Innovative People's Technologies by Anumakonda Jagadeesh

Climate Policies in Coal-Dependent Australia Leading to Surging Wind Development

Climate Policies in Coal-Dependent Australia Leading to Surging Wind Development

Susan Kraemer, Correspondent 

June 07, 2013

Australia’s wind development is driven by clean energy mandates, but the Gillard government's carbon tax has rendered building new coal plants non-competitive. Export policies for fossil fuels is beginning to fast-track liquefied natural gas out of the country to supply a very lucrative market in Asia.

The result? According to a Bloomberg report, while a new natural gas plant now costs $116 a megawatt hour, wind can be built at $80 a megawatt hour.

TrustPower Generation General Manager Deion Campbell developed nearly half the wind capacity in New Zealand and is now constructing the second Snowtown wind farm in Australia, at 270 MW. Between the two countries — which combined hold fewer people than California — his team has developed close to $1 billion worth of hydro and wind in the last decade.

Top 12 Ways to Transform Biofuels Using Materials Already Around Us

Top 12 Ways to Transform Biofuels Using Materials Already Around Us

June 04, 2013
Jim Lane, Biofuels Digest Great ideas abound for new feedstocks and novel infrastructure. We admire so many of them: jatropha, carinata, switchgrass, sweet sorghum, blender pumps, systems-at-sea, and so much more.

But what about technologies that bolt-on a different processing unit, but keeps everything else the same. Or uses an abundant, odious and low cost feedstock?

That’s a frugal fuel. In these nefarious economic times, why not make do with what’s already in place?

Here are our Top 12 ways to transform biofuels using materials — usually waste by-products, or lower-value materials — already around us.

12. Glycerine

There’s a small market for glycerin as a building block material, but it has been overwhelmed by the supply coming from some biodiesel operators who have been producing a pure enough glycerine for sale into the industrial glycerin market — many biodiesel operators haven’t been able to produce it at sufficient purity and it has been distributed at very little value into the feed market, or even landfilled.

Then, along come numerous technologies aimed at converting glycerine from a low-value product into a high-value target material, such as isoprene (the main ingredient in synthetic rubber).

Hydrogen Economy - A Revolutionary Vision for the Future of Energy

Hydrogen Economy - A Revolutionary Vision for the Future of Energy

2.4.03 Darshan Goswami, Project Manager, U.S. Department of Energy

INTRODUCTION

A new day is dawning for a revolutionary way to generate electric power from renewable energy sources. Visualize a future where the electrical power needed to run your computer, television, VCR and DVD is generated from a small appliance (about the size of a dishwasher) located in your home. Imagine that you will probably never experience a power outage. Envision generating electricity without combustion, and producing heat and pure drinking water as by-products. Picture a world powered almost entirely by an infinitely abundant and totally clean fuel. Hydrogen, the most common element in the universe, is that fuel. It can be produced from tap water and used to generate power for homes, industry and cars. Imagine a world energy economy based on hydrogen, and a society transformed by the hydrogen revolution. Imagine being able to drive your car more than 5,000 miles between fill-ups. In the new Hydrogen Economy, your car could become a “power station on wheels” producing about 20 to 40 kilowatts of electricity. Imagine that, while you are at work and your car is in the parking lot, it could be making money for you by supplying energy to the power grid during peak hours when demand for electricity is greatest. While in your garage the same fuel cells in the car could supply power for your home. This affords an ideal opportunity for car owners to become their own energy suppliers, and sell the excess power generated by the car’s fuel cells while it is parked. Automobile, oil, utility, and other major companies are spending billions to make this dream come true.

For Full Article: http://www.energypulse.net/centers/article/article_display.cfm?a_id=181

Comment by Anumakonda Jagadeesh

PM: India to double renewable energy capacity by 2017

India's Prime Minister Vows to Double Renewable Energy Capacity 

By Jeff Postelwait, Associate Editor, Electric Light & Power |  April 18, 2013 

India will seek to double the amount of renewable energy it can generate to 55 GW in the next four years, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in his inaugural address. 

"It is proposed to double the renewable energy capacity in our country from 25,000 MW in 2012 to 55,000 MW by the year 2017. This would include exploiting non-conventional energy sources such as solar, wind power and energy from biomass," Singh said. 

These initiatives were announced as part of the prime minister's presentation of India's 12th Five Year Plan. 

Developed countries are the ones best poised to help meet the challenge of climate change, he said, adding that India has set a goal of cutting its energy use by 20 to 25 percent by 2020 by increasing its energy efficiency. 

