Almost All Power Capacity Added In India In Q4 2017 Was Renewable

03.04.2018

solar-panels- — Photo-ilustration: Pixabay

Renewable energy technologies, led overwhelmingly by solar power, continued to lead in new power generation capacity installed in India in the fourth quarter of last year.

According to data released by the federal government agencies, more than 93% of the power generation capacity added in India between October and December 2017 was based on renewable energy technology. This marks a continuation in the trend seen in the third quarter last year when just over 92% of the power generation capacity added in India was based on renewable energy technologies.

The overwhelming share of renewable energy technologies in new capacity added speaks volumes about the rapid pace at which solar and wind energy projects are being commissioned and the sluggish to no growth seen in the thermal, primarily coal-based, power sector.

Of the 2,887 megawatts of new capacity added in Q4 2017, 2,689 megawatts was based on renewable energy technologies. None of the capacity added during the quarter was based on any fossil fuel technologies. Solar had a massive share of 79% in the total new capacity added while bioenergy projects was a distant second with 8% share. Large hydro and wind energy projects had a share of 7% and 5%, respectively. Small hydro power projects wrapped up the new capacity addition with a share of 1%.

Hydro power projects with an installed capacity of more than 25 megawatts are currently not classified as renewable energy projects in India. However, the federal government has been mulling a change in this classification for a long time.

In the third quarter, solar power had a share of 82% in net capacity addition. Wind energy had a share of 10%, while large hydro power projects registered a share of 8% in the net new capacity added.

The thermal power sector not only saw no new capacity added in the third and fourth quarters last year but witnessed a decline in installed capacity. India retired and permanently shut down 1,126 megawatts of thermal power capacity in Q3 and 490 megawatts of capacity in Q4 last year. This is the reason the total renewable energy capacity added in Q3 and Q4 has been more than the net new capacity added.

Against a net capacity addition of 879 megawatts in Q3 India added 1,854 megawatts of renewable energy capacity, including 1,657 megawatts of solar power capacity. And against a net capacity addition of 2,397 megawatts in Q4, India added 2,689 megawatts of renewable energy capacity, including 2,281 megawatts of solar power capacity.

Source: cleantechnica.com

World’s Largest Desert Growing Even Larger, Partly Due to Climate Change

02.04.2018

The Sahara Desert—which takes up about 3.6 million square miles of northern Africa—is growing ever larger, signaling daunting news for people living in the Sahel border region who stand to lose valuable arable land to the expanding desert.

The boundaries of the world’s largest hot desert, already around the size of China or the continental U.S, have grown roughly 10 percent since 1920 due to natural climate cycles as well as man-made climate change, according to a new study by National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded scientists at the University of Maryland.

“The trends in Africa of hot summers getting hotter and rainy seasons drying out are linked with factors that include increasing greenhouse gases and aerosols in the atmosphere,” said Ming Cai, a program director in NSF’s Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences.

As a summary of the new study pointed out, as the Sahara expands, the Sahel retreats—putting the region’s fragile savanna ecosystems and human societies under threat.

“These trends have a devastating effect on the lives of African people, who depend on agriculture-based economies,” Cai noted.

For the study, published this week in the Journal of Climate, researchers analyzed annual rainfall data recorded throughout Africa from 1920 to 2013. Deserts are defined as places that receive less than four inches of rain per year. After analyzing the rainfall data, the researchers determined that many areas in the Sahara now fall under this threshold.

“It is shown that the Sahara Desert has expanded significantly over the twentieth century, by 11 percent-18 percent depending on the season, and by 10 percent when defined using annual rainfall,” the study states.

The researchers only studied the Sahara, but the results suggested that other deserts could be expanding as well.

“Our results are specific to the Sahara, but they likely have implications for the world’s other deserts,” said Sumant Nigam, an atmospheric and ocean scientist at the University of Maryland, and the senior author of the study.

According to the research team, natural climate cycles such as the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation have primarily driven the Sahara’s rapid expansion, but these forces account for just two-thirds of the Sahara’s total expansion.

The remaining one-third can be attributed to human-caused climate change. Nigam explained that deserts usually form in the subtropics because of what’s called Hadley circulation, through which air rises at the equator and descends in the subtropics. Climate change, the researchers warn, could widen that circulation and cause subtropical deserts to inch north.

