Good News from India - "Solar Valleys"

I often click onto the URLs of Indian newspapers with a sense of trepidation - news of some idiotic coal fired powerplant coming up somewhere or of some similarly wasteful enterprise is what I have come to expect - call that the cynic in me, but when you have been looking at how things move in India for as long as I have, it is difficult not to be skeptical, if not entirely cynical. However, The Hindu has this excellent piece on a new "Solar Valleys" proposal that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh hass embarked upon: Link The proposal for a 20,000 MW target for harnessing solar energy by the end of the 13th Five Year Plan is something that India sorely needs to achieve. It is a matter of survival for India as a nation - the country simply cannot afford to buy horrendously expensive oil, gas and coal anymore with the hard-earned money of the Indian people. The costs in terms of environmental pollution, foreign exchange outflows and of money going to countries that have arrogant and condescending attitudes to Indians is something that India needs to halt asap.

I am no fan of Indian politicians or politics but I hope that this plan succeeds way beyond what the Prime Minister desires. There are only positive results to be expected no matter what degree of success is achieved.

Opportunities as Manmohan Singh and Barack Obama Meet

As the much watched meeting between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and US President Barack Obama goes on, most of the discussion is about political and strategic issues in South Asia. This is important, no doubt, but I fear that the potential for a much more fruitful interaction between the USA and India is being squandered. India is currently working on a huge expansion of its infrastructure and the Indian government has done a good job of working with foreign companies to try and bring new technology into India. Sadly, and I do not know if politics or local issues are responsible for this, some of the most innovative companies in the world - all from the USA, Japan and Europe - are not doing much.

I am referring to small companies like Thermasave Inc http://www.thermasave.us/ which have the technology to not only make homes virtually earthquake proof and much cheaper than the brick and cement methods being used right now, but to also make the homes very energy efficient and in less need for cooling or heating depending on what the climate is where they are built. There are several US and Canadian companies that have found ways to use algae to consume sewage and other waste and convert it into biodiesel. A Texas company has the technology to convert sewage into the equivalent of gasoline using a catalytic process. There are several innovative designs for small and large solar cookers and water heaters that are vastly more advanced than anything currently sold in India. And more.

The USA is going through a difficult economic crisis at the moment. A collaboration with India would make things work for both countries - India has a market and it is bleeding from spending money on importing oil, gas and coal. Many of the US technologies are absolutely new and need to be refined and fine-tuned. India has hundreds of thousands of engineers graduating from its universities every year. A collaboration between both countries could make an enormous difference as far as advancing the new and fast developing technology of utilizing renewable energy is concerned. Just think of it as an extension of the software and services collaboration between the two countries to a much bigger sector - the US can certainly pitch new products that come out of such an association to the world. I hope - and I shall admit that I am not a fan of either Barack Obama or Manmohan Singh - that both these men will look at potential economic benefits from extending US-India co-operation to the infrastructure and energy sectors. Both countries have everything to gain from this. And nothing to lose.