Another measure the prime minister called for is an international research and development center for solar energy. This National Institute of Solar Energy could be operational by 2015, he said. Research into solar thermal and solar photovoltaic would be part of this initiative. 

The price of producing solar power was cut in half over the past two years, he said, going on to acknowledge that fossil-fired power generation, such as coal power, is still less expensive. The difference, he said could be made up for with subsidies. 

About 87.5 percent of India's electricity is generated from non-renewable sources. Coal constitutes 57 percent of India's installed capacity. 

In December 2011, over 300 million Indian citizens had no access to electricity — most of these residents are from rural areas. 

This article was originally published on Electric Light & Power and was republished with permission. 

Comment by Anumakonda Jagadeesh 

We,People involved in the Renewable Energy research and promotion welcome your statement, “India will seek to double the amount of renewable energy it can generate to 55 GW in the next four years”. 

Here is an action plan for India on Renewables: 

Biofuel and Biogas for Power Generation: 

Agave is a care – free growth plant which can be grown in millions of hectares of waste land and which produces Biofuel. Already Mexico is using it. Another Care free growth plant is Opuntia which generates Biogas. Biogas can be input to generate power through Biogas Generators. Biogas generators of MW size are available from China. Yet another option is Water Hyacinth for biogas. Water Hyacinth along with animal dung can produce biogas on a large scale and then power. In Kolleru lake in Godavari and Krishna Delta in Andhra Pradesh it is available in 308 Sq. Km for nearly 8 months in a year.

Wealth From Waste - Lawyer Weekly

The Scientist - Speaking of Science

Speaking of Science

Volume 25 | Issue 3 | Page 18 | Date: 2011-03-01

Behavioural Ecology Research Group, Oxford

How fleeting are the wishes and efforts of man! How short his time! and consequently how poor will be his results, compared with those accumulated by Nature during whole geological periods! — Charles Darwin, On The Origin of Species (1859)

Why them? Why is this species [the New Caledonian crow] on a small island in the Pacific able to not just use but to manufacture a variety of tools, and in a flexible rather than a rote or programmatic way? Why are they able to do at least as well as chimpanzees on experiments of cognition…?

— Russell Gray of the University of Aukland, as quoted by Natalie Angier in “Nurturing Nests Lift These Birds to a Higher Perch” (New York Times, Jan. 31, 2011)

China's New Green Plan: the Local Angle

China's New Green Plan: the Local Angle

Posted Dec 8, 2010 by Warren Karlenzig

To get a better view of what was happening at the local level in terms of China's new national low carbon and ecological planning, I recently traveled to Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province. Jiaxing (above--click on photos for full size) is a "small town" of about four million that is now only 21 minutes (80 kilometers) from metro Shanghai on a new high-speed electric train line, the fastest in the world--the line, which will eventually extend to Beijing, recently set a test record of 259 miles per hour.

I was traveling with other strategic advisers from the Institute for Strategic Resilience, Irv Beiman and Daniel Zhu. Jiaxing is Zhu's hometown, and he helped arrange our two-day visit.

Jiaxing sees itself as a "Garden City" (with more than 40 percent forest cover), and truly it felt that way thanks to extensive landscaping and forests planted on the site of former rice fields. Jiaxing is also billing itself as the "Oriental Silicon Valley," which embodies China's plans to transform its economy, particularly in eastern coastal areas such as the Yangtze Delta, from manufacturing to service industries, such as IT and green technologies, to supplant its product-export-dominated industrial base.

For Full Article: http://www.postcarbon.org/blog-post/198389-china-s-new-green-plan-the-local

Anumakonda Jagadeesh comments:

Excellent post. China's commitment to reduce green house gases to avert climate change is a welcome sign for clean environment.

Chinese Army to Enlist 10,000 Pigeons and other Stories

Chinese Army to Enlist 10,000 Pigeons

From their humble beginnings along the rocky cliff sides of Africa and Asia some 20 million years ago, pigeons can now by found pretty much anywhere there´s a statue being erected or sandwich being eaten -- though long before we they were merely pests, they served a vital purpose that has evidently not been lost.

 It was recently revealed that China plans to increase its military spending 12.7 percent, but evidently not all that money will go towards tanks and fighter jets. According to China Central Television, the People's Liberation Army will soon be training 10,000 pigeons to act as couriers in the event that traditional communication equipment fails.