“Climate change is likely to widen this Hadley circulation, causing the northward advance of subtropical deserts,” said Nigam, adding that at the same time, “the southward creep of the Sahara suggests that additional mechanisms are at work.”

The African continent is one of the most vulnerable to climate change, yet its inhabitants are the least responsible for it. Truly, one of the great injustices of our time.

The researchers suggested that longer climate records that extend across several climate cycles are needed to reach definitive conclusions.

“Our priority was to document long-term trends in rainfall and temperature in the Sahara,” said Natalie Thomas, a researcher at the University of Maryland and lead author of the paper. “Our next step will be to look at what’s driving these trends, for the Sahara and elsewhere.”

Source: Eco Watch

How Smartphones Are Heating Up the Planet

02.04.2018

When we think about climate change, the main sources of carbon emissions that come to mind for most of us are heavy industries like petroleum, mining and transportation.

Rarely do we point the finger at computer technologies.

In fact, many experts view the cyber-world of information and computer technologies (ICT) as our potential savior, replacing many of our physical activities with a lower-carbon virtual alternative.

That is not what our study, recently published in the Journal of Cleaner Production, suggests.

Having conducted a meticulous and fairly exhaustive inventory of the contribution of ICT—including devices like PCs, laptops, monitors, smartphones and tablets—and infrastructure like data centers and communication networks, we found that the relative contribution of ICT to the total global footprint is expected to grow from about 1 percent in 2007 to 3.5 percent by 2020 and reaching 14 percent by 2040.

That’s more than half the relative contribution of the entire transportation sector worldwide.

Another disconcerting finding is that all this extraordinary growth is mostly incremental, essentially shattering the hope that ICT will help reduce the global carbon footprint by substituting physical activities with their virtual counterparts.

Perhaps the most surprising result of our study was the disproportionate contribution of smartphones relative to the overall ICT footprint.

We found that the relative emissions share of smartphones is expected to grow from 4 percent in 2010 to 11 percent by 2020, dwarfing the individual contributions of PCs, laptops and computer displays.

In absolute values, emissions caused by smartphones will jump from 17 to 125 megatons of CO2 equivalent per year (Mt-CO2e/yr) in that time span, or a 730 percent growth.

The lion’s share of this footprint (85 to 95 percent) will be caused not by the use of the device, but rather by its production. That includes, in addition to the manufacturing energy, the energy for material mining for gold and the so-called rare-earth elements like yttrium, lanthanium and several others that today are almost exclusively available only from China.

Another guilty participant in this excessive carbon footprint are the phone plans that encourage users to get a new smartphone every two years. That accelerates the rate at which older models become obsolete and leads to an extraordinary and unnecessary amount of waste.

These findings pertain to the device side.

On the infrastructure side, we predict the combined footprint of data centers and communications networks will grow from 215 megatons of C02 equivalent a year (Mt-CO2e/yr) in 2007 to 764 MtCO2-e/yr by 2020, with data centers accounting for about two thirds of the total contribution.

For comparison purposes, the entire carbon footprint of Canada was about 730 MtCO2-e in 2016 and is expected to decrease by 2020.

The growth in smartphones and data centers aren’t unrelated.

Indeed, it’s the dizzying growth in mobile communications that’s largely driving the pace for data centers. For every text message, video download, photo exchange, email or chat, there’s a 24/7 power-hungry server in some data centre that’s making it happen.

It’s the energy consumption that we don’t see.

Finally, and perhaps the most ironic aspect of all this, is that it’s software that is driving the overall growth in ICT as a whole, devices and infrastructure included.

Software companies like Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft and Yahoo boast some of the largest data centers in the world. The rise in dominance of the mobile operating systems, namely Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android, along with the millions of mobile applications that are built on top of those platforms, has spawned the mobile communication age.

The incredible—as well as unsustainable—growth in the emission footprint of all this hardware is there for only one purpose: To support and serve the software universe.

In other words, while it’s the hardware that does all the dirty work, it’s the software that’s calling all the shots.

At the societal level, we must demand that all data centers run exclusively on renewable energy.

