A British-Indian Solar Vehicle Initiative To Applaud

By sheer chance, I came across this collaboration between the Moss Solar Trust and the Maharana Mewar Charitable Foundation that is doing some very interesting work on solar powered conversions of conventional vehicles that are in use in India. I find their autorickshaw conversions and their smaller solar boat conversions particularly interesting. I hope to write to the Moss Solar people and find out more about them and their work very shortly, but, in the meantime, there's a nice website to check out. I do wish them success - my own attempts at business in this field in India have been agonizingly slow, and the frustration that comes through is often reflected on this and my other blog as some friends may have noticed. As always, I shall look forward to receiving feedback - either on this blog, or, as some might prefer, in personal communication. Do keep the responses coming.

Smart Planet: If Airports in Tennessee could Save so much Power by Going Solar, Imagine How much Indian Airports CoSuld Save

mart Planet has this piece about the Chattanooga Airport in the beautiful state of Tennessee saving 90,000 kWh of power in a year by putting up 4.5 acres of solar panels over the airport. I am guessing that these are early generation solar PVs - the latest from Semprius Solar are three times as efficient. Just imagine how much electricity could be saved, how much pollution could be reduced from the thermal powerplants that generate power in India, and how much less load shedding there would be in the rest of the country because of power saved, if this readily available technology were used more often. Large government buildings could also be an excellent mounting platform for these PVs for even more power savings. And, of course, there are the new private sector buildings - software parks, malls, large apartment condominiums and so on. The potential is immense. Someone is going to show some initiative one of these days and do something good. My guess is that whoever this first mover is, is going to end up laughing all the way to the bank. If I were to bet on a company to do this, my bet would be on the Tatas. Let's see where this goes . . .

Ecogeek: Japanese Solar Panel Owners earned $ 1.2 Billion Last Year

There's a lesson in this for India, a country that is bathed in sunshine for well over 300 days a year in most cities - the Ecogeek website shows how profitable solar panels have been for Japanese adopters. There was a time when these panels were expensive and they would have been out of the budget of the average Indian home or even business, but prices have been falling as companies across the world build more of these and engineers devise clever ways to produce them more cheaply from month to month. India used to offer some of the world's best subsidies for installing solar panels, solar water heaters and other solar powered equipment. I have no idea what the laws are like now. However, the simple thing to consider is that every new mall, every new apartment block, every new hotel and every government building has vast areas on the roof which could be covered with solar panels. I also feel that if India becomes serious about going solar, more companies will compete for Indian business and bring prices down even more. With much of India facing severe electric supply shortages on a daily basis, this may be one way to address the generation and distribution issues across the country. If there is surplus power, it could be fed back into the grid as happens in Japan, and that would mean surplus cash every year for those who invest in these panels. Win-win and there's no catch - what's not to like in this?

Courtesy Autoblog Green: An excellent Infographic on electric Vehicle Usage Costs

I seriously wish that someone in New Delhi, especially in the Energy Ministry and in the Planning Commission would read this. The fact is that electric vehicles do not have the range that gasoline vehicles do because they are slow to charge. But, for more than 90% of daily commuting, they are more than adequate. The fact also is that they are very cheap to run. Even mains supplied electricity costs vastly less than filling the tank up daily, and, if you use solar power to charge your car, you don't even pay for electricity.

Now, wait a minute - I hear skeptics like energy policcy specialist and all round idiot N N Sachitanand in India blabber about how inefficient solar PVs are. I've got news for these bozos and I've posted this on my other blog. A North Carolina solar panel manufacturing company has exceeded the efficiency of even the most advanced diesel engines. I also have information that Japan's Sharp Corporation (a division of Panasonic now) are planning to introduce their own very high efficiency solar panels in 2013 with efficiency levels competing with internal combustion engines. And, the "fuel" used in these solar systems, I must remind the anti solar bozos, is free.

Courtesy Autoblog Green: An excellent Infographic on electric Vehicle Usage Costs

I seriously wish that someone in New Delhi, especially in the Energy Ministry and in the Planning Commission would read this. The fact is that electric vehicles do not have the range that gasoline vehicles do because they are slow to charge. But, for more than 90% of daily commuting, they are more than adequate. The fact also is that they are very cheap to run. Even mains supplied electricity costs vastly less than filling the tank up daily, and, if you use solar power to charge your car, you don't even pay for electricity.

Now, wait a minute - I hear skeptics like energy policcy specialist and all round idiot N N Sachitanand in India blabber about how inefficient solar PVs are. I've got news for these bozos and I've posted this on my other blog. A North Carolina solar panel manufacturing company has exceeded the efficiency of even the most advanced diesel engines. I also have information that Japan's Sharp Corporation (a division of Panasonic now) are planning to introduce their own very high efficiency solar panels in 2013 with efficiency levels competing with internal combustion engines. And, the "fuel" used in these solar systems, I must remind the anti solar bozos, is free.

India Plans to Allow Jet Fuel Imports When there is Abundant Raw Material Available to Manufacture it Locally

Trust New Delhi to do things bass-ackwards, to modify a term not normally used in polite company. The UAE based newspaper Khaleej Times has this piece about India allowing airlines to import Jet Fuel. If the Government of India had looked, it would have found that the US Air Force recently contracted to buy Jet Fuel from this Texas company, Terrabon Inc, which produces it from food waste and sewage. The Terrabon process has been under development at Texas A and M University for a long time and the company now have viable products both for cars and for jet aircraft. Their process converts sewage and food waste into a Synthetic Crude which can be refined into the final product. And, the prices are slightly higher than those for gasoline or jet fuel made from crude, but, in the case of a country like India with 1.1 billion people, there is always going to be enough sewage to offer an economy of scale to make this vastly more viable than in the USA. Indians live in vastly more crowded circumstances as well, making the collection of the sewage for processing far easier than in a huge country like the USA where distances are far greater and concentrations of people much smaller.

I wish New Delhi - or even a state government - takes the initiative to invite Terrabon to use their technology to turn the completely useless sewage into usable fuel. If the richest country in the world uses this technology to try and save money, there's no reason why the world's poorest country shouldn't do this as well.