DMRC GENERATES 20 MW SOLAR POWER

The Delhi Metro has become the only Metro system to get green certification for all its major buildings and installations. Heeding to the green building norms set by the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC), Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has accomplished the target of generating 20 megawatts (MW) of solar power by 2017, officials said this Friday.

“After getting green certifications for its Phase 3 stations, depots and sub stations, Delhi Metro has secured the platinum rating for adherence to green building norms for its 10 residential colonies by the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC). DMRC is now generating 20 MW of solar power by adding another 2.6 MW of solar power facilities across the Metro network.

Stressing upon the need for adoption of green technologies in Metro systems, Managing Director of DMRC, Mangu Singh said, “Energy consumption has increased by 700 percent in the last four decades in the country and this will increase further three times by 2030. One of the major users of energy is the transport sector, that also, urban transport. Therefore, it is very relevant to focus on Metro systems and talk of green Metro.

India with a green building footprint of 4.6 billion square feet had the second largest green building footprint in the world. “DMRC was the first one to become a green Metro. A lot of manpower has been put in earning the platinum ratings”, said Prem C Jain, Chairman, IGBC, while praising the efforts and initiatives of DMRC.

Encouraging school students to participate in environment friendly projects and activities, 'Swachchh Chetna - An Eco Club' has been formed as a joint initiative of DMRC along with Shri Ram School, Gurugram.

AK Gupta, Director (Electrical), DMRC highlighted different green initiatives by the DMRC and elaborated on the various projects scheduled to be taken up in the days ahead.

Gas Prices Are Pushing Up your Electricity Bill

High electricity prices could have more to do with the high wholesale price of gas than the renewable energy sector, a new report has found.

The energy report, looked at energy prices in South Australia and found a correlation between domestic electricity prices and gas prices, despite gas making up just 10 percent of electricity generation.

"It seems that the decision to allow so much of the gas resources of eastern Australia to be exported was made without considering the likely effects on the electricity market," report author and Australian National University Energy Analyst Dr Hugh Saddler said.

"Household and business consumers of electricity are now paying the price for this policy failure."

Among the drivers of high gas prices are has been a shortage of east coast domestic supply, while new government regulations to restrict exports will start from early next year.

The launch of the National Energy Market in 1998 was followed by a rush of construction of gas turbine power stations in Queensland, NSW and Victoria and Tasmania, Saddler said.

"So this is not a malfunction of the National Electricity Market, but precisely how it was expected to operate, when set up. What has changed is the price of gas, driven up by export contracts," he said.

The report comes as government backbencher Craig Kelly warned Australians will die because of high power bills driven by renewables.

Kelly has previously said renewables indirectly cause more children to drown and increase instances of lung cancer.

The backbencher and chair of the government's environment and energy committee said on Thursday some people cannot afford to heat their homes this winter.

The report found higher National Electricity Market (NEM) wholesale prices are responsible for large increases in retail energy prices from 1 July

Large increases in retail electricity prices, starting from 1 July in NSW, Queensland, SA, Tasmania and the ACT are almost entirely the result of much higher wholesale prices in the National Electricity Market.

These increases will make retail prices across the NEM the highest ever since the start of the NEM, in real 2017 dollar terms, and probably the highest in real terms since the 1970s, if not the 1960s.

High electricity prices are caused by the high wholesale price of gas, in both SA and other states

"People will die," Kelly told the ABC on Thursday, repeating his previous claim.

Kelly's comments also come as the Federal government considers its position on Chief Scientist Alan Finkel's review into Australia's energy market.

Energy prices are on everyone's mind.

A Newspoll published for The Australian in June showed 60 per cent of respondents want action to keep energy prices down.

Australia Is Gassy

Gassy as all get up. Australia is in the running to become the world's largest Liquified Natural Gas Exporter over the next three years.

Despite this, domestic prices have sometimes been four or five times those on offer in the US.

In 2016 Australian gas was being sold to Japan at 40 percent cheaper than it was at home, in part due to long term contracts signed by major gas providers.

Earlier this year Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced a bid to intervene in the energy market, and said he wants to stop energy networks being able to appeal regulator rulings about what they can charge.

New regulations to restrict gas exports will start from January 1, 2018.

In May a Melbourne University report also linked high energy prices to the gas market, itself echoing earlier reports.

That report blamed the creation of an eastern Australian gas export industry for creating a jump in demand triple the size of the domestic market – and linking prices to international markets.

What is Solar Water Heater and What are its advantages?