At the individual level: Hold on to your smartphone for as long as you can, and when you do upgrade, make sure you recycle your old one. Sadly, only 1 percent of smartphones are being recycled today.

Source: Eco Watch

Saudi Arabia to House World’s Largest Solar Project

02.04.2018

According to the most recent data available from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), Saudi Arabia is the second largest oil producer in the world. It produces 13 percent of the world’s oil and gets 60 percent of its own electric energy from petroleum.

But the desert nation, whose Paris agreement action plan was rated as “critically-insufficient” by Climate Action Tracker in November 2017, is about to go from zero to hero on the green scale.

On Tuesday, it announced that it would partner with Japanese tech conglomerate SoftBank to build the world’s largest solar power project, Bloomberg reported.

Except that “world’s largest” doesn’t quite cover of size of the project’s ambitions.

According to Bloomberg, the project, which will be built in the Saudi desert, is projected to generate 100,000 jobs and produce 200 gigawatts of power by 2030, 100 times the next biggest planned project, the Solar Choice Bulli Creek PV Plant in Australia, which only aims to produce two.

“It’s a huge step in human history,” Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman told Bloomberg. “It’s bold, risky and we hope we succeed doing that.”

Solar power is a logical choice for Saudi Arabia. It’s capital, Riyadh, averages 8.9 hours of sunshine a day, and the country is also projected to be severely impacted if climate change raises global temperatures above 1.5 degrees Celsius above industrial levels. According to Climate Action Tracker, if global temperatures rise to three or four degrees Celsius, 75 percent of the country would be excessively arid by the end of the century.

“The kingdom has great sunshine, great size of available land and great engineers, great labor, but most importantly, the best and greatest vision,” SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son said of the new project, as reported by Bloomberg.

To provide more context for the scope of that vision, Fortune pointed out that the total capacity of all existing solar installations is around 400 gigawatts, which is only double what the Saudi/SoftBank project plans to produce on its own. China’s Tengger Desert Solar Park, the largest installation currently in operation, generates a little more than 1.5 gigawatts. Since the Saudi project estimates an output of 7.2 gigawatts by 2019, it will more than quadruple the output of the current leader in just one year.

The project is projected to cost $200 billion overall. Saudi Arabia will have to import panels at first, and it will also need to build up the battery capacity to store the solar energy. The first phase will cost $5 billion, $1 billion of which will come from the Vision Fund, which Saudi Arabia and SoftBank are joint investors in.

Son told Fortune he thought the investment would be worth it.

“The project will fund its own expansion,” he said.

The Saudi government’s bold investment in solar power humbles the U.S., which, according to EIA data, is the country currently leading it as no. 1 oil producer.

However, instead of encouraging the solar industry in order to reduce production of fossil fuels, the Trump administration has given it the jitters by announcing a 30 percent tariff on imported solar panels this January.

Source: ecowatch.com

Pollution Sources Have Increased More Than 50% In Last 8 Years, China’s Environment Ministry Reports

02.04.2018

In relation to a new nationwide survey meant to ascertain the amount of environmental damage done by the last 30 years of rapid growth, China’s environment ministry has revealed that the number of pollution sources within the country has increased by over half in just the last 8 years.

Considering that such a large figure makes for bad PR, it’s interesting that the ministry has publicly reported as much — which makes one wonder to a degree whether actual figures could be somewhat higher.

It should be realized, though, that the ministry in question is an entirely new one — the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) — so perhaps the figures are actually accurate.

As explained by the head of the new ministry’s pollution survey office, Hong Yaxiong: “The goal for the census is to do thorough data collection so that it can reflect the extent of the pollution.”

Reuters provides more: “The government is currently conducting a second nationwide ‘environmental census’ aimed at identifying pollution threats throughout the country. The first was published in 2010. … The environment ministry absorbed new duties formerly held by the land, water, and agriculture ministries as part of the biggest government shake-up in years. It will also now be in charge of climate change and carbon emissions.

“The new census is due to be completed in 2019. According to preliminary estimates, the total number of pollution sources now stands at 9 million, including 7.4 million industrial sources, 1 million in rural areas, and 0.5 million from urban locations, Hong said.