Humans first began domesticating pigeons around 5,000 to 10,000 years ago -- at first for food and to use their feathers, but later as carriers, taking advantage of their superb homing abilities to deliver messages over long distances. They were ideal couriers throughout the Ancient world, like in Greece where they reported the winners of the first Olympic Games.

INDIA GROWTH OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY

INDIA GROWTH OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY

Posted Date: 03 Jun 2008 | Author: b.thirumaya prabhu

Engineering education, unlike other types of professional education, has not had a long history. Though the ancients and medievals had built large brick and stone houses, castles, cities and huge temples, bad constructed long highways and aqueducts and dug canals, which show considerable knowledge of what are now earned civil and hydraulic engineering and of properties of building materials, this knowledge must have been derived empirically. Beginnings of mechanical engineering are to be found in the manufacture and use, of tools, means of transport, simple machinery like lathes, and weapons of offence and defense. Rudiments of chemical engineering are to be seen in the old metallurgical practices. But there were no organised schools for teaching apprentices the use of machinery or knowledge of processes; knowledge passed from generation to generation of craftsmen and artificers, by word of mouth, and was thus confined to castes and guilds. 

The Industrial Revolution With the advent of the Industrial Age, which was ushered in by the discovery of the steam engine by James Watt about 1780, and the ability to, generate and to handle large amounts of power rendered possible by the invention of the steam engine, men passed from dependence on human labour and hand tools to large and complicated machinery ; production of commodities passed from cottage workshops to factories. 

Transportation by bullock-carts, horse-driven carriages, and wind or man driven boats, gave way to railroads and steamships. All this necessitated the construction of large machines, engines, ships and carriages, and gave rise to problems of industrial finance and labour.

Early Engineering School in Europe-While inventive genius was called upon to devise new kinds of machines and to handle new types of processes, the craftsmen and artisans were called upon to put these designs into actual practice. They were asked to test and handle these machines and to repair them whenever necessary. The engineer was thus evolved from two different streams- first from the artisans and craftsmen on one side, who belonged to the lower orders of the less specialised society of the last century, and on the other side from the genteel class who had knowledge of sciences, and had acquired habits of disciplined and organised thinking. 

We’re moving too slowly

We’re moving too slowly

Joydeep Gupta | February 25, 2011

Gro Harlem Brundtland – high priestess of sustainable development – tells Joydeep Gupta why progress towards a healthier, happier planet is still too slow, wrapping up our special series on well-being economics.

“The oil and coal lobby in the US is mostly responsible for creating the kind of atmosphere that has prevented progress. These big corporations are very powerful. I know this myself from working against the tobacco industry.”

Gro Harlem Brundtland is the high priestess of sustainable development. The former head of the World Health Organisation and Norway’s first – and so far only – female prime minister commands a level of respect around the world perhaps matched only by Nelson Mandela.

Not many remember that she is also a medical doctor with a degree in public health, and that it was from the health sector that she took the concept of well-being and applied it to planet Earth when she became the chair of the World Commission on Environment and Development in 1983.

Brazilians making an economic mark

  Brazilians making an economic mark

Suddenly, everything seems to be coming up Brazilian.

President Barack Obama will visit Brazil during his first South American trip in March and Brazil is Florida’s top trading partner. But Brazilians are also snapping up beachfront luxury properties and downtown Miami condos, investing in everything from real estate to Burger King, and shopping voraciously.

It’s as if a “swarm of grasshoppers” has descended on South Florida, chomping through bargains from Dadeland to Sawgrass Mills, one tour operator says.

“The trend now is everybody comes to shop, shop, shop,’’ said Claudia Menezes, of Pegasus Transportation, which operates a fleet of buses for conventional tours as well as the shopping excursions that are so popular with Brazilians. “They’re buying up everything from $10 creams at Victoria’s Secret to Luis Vuitton and Prada.’’

Testimony to Brazilian consumerism: When Pegasus buses return Brazilians to the airport for their flights home, Menezes says, they have to put on extra trailers behind to haul the loot.

To keep the Brazilian visitors coming, American Airlines now offers 52 flights a week to Brazil from Miami International Airport.

“Brazil is breaking all sorts of records,’’ said Rolando Aedo, senior vice president of marketing for the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau. “It has been our rock-star market.’’

When all the numbers are tallied for 2010, Miami-Dade expects to have rolled out the welcome mat for more than 500,000 Brazilian visitors who spent more than $1 billion.

That would move Brazil into the top spot for international visitors, dethroning Canada, the perennial leader.