Solar water heater is a high utility, low maintenance equipment that uses energy from the sunlight as a fuel to heat water. It consists of a system that is installed on a terrace or open space where it can get maximum exposure to sunlight. This energy from the sun is used to heat water and the hot water is stored in an insulated tank. The solar water heaters does not have any electrical connections and thus does not need to be operated manually. It utilizes the sunlight throughout the day to heat water and stores it in the storage tank. Hot Water from the storage tank can then be used for any desired application.

Advantages:

● Saves electricity bill as it reduces the power used in Geysers.

● Reduction in rate of global warming.

● Higher efficiency on high temperature.

● Negligible scaling of tubes.

● Less space & more economical.

● Long life more than 15 years.

● Maintenance Free.

#Erigeron Energy can supply and install quality solar water heater as per your requirement.

Solar Rooftop

Use the unused space on your rooftop and save up to Rs. 50,000 typically by installing a 4kw Erigeron solar power system. Generate your own power with the Erigeron Solar range of compact and efficient solar power solutions — A silent, pollution free and low maintenance alternative to diesel generators. The solar inverter comes with solar panel, battery and inverter that can give you power during the power cuts. Adding icing to the desert , the fuel is absolutely free! 

#Erigeron Energy can install various type of solar system on your rooftop according to your need.

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On Grid:

● Savings in electricity bill for next 25 years
●Average generation of 1500 units/kw/year
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● Almost maintenance free system
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● Low cost, big savings
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● Power your home for up to 8 hours using suitable capacity of battery
●Average generation of 1500 units/kw/year
● Saving of up to Rs. 30,000 per year, avoiding the usage of DG set during power cuts
We can supply and install quality Solar Roof Top Solution as per your requirement.

In two years solar energy for residential sector would be cheaper than electricity grid

In the next two years, solar power will be cheaper than the electricity grid in the residential sector, says solar energy provider SunSource Energy which on Monday successfully implemented the first two phases of a 100 MW solar project in South East Asia.

Stating that while the solar energy in India has already reached 'grid parity' in commercial, industrial and utility sectors, soon this would be achieved in residential sector as well.

The grid parity happens when the cost of the electricity produced by an alternative source -- solar in this case -- becomes lesser or almost equal to that being supplied from the conventional source e.g coal.

At present, India has installed capacity of 327 GW (One GW is equal to 1000 MW), of which about 40 GW is Solar (12 GW) and Wind energy (27 GW) combined. About 70 per cent of power comes from coal-based power plants and the remaining from hydro and other sources like biogas. 

"Solar energy in India has already reached grid parity in the commercial, industrial and utility sectors. In most scenarios, in the next two years solar power would be cheaper than the electricity grid in the residential sector as well," said Adarsh Das, Co-Founder and CEO SunSource Energy.

The solar company has designed and built over 100 solar projects across 18 states in India, with a focus on decentralised power projects. It is currently involved in nearly over 150 MW of solar projects in India and overseas.

Its rooftop projects include the India Habitat Centre.

"Aligning with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's target of 100 GW by 2022, including 40 GW from rooftop and decentralised projects, we are focused on developing, designing and building 400 MW of decentralised solar projects by 2022," said Kushagra Nandan, Co-Founder of SunSource Energy.

Scotland sets renewable energy record as wind power provides equivalent of 118% of nation's electricity

Wind power output in Scotland has helped set a new record for the first half of the year, according to an independent conservation group.

Analysis by WWF Scotland of data provided by WeatherEnergy found wind turbines provided around 1,039,001MWh of electricity to the National Grid during June.

Renewable energy figures show the power generated last month was enough to supply the electrical needs equivalent to 118 per cent of Scottish households or nearly three million homes.

In the first six months of 2017 enough power was generated to supply more than all of Scotland’s national demand for six days.

Turbines provided 6,634,585MWh of electricity to the National Grid, which analysts say could on average supply the electrical needs of 124 per cent of Scottish households, or more than three million homes.

Dr Sam Gardner, acting director of WWF Scotland, said: “The first six months of 2017 have certainly been incredible for renewables, with wind turbines alone helping to ensure millions of tonnes of climate-damaging carbon emissions were avoided.

“Scotland is continuing to break records on renewable electricity, attracting investment, creating jobs and tackling climate change.

“If we want to reap the same rewards in the transport and heating sectors, we need the Scottish government to put in place strong policies on energy efficiency and transport in the forthcoming Climate Change Bill.

“That’s why we’re calling on people to act for our future and tell the First Minister they want a strong climate bill that will deliver a fairer and healthier low carbon Scotland.”

The figures for January to June this year showed an increase of 24 per cent compared to 2015, when wind energy provided 5,359,995MWh.

Scotland’s total electricity consumption including homes, business and industry for first six months was 11,689,385MWh.

Renewables experts say this means wind generated the equivalent of 57 per cent of Scotland’s entire electricity needs.