“The first census conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics from 2007 to 2009, uncovered 5.9 million sources of pollution nationwide, with the industrial provinces of Guangdong, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang at the top of the list. The survey also identified 209.8 billion tonnes of waste water, 63.7 trillion cubic meters of waste gas emissions, and 3.852 billion tonnes of industrial solid waste nationwide.”

Interestingly, further aspects of the survey will involve the widespread examination of common soil pollution sources (sources of lead, mercury, and cadmium, amongst other compounds). Considering the scale of the country’s population, and the widespread contamination and destruction of much of its farmland as the result of industrialization, such a survey would seem prudent.

Source: cleantechnica.com

Clean Air Is Now a Status Symbol in the World’s Most Polluted Cities

01.04.2018

The Cordis hotel in Shanghai boasts proximity to railways and the airport, a beautiful pool, and double-filtered air. Indeed, air quality seems to be a selling point for this luxury hotel — each of its 396 rooms is equipped with a pollution monitor, The Guardian reports.

Breathing clean air is the new cool in super-polluted cities such as Shanghai, Beijing or Delhi. And it’s just another way that the rich can afford to distinguish themselves from the poor, who are forced to constantly choke on sickening, polluted air.

In 2014, the WHO quantified the effects of toxic air. It is, in short, thought to cause around 7 million premature deaths per year and is responsible for an array of medical conditions including lung cancer and heart attacks.

Governments have tried to downplay the issue. But Asia’s megacities, the pollution crisis became too severe to ignore — the Chinese government was forced to take action or risk undermining its popularity among families worried for their children’s health.

Putting a literal price on clean air might not have been part of the plan, but it seems to be a natural result; the private sector has jumped on the opportunity to make a profit in the face of crisis. From expensive schools in Delhi, attended by the children of the local elite or of rich expats, to luxury hotels like the Cordis, those who can afford it are making clean air a commodity.

“I think back to the days when everyone used to charge for the internet,” John O’Shea, managing director of the Cordis, told The Guardian. “Now the internet’s like hot water – if you don’t have high speed, fast, easy-access internet for free, then it’s over. The indoor air quality is going to be like that too – if you can’t guarantee your customers much better air quality than the competitors, it’s going to be a fait accompli. It’s already getting that kind of importance.”

In many parts of the world, wealth equals health (or, at least, gives you much more access to it). Prohibitive healthcare costs mean that, if you’re not wealthy, treating your diabetes or cancer may not be an option.

The pollution divide, too, may soon become the new normal.

Countries will undoubtedly continue efforts to clean up their air, but this will likely happen slowly. In the meantime, people who can’t afford to breathe better air will keep suffering from asthma, lung cancer and heart conditions.

Source: Futurism

Land Degradation Threatens Human Wellbeing

01.04.2018

Land degradation is undermining the wellbeing of two-fifths of humanity, raising the risks of migration and conflict, according to the most comprehensive global assessment of the problem to date.

The UN-backed report underscores the urgent need for consumers, companies and governments to rein in excessive consumption – particularly of beef – and for farmers to draw back from conversions of forests and wetlands, according to the authors.

With more than 3.2 billion people affected, this is already one of the world’s biggest environmental problems and it will worsen without rapid remedial action, according to Robert Scholes, co-chair of the assessment by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). “As the land base decreases and populations rise, this problem will get greater and harder to solve,” he said.

The IPBES study, launched in Medellín on Monday after approval by 129 national governments and three years of work by more than 100 scientists, aims to provide a global knowledge base about a threat that is less well-known than climate change and biodiversity loss, but closely connected to both and already having a major economic and social impact.

The growing sense of alarm was apparent last year when scientists warned fertile soil was being lost at the rate of 24bn tonnes a year, largely due to unsustainable agricultural practices.

The new assessment goes further by looking at vegetation loss, forest clearance, wetland drainage, grassland conversion, urban sprawl and pollution, as well as how these changes affect human health, wealth and happiness.

Drawing on more than 3,000 scientific, government, indigenous and local knowledge sources, the authors estimate land degradation costs more than 10% of annual global GDP in lost ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration and agricultural productivity. They say it can raise the risks of flooding, landslides and diseases such as Ebola and the Marburg virus.