Affordable Solar Lamp Four Times Brighter Than Kerosene Wins Ashden Award

India’s design firm ‘D.Light Design’ has won an Ashden Award for its solar lamp, which is cited as the world’s most affordable solar lantern. What’s more, this technology is four times brighter than the average kerosene lamp. D.Light Design’s solar lamp is also a cleaner option to kerosene, which produces indoor air pollution that can damage human health.

The potential in these new lamps is incredible. One of the entrepreneurs in the Ashden Award announcement said that “this will do to kerosene what mobile phones did to letters.”

Full Article: http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/d-light-design

Anumakonda Jagadeesh comments:

It is a good alternative clean energy lighting.

India, China growth race 'silly', says Nobel winner

 India, China growth race 'silly', says Nobel winner

NEW DELHI — India's leading economist, Nobel Prize winner Amartya Sen, dismissed on Monday the "silly" obsession of comparing the economic growth rates of China and India.

In a lengthy critique of the practice, Sen argued that New Delhi was far behind in the growth race, but more importantly it lagged in other criteria that showed real living standards were far inferior in India.

"Despite the interest in this subject (of comparing India's eight-percent growth to China's 10 percent)... this is surely a silly focus," Sen wrote in The Hindu.

Growth as estimated by gross national product (GNP) was an arbitrary measurement, he said, and "the lives that people are able to lead -- what ultimately interests people most -- are only indirectly and partially influenced by the rates of overall economic growth".

In an unflattering portrait of his country, Sen drew on data from World Development Reports of the World Bank and Human Development Reports of the United Nations to show China far ahead on most criteria.

Life expectancy at birth in China was 73.5 years compared with 64.4 years in India; Infant mortality rate is 50 per thousand in India and just 17 in China, and the under-five mortality rate is 66 for Indians and 19 for the Chinese.

Anumakonda Jagadeesh comments:

Since the comparison of Growth rate between India and China has come from Nobel Laurate Dr,Amartya Sen,let us see the figures: Going by the basic facts, the economy of China is more developed than that of India. While India is the 11th largest economy in terms of the exchange rates, China occupies the second position surpassing Japan. Compared to the estimated $1.3123 trillion GDP of India, China has an average GDP of around $4909.28 billion. In case of per capital GDP, India lags far behind China with just $1124 compared to $7,518 of the latter. To make a basic comparison of India and China Economy, we need to have an idea of the economic facts of the countries. Facts India China GDP around $1.3123 trillion around 4909.28 billion GDP growth 8.90% 9.60% Per capital GDP $1124 $7,518 Inflation 7.48 % 5.1% Labor Force 467 million 813.5 million Unemployment 9.4 % 4.20 % Fiscal Deficit 5.5% 21.5% Foreign Direct Investment $12.40 $9.7 billion Gold Reserves 15% 11% Foreign Exchange Reserves $2.41 billion $2.65 trillion World Prosperity Index 88Th Position 58th Position Mobile Users 842 million 687.71 million Internet Users 123.16 million 81 million.

Facts	India	China
GDP	around $1.3123 trillion	around 4909.28 billion
GDP growth	8.90%	9.60%
Per capital GDP	$1124	$7,518
Inflation	7.48 %	5.1%
Labor Force	467 million	813.5 million
Unemployment	9.4 %	4.20 %
Fiscal Deficit	5.5%	21.5%
Foreign Direct Investment	$12.40	$9.7 billion
Gold Reserves	15%	11%
Foreign Exchange Reserves	$2.41 billion	$2.65 trillion
World Prosperity Index	88Th Position	58th Position
Mobile Users	842 million	687.71 million
Internet Users	123.16 million	81 million.

UK Government Biased Against Organic Food

UK Government Biased Against Organic Food

The UK Government have been accused of being lazy when it comes to promoting the benefits of organic food, but further digging reveals they may actually be on the payroll of big food interests.

In a report entitled The Lazy Man of Europe by The Soil Association, it has been revealed that organic food sales in the UK fell by 13.6% in 2009, while other European countries continue to buy more and more natural produce.

“A range of factors may explain the recent decline of the UK organic market compared to our European neighbours, but the passive role of successive UK governments in supporting organic food and farming is one of the reasons commonly given.”

We have found that most European countries have acted confidently to normalise and champion organic food and farming as a pioneering, sustainable and environmentally friendly way to produce food.

In contrast, UK governments have been diffident, if not lazy on the subject. When it comes to thinking in a truly sustainable way about the future of food and farming, successive UK governments have preferred to sit back and snooze.

