Industry
In a boost to the auto sector, Centre lifts ban on purchase of new cars by government departmentsedit
The auto sector is set to get a boost as Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led central government has lifted the ban on the purchase of new cars for its departments. The official communication to lift ban on the purchase of vehicles by government departments was issued by the government.
U.S. falling behind in global race to develop electric vehicle supply chainedit
The United States is losing the race to extract and refine minerals used to make electric vehicles and should do more to spur domestic production, a bipartisan group of senators said on Tuesday.
Transport Dept. to procure 325 more electric busesedit
The Transport Department has invited tenders for procuring 325 more battery operated environment-friendly electric buses. The department had purchased 40 electric buses in the past as part of pollution control measures that were deployed on the routes leading to the international airport. Once the new buses are procured, they would be deployed on different routes, Transport Minister Puvvada Ajay Kumar told the Legislative Assembly.
The long road to clean energyedit
The main reason is the spectacular increase in their cost competitiveness -since 2009, the price of energy generated by solar panels has plummeted by 81 percent and that of electricity generated by terrestrial wind farms has plunged by 46 percent. With 640 GW, solar now has the greatest capacity -compared with a total of 2,300 GW for all energies (green and fossil fuel) combined -exceeding both coal and gas. It could meet the needs of 80 percent of US households.
Telangana to invite bids for producing 1,000 MW solar poweredit
The State-owned Singareni Collieries Company Limited was entrusted to install 300 mw solar power project which would take the total commissioned capacity to 5000 MW, he added. Mishra said the state government had last year saved around 122 million units of electricity by containing transmission and distribution losses. It also saved Rs 500 crore in the capex in infrastructure creation for the 3,700 MW solar power projects
Soon, housing societies will have to set up charging points for evehiclesedit
After unveiling the electric vehicle policy, the State is planning to amend the model building bylaws under Development Control Regulations, to create infrastructure for electric vehicle charging infrastructure.
Six innovations and technologies disrupting the solar power industryedit
The field of solar energy is continuously undergoing innovation and discoveries. As we move towards a more eco-friendly future, the pioneers in this field are looking for more and more affordable solutions to harness its potential to the highest. In the past few years itself, we have seen a lot of milestones in solar energy storage, wearable solar tech, solar efficiency, and even solar design tech.
Plugging into a healthy future: A bold EV policy can help Delhiites breathe easyedit
EVs have no tailpipe emissions but they do incur emissions upstream at the power plants given the emissions intensity of India’s power grid. Yet this is no reason to delay or deprioritise EV deployment. For one, relative to fossil fuel-powered vehicles, pollution from power plants is not released in as near of proximity to citizens.
NTPC to invest Rs 25K crore to set up solar parkedit
NTPCs plan to procure renewable power from plants across the country and bundle it with its coal-based generation will be implemented in a month, the official told ET on condition of anonymity. We will not set up coal-based power plants for the time being. We are setting up solar plants at Bilhor in Uttar Pradesh and Barethi in Madhya Pradesh where originally coalfired plants stations were planned, said the official. Don’t be surprised if in the next three-four years, we may have to stop coal-based plants from morning to evening.
New Jersey inks Mou with Telangana govt in clean tech cooperationedit
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed a sisterstate agreement with Telangana government authorities in the presence of State Minister for Municipal Administration and IT K. T. Rama Rao, at the Sustainability Innovation Summit held on renewable energy organized by the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and Telanganas Energy Department here.
Meet DESHLA, an electric 3W developed by IIT Khagarpur studentsedit
Vikranth Racherla, professor, department of mechanical engineering, IIT Kharagpur, said, Instead of retrofitting an existing vehicle, we thought we would build one up from scratch, especially because the design is so important for an electric vehicle. Each design has been conceived, analysed, prototyped and the cycle repeated many times before the actual product came out.
If not solar energy, what should India use (Part 1)edit
BBC recently reported that the UK Financial Services Ombudsman has received 2,000 complaints from consumers who took loans for rooftop solar panels and are not getting the promised returns.
Experts call for comprehensive, collaborative approach to address energy-efficiency issuesedit
Expressing concerns about MSMEs not participating in energy efficiency initiatives due to various factors, including lack of finance, Pankaj Sindhwani of Tata Cleantech Capital, said the Energy Service Company (ESCO) model could be one way of addressing their needs.
Electricity discoms owe 74,710 crore to gencosedit
There is growing wariness among investors at a time of some states trying to renegotiate the PPAs. A case in point being Andhra Pradesh, that is trying to rework the contracts signed by the previous government for wind and solar power with average tariffs (FY14) of Rs4.70 per unit and Rs5.8 per unit, respectively.
Auto slowdown, uncertainity forces component industry to cut down capexedit
Component manufacturers, who invested in the past expecting a growth in sales, have found themselves fighting the downturn with lower utilisation of existing capacity and capital invested in new facilities, which have no takers. Moreover, there is confusion about whether customer demand will shift to electric vehicles in the future. This will impact capex allocation for traditional auto component manufacturing.
APTRANSCO to withdraw connectivity nod for 98MW wind projectsedit
In another twist to the faceoff between the Andhra Pradesh government and renewable energy developers, the state-owned transmission company, APTRANSCO, has decided to withdraw connectivity approval to wind projects for 98MW in the state.
International
Explained: Electric or hydrogen cars Why Asian economies are backing the latteredit
China, Japan and South Korea have set ambitious targets to put millions of hydrogen-powered vehicles on their roads by the end of the next decade at a cost of billions of dollars. But to date, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) have been upstaged by electric vehicles, which are increasingly becoming a mainstream option due to the success of Tesla Incs luxury cars as well as sales and production quotas set by China.
Australian lithium recovery seen by mid2020 as EV production revs upedit
The source of weak demand of lithium was a change in Chinas electric vehicle subsidies towards lithium hydroxide, high nickel cathode that did not have the immediate uptake from the industry of the scale that China expected.