There are also geopolitical implications. The authors cite evidence of a strong association between land degradation, migration and instability. In dryland regions, years of extremely low rainfall have been associated with an up to 45% rise in violent conflict. Depending on the actions taken by governments to address climate change and the decline in soil quality, the authors estimate between 50 to 700 million people could be driven from their homes by 2050. The worst affected areas are likely to be the dry fringes of southern Iraq, Afghanistan, sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia.

To counter this, the authors call for coordination among ministries to encourage sustainable production and for the elimination of agricultural subsidies that promote land degradation. They urge consumers to reduce waste and be more thoughtful about what they eat. Vegetables have a much lower impact on land than beef. Farmers are encouraged to raise productivity rather than clear more land. Companies and governments are advised to accelerate efforts to rehabilitate land. There have been several successful projects on China’s Loess plateau, in the Sahel and in South Africa.

The economic case for land restoration is strong, according to the report, which says benefits (such as jobs and business spending) are 10 times higher than costs, and up to three times higher than price of inaction. But in most regions, remedial work is overdue. National governments are not living up to a global commitment to neutral land degradation by 2030.

Participants compared the rundown of land to the 2008 financial crisis. “Back then, people borrowed more money than they could repay. Now we are borrowing from nature at a rate that is many times higher than the world can sustain. The day of reckoning will come,” said Christian Steel, director of Sabima, a Norwegian biodiversity NGO. In Europe, he said, the industrialisation of forest and agriculture is degrading the land. “We are also importing more food and, by doing so, displacing the impact of our consumption. We are fooling ourselves. Disaster doesn’t hit suddenly like in a Hollywood movie. It is already happening gradually.”

“This is extremely urgent,” said another of the co-chairs, Luca Montanarella. “If we don’t change lifestyles, consumption habits and the way we use land, then sooner or later we are going to destroy this planet. Looking for another one is not an option.”

Source: Guardian

It’s Time for Samsung to Truly Innovate

31.03.2018

Last month at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Samsung announced its new Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+, which only recently hit the market. But the event was unexpectedly quiet this year and the reason could be that, beside a few incremental features and larger cameras, new models aren’t really changing much.

Its phones might have the most cutting-edge technology, but the way Samsung manufactures its electronics is still stuck in the Industrial Age. For instance, Samsung uses about 16 terawatt a year, which is equivalent to that of the Dominican Republic, but only 1 percent of that is sourced from renewable energy. Instead of new models, what we really need is leadership tackling climate change across the sector, and a much more aggressive transition by corporations to renewable sources of energy that also extend into product supply chains.

Electronic devices have become more energy efficient, but their increasing complexity means more energy is spent manufacturing them.

Samsung has a unique status in the IT industry. The company has thousands of suppliers across the world, and provides key components to Apple, Oppo, Vivo, Xiaomi, Huawei and many others. If Samsung switches to 100 percent renewables, the impact will create a positive domino effect among other companies, facilitating an even faster transition to 100 percent renewable energy within the sector.

Despite the fact its carbon footprint is growing, Samsung has not yet set emissions reduction or a renewable energy targets for its supply chain, nor made public its top suppliers.

The company announced that it will release a renewable energy strategy by August 2018, but this is nowhere near enough given the scale and urgency of what we are facing. If it really wants to show its leadership, Samsung CEOs need to make climate change a priority and show the ambition to switch its operations to 100 percent renewable energy.

There are benefits for tech companies to switch to renewable energy. The increasing cost competitiveness of renewable energy, with long-term contracts increasingly at cost parity or even beating fossil fuels in many markets, also provides long-term price security. Furthermore, brands that can link their identity to a renewable supply of energy are better perceived by customers, given the growing concern on climate change.

Samsung’s home country of South Korea is also transitioning toward a clean energy system, offering the company an unprecedented opportunity to embrace renewables. Just recently, one of South Korea’s most coal-intensive provinces, Chungnam province, pledged to phase out coal by 2050 and the President has promoted a transition away from fossil fuels to renewables.

What is Samsung still waiting for?

As the world’s biggest smartphone vendor, it’s time Samsung uses its influence and power to really innovate.

This is bigger than electronics. This is bigger than business. This is about the legacy that we can leave for our children.

