generation capacity.

“The projects are being funded by a mix of debt and equity," he said.

Asked about difficulties in raising finance for solar power projects, Saibaba said that there were certain challenges and banks had to be convinced for giving funds for solar power projects.

“There is the fear of the unknown. There are certain difficulties because bankers and financial institutions are not aware of solar power technology and the returns. But, their fears are misplaced," he said.

The company CEO said that they were expecting to generate power worth Rs77 crore per year once the full 35mw capacity is commissioned.

In response to a question about choosing Gujarat for the solar power project, Saibaba said, “We chose Gujarat mainly because of two reasons. Firstly, due to excellent solar radiation, and secondly due to progressive policies of the state government."

Lanco is also eyeing EPC contracts for building of solar power projects in the state. “We are in discussions with developers of 30-40mw of solar power projects for EPC contracts. Talks are at advanced stages for two such projects totalling 15mw," he said.

Lanco Solar also plans to setup a plant to manufacture components for solar power plants in Gujarat. Saibaba said that they are considering a couple of locations for the plant.

The holy and ancient Vedas promote clean energy and that's why Hindus must heavily invest in solar technology and become world leaders. It is our holy duty to do this for the sake of the Hindu Dharm.

I wrote an article in Dutch about a Hindu fundamentalistic view on solar energy and I will translate it to English this year, to spread this information in India.

dewanand

“If everybody is going to compete at the same time for resources, for contractors, for mechanical fabrication or labor, the cost is bound to go up,” said Subramaniam, who heads the engineering, procurement and construction activities of Moser Baer’s solar unit. “They may not be available for completion in time.”

India, which averages 300 sunny days a year, has awarded licenses to build 1,579 megawatts of capacity under two solar programs that aim to create one of the world’s biggest markets for producing electricity from the sun. Most of that capacity needs to be completed this year or developers risk fines.

Developers need to select contractors by May 31 if they’re to complete their projects on time, he said. Moser Baer is in talks for some of those contracts, he said, declining to elaborate.

The central government awarded licenses in December for 620 megawatts to be built under its national Solar Mission program, which calls for 20,000 megawatts of solar power capacity by 2022. Gujarat, under its own state-level program, has awarded an additional 959 megawatts of capacity.

India’s currently has less than 18 megawatts of grid- connected solar power, according to the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.