Karen Robinson, of WeatherEnergy, said: “It’s great to see this data confirm that Scotland is knocking it out of the park on wind power with total output for June in particular up on the same period compared to the past two years.

“There’s no doubt renewables are helping households increasingly avoid fossil fuels for their electricity needs.”

Scotland’s energy minister Paul Wheelhouse said: “It’s great to hear renewable electricity generation in Scotland has reached a new record high. In the first quarter of this year, generation was up by 13 per cent compared to the same period last year, there was also a 16 per cent increase in capacity, and more than half of all gross electricity consumption in Scotland continues to come from renewables.

“Scotland’s total installed renewable capacity, that’s the amount of renewable electricity we are capable of producing, now stands at 9.3 GW – four times what it was only a decade ago. These statistics reinforce our country’s reputation as a renewable energy powerhouse and are a vindication of the Scottish government’s energy policy.”

Solar energy heating up new firms in Pune

Solar Energy has emerged high on the horizon as the next big thing to change the way we spew carbon. Safe, free and all there to harvest. While the past was riddled with several constraints in terms of cost of photo voltaic panels, things have changed now. Not only are these PV panels cheaper to manufacture they have also become more efficient (they now harvest from 16 to 21.5 percentage of solar power)

Add to this the Government’s pro-solar policies and solar makes a lot of business sense. As it did to Swati Bhagwat of Bhagwat Energy.

“Earlier my husband used to manufacture solar water heaters. But three years ago we saw the opportunities that solar power presented and decided to venture into that. We set up our first project of 40 MW in Mumbai only recently.”

Though there are a lot of players who have entered the field, setting up a solar company is not as it seems. Says Shivhar Mendkule of Saururja, “the biggest issues we had to tackle was the Government registrations and approvals. They have different practices and it makes things difficult for a start up or actually, anybody.”

For Sunshot it was lack of experience. Says Rahul Dasari one of the founding members, “When we started, our major problem was that none of us had any prior experience in this field. And of course not much capital. So we did what we could do best in the given circumstances. We read up as much as possible in the field of renewable energy. Then we picked up small consultancies. These paid us very poorly; in fact they didn’t even cover the cost, but we still did them. It helped us gain the all important experience that we were looking for. We did about eight to 12 such consulting jobs.”

For Bhagwat the reverse was true. They started out with solar water heating systems and then slowly grew to Photo Voltaic (PV) panels. Says Swati, “Our business has grown with the changing scenarios. First we would supply solar heaters that the government had made mandatory for all new buildings. With that we had established relations with the local builders. Then came solar energy but since that was dependant on batteries that made projects unviable, things did not work out. Now, the government has introduced this net metering system where you can pass on the power you generate onto the grid, we saw opportunity and set up our own PV manufacturing plant in addition to doing installations.”

Solar Energy is a capital intensive initiative. To set up a solar plant one needs to invest heavily and that can be seen as an obstacle to many businesses. “But” says Rahul, “that is not really true. Let me explain. If you want to set up a 1MW solar plant the cost approximately is ₹5 crore. Thanks to the government, you get accelerated depreciation of 60% in the first year and 40% in the next year. In addition to that you get ₹1.2 to ₹1.3 income tax benefit.

“A 1MW unit will generate approximately 15 lakh units a year. Multiply this with the cost of power ₹9 to ₹10 for industries and ₹15 for malls and you save ₹1.35 (industries calculation) per year. So in three years your solar plant has been paid for.”

Despite this cost plays a big role in getting contracts. Says Swati, “in the manufacturing space we are competing with a giant, Vikram Solar but though their PV panels are cheaper than ours, our installation cost is cheaper than theirs. Add to this the fact that we are personally present at all our sites and we win.”

For a start up, attracting talent is a big headache. Says Shivhar Mendkule of Saururja, “Luckily for us all of our directors are technical people. I am an MTech; our technical director Avinash Chinmaygabe has an MS in Renewable Energy from the UK. Ninety per cent of our team is tech people.”

For Sunshot, after crossing the self-learning curve, they managed to hire a good team. Says Rahul: “In 2013 we got ₹3 crore from an HNI in Pune. With this we built a team and could even invest in R&D.”

Says Swati, “For a start up getting good people is the biggest hurdle. People don’t trust you since you are new they’re not sure how long you will last.”

With so many players in the solar power arena, what is it that separates them from the rest?

For Sunshot it is their cloud-based IOT. Says Rahul, “We have developed in house the best could based IOT platform that connects the solar panel, the MSEB and the diesel generator. We can control through this IOT platform in real time our clients power needs and switch from solar to generator to MSEB.”