Perectual Engineering Seminar

Argentina looks to wind for the answer to its energy woes

Argentina looks to wind for the answer to its energy woes

BY ADRIAN PAZ

In 2004, Argentina received a wake up call. The Latin American nation experienced a deep energy crisis as a result of a shortage in natural gas caused by the demand for energy skyrocketing and outstripping supply. Since then the country has made a conscious effort to diversify its energy sources, with wind power attracting particular attention.

The country’s chamber of renewable energy (CADER) believes Argentina has a huge wind power potential. This is supported by a report by the National University of Comahue which said the country’s Patagonia region could generate round 200 GW from wind power.

But Argentina is currently taking advantage of a mere 2 per cent of this potential.

Department of Energy seeks to cut solar costs by 75 percent

Department of Energy seeks to cut solar costs by 75 percent

NEW YORK | Fri Feb 4, 2011 2:37pm EST

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Energy said on Friday it will spend $27 million on a new effort to reduce the costs of solar power by 75 percent by the end of the decade in a bid to make the renewable power source as cheap as fossil fuels.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu dubbed the program a "sun shot" that was patterned on President John F. Kennedy's "moon shot" goal in the 1960s that called for the United States to land a man on the moon.
Chu said cutting the cost of installed solar power by 75 percent would put the price at about $1 per watt, he said, or about 6 cents per kilowatt hour.
"That would make solar energy cost-competitive with other forms of energy without subsidies of any kind," he told a conference call.
Costs for to install photovoltaic solar panels, which turn sunlight directly into electricity, currently run above 22 cents per kilowatt per hour, although federal grants and state incentives can trim that to below 15 cents for large projects.
Many U.S. solar industry advocates have long complained that the Chinese government's support of its solar companies has enabled its companies to take market share from U.S. manufacturers.
Chinese companies such as Suntech Power Holdings Co have made inroads into both European and U.S. markets, and now supply about two-thirds of the global market. Suntech said on Thursday it had sold 250 megawatts of panels in North America last year, about 25 percent of the total market.

For Full Article: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/04/us-energy-chu-solar-idUSTRE7135PY20110204

Anumakonda Jagadeesh comments:

Exciting news indeed. Enthusiasts of Solar Energy welcome this as the major hurdle for widespread use of Solar PV is its exorbitant cost compared to conventional fuel like coal. Another reason is the relatively low efficiency of present solar cells. With improved materials like Gallium Arsenide, Tandem, organic polymer it is expected the PV will be competitive with other energy sources and more so of other renewables like wind, mini and micro hydel, biomass etc.

University plans solar panel field

University plans solar panel field

The University will install one of the largest solar collector fields at any U.S. college as early as summer 2012, according to a University statement released Wednesday.

The 5.3-megawatt system, which will include 16,500 photovoltaic panels, will be located on 27 University-owned acres between the Dinky, the Delaware & Raritan Canal, Washington Road and Route 1. It is expected to generate roughly 5.5 percent of the campus’ electrical power and reduce energy costs by about 8 percent.

“The fact that a solar energy project like this can be done on a scale where it’s not just tokenism is important,” University Vice President for Facilities Michael McKay said in an interview. “Being able to demonstrate that you can do something cost effectively with renewable energy is extremely important.”

The University intends to pay for the project through a distinct funding model. It will partly pay for the solar collector field under the New Jersey’s Solar Renewable Energy Certificate program, through which the state will issue one SREC to the University for every 1,000 kilowatt-hours of solar energy it generates, until 2020.

The University will sell the credits to a utility company to help offset the costs of the project until 2020, after which it will retire the credits by ceasing to sell them in order to help reduce carbon dioxide emission levels.

The solar collector field is expected to last for at least 30 years. It will be funded by environmental incentives under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The system itself will be owned and funded by Key Equipment Finance, a company that provides financing solutions for various organizations. Key Equipment Finance will lease the photovoltaic cells to the University for a lower rate reflecting the federal incentives.

“What’s more important than the size of the project is the leadership role we’re taking,” said University energy plant manager Ted Borer in the University statement. “We’re using a business model for the system that others will want to adopt.”

Anumakonda Jagadeesh comments:

Excellent. Princeton University is one of the prestigious Universities where Innovation is a Must. Solar PV is the future energy option in the Energy Mix. The Solar Installations will act as catalyst for other Universities to emulate. Congratulations Princeton University for the fine Clean Energy Initiative.