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.

India's Solar Energy Push - Wall Street Journal Video

Canada Offers Green tech to India - Will Any Indian Businesses Bite?

I know that the USA has a singularly bad record of doing business with India especially in the field of Green technologies despite the US Exim Bank offering vast amounts of money to Indian businesses that would like to license the immense amount of technology that American companies have developed. Many American companies couldn;t care less what happened in a neighboring county, leave aside what happens outside their state. with that attitude, they are unlikely to bother about India. And it is the same in India despite the US Exim Bank offering loans denominated in rupees in India through several major Indian banks.

Now Canada, the USA's smaller but extremely aggressive neighbor, has stepped in and is trying to offer green tech to India. Ontario Premier, Dalton McGuinty, a man who I personally think is as sleazy as politicians can get, but more of that later, is in India at the moment along with a delegation of Ontario businesses offering the latest in Canadian tech to Indian businesses according to this article in The Hindu: http://www.hindu.com/2009/12/04/stories/2009120456371800.htm

Canada does have some phenomenally good companies offering a wide range of technologies with applications that could make a huge difference if Indian businesses were to adopt them. I love Toronto as a city and am always amazed by the energy that it displays. I do wish that the province of Ontario would dump McGuinty, but then I don't like most politicians and he is not the only one I would like to see dumped by the electorate. As my grandmother, the great Savitaben Kamdar used to remind me when I was a boy, even dead snakes have their uses. I am happy to confer the status of a useful "snake" on Mc Guinty, as he has done something that culd be useful both for Canadian as well as Indian businesses.

One Indian State Gets it - Why Can't the Rest Too?

After the huge Solar Thermal powerplant that is being supported by the Clinton Foundation, the state of Gujarat now plans to build a tidal power plant according to the London Times: http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/natural_resources/article6935567.ece
Considering India's long coastline, I have argued for a long time on my other blog, Showing Fossil Fuel the Fist, that India needs to look at tapping tidal power all along its coast. Some coastal states are highly advanced like Maharashtra, Tamilnadu and Gujarat, others like Orissa have immense resources but are underdeveloped. Instead of wasting money on fossil fuel based powerplants, the free power of the waves could be harnessed to offer clean energy to the coastal states in a big way. And, if offshore wind is harnessed (the British are world leaders in both tidal power and in offshore wind energy) I do think that a lot of the terrible pollution that affects much of India could be curbed.

There's nothing like a good example - Gujarat is setting one. Now, how about some good, friendly competition between the coastal states?

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.

Excellent News from India - A Big Thumbs Up for these Barefoot Solar Engineers

I am grateful to Dr Mayraj Fahim for http://www.inhabitat.com/2009/11/09/indias-barefoot-solar-engineers-are-building-a-brighter-future/#this link from Inhabitat, a blog that I love following.# Orissa is among one of India's poorest states and Kalahandi used to be among its poorest regions some time ago. The thrust to provide solar powered lighting to this beautiful but impoverished state is especially welcome. The dedication of the "barefoot engineers" who have chosen to go into the villages and train people in using solar lighting is also something to be commended. This is an example of Indian progress in one region of the country that needs to be made available to other states that may contemplate similar, or, as is often the case in India, conventional (and destructive and expensive) solutions instead.

Let's hope for the best and look for more good news like this in the future!

If Colombia Can do This, Then Why Not India?

The New York Times has this inspiring article about a COlombian aristocrat who has founded a unique agricultural community there: Article Link.India has excellent relations with Colombia and desertification etc are major problems in India. How difficult would it be for the Ministry for External Affairs to send someone along some scientists from the Ministry of Agriculture to observe and later implement these ideas in India?

Let's hope common sense works - if first world models are a bad thing, then we now have a third world model to work with.