Source: Eco Watch

Texas Blue Cloud 148 Megawatt Wind Farm Reaches Financial Close, Begins Construction

30.03.2018

Tri Global Energy has announced this week that its 148 megawatt wind project has reached financial close and will begin construction with investment from Denmark-based Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and wind turbines supplied by Danish wind turbine manufacturer Vestas.

Three separate announcements were made on Wednesday that confirmed the finalization and beginning of construction work on the new 148.4 megawatt (MW) Blue Cloud Wind Energy Project set to be developed across 19,000 leased acres of privately-owned farmland in Bailey and Lamb Counties in Texas.

Tri Global Energy, the developer of the project, announced that Blue Cloud reached financial close on Wednesday thanks to investment from Denmark’s Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) who will also act as the long-term owner and operator of the project. CIP confirmed, for its part, that it will be making an equity investment in the project through their Copenhagen Infrastructure II K/S (CI-II) fund.

At the same time, Vestas announced that it would be providing 135 MW worth of its V126-3.45 MW wind turbines along with a 25-year service agreement.

“Blue Cloud will become our second equity investment in the US onshore wind market that we bring to Financial Close with tax equity investors,” said Christian Skakkebæk, Senior Partner in CIP. “We are glad to continue our successful cooperation with our partners and we are looking forward to see Blue Cloud delivering its first unit of electricity to the grid.”

“This is Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners’ second equity investment in wind in the US and with a service contract lasting a quarter of a century also a strong testament to the partnership we are building and the trust our customers have in our service offerings,” said Chris Brown, President of Vestas’ sales and service division in the United States and Canada. “At the same time, the order expands the 4 MW platform’s footprint in the US, highlighting the platforms’ momentum in North America, and Vestas’ product diversity and flexibility.”

Supply and commission will be conducted by Vestas, with completion expected by the end of this year.

Source: cleantechnica.com

UK To Introduce Deposit Return Scheme For Single-Use Plastic Bottles

30.03.2018

A deposit return scheme for single-use plastic drink bottles will be introduced this year in the UK, with the idea being to improve the rate of plastic bottle recycling and thus to reduce litter.

The new plans echo some of those put into place in recent years in a number of other countries in the region (and elsewhere in the world, as well), including in Germany, Sweden, and Denmark.

To provide a basic overview: customers are charged a bottle deposit when buying a drink in a plastic bottle, which can then be redeemed for money or store credit (often via automated return systems) if brought back empty.

The UK’s environment minister Michael Gove was quoted in a public statement on the matter as saying: “We can be in no doubt that plastic is wreaking havoc on our marine environment — killing dolphins, choking turtles, and degrading our most precious habitats. It is absolutely vital we act now to tackle this threat and curb the millions of plastic bottles a day that go unrecycled.”

The new plans are subject to public consultations later this year, reportedly.

Reuters provides more: “British consumers get through about 13 billion plastic drink bottles a year but more than 3 billion are either incinerated, sent to a landfill, or left to pollute streets, the countryside, and marine environment, the government said…The consultations will focus on the details of how the scheme will work along with other measures to increase recycling rates.

“A possible alternative to the deposit return scheme is cash rewards for returning drink containers, the government said. This is often executed by a network of ‘reverse vending machines’ through which a plastic or glass bottle can be inserted into one and the machine returns money.”

These plans follow on the imposition of mandatory plastic bag fees in the UK in 2015 and represent part of a broader push to reduce plastic litter. While such plans aren’t enough on their own to “deal with” the vast problem of plastic pollution, they would/will likely to help to reduce it to a notable degree.

Source: cleantechnica.com

Engie Reports Progress On More Than 600 Megawatts Of Solar & Wind In India, Eyes Stake Sale

30.03.2018

French energy utility Engie announced major progress in India regarding its renewable energy business in India this month. The company has seen rapid growth in the highly competitive wind and solar power markets in India.

Solairedirect, a subsidiary of Engie operational in India, started commercial operations of a 101 megawatt (DC) solar PV project in the state of Uttar Pradesh. The project has an AC listed capacity of 75 megawatts. The company had secured the rights to develop the project under the federal solar power policy at a tariff of Rs 4.43/kWh (6.8¢/kWh) in June 2016. The company will sell electricity to the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) for a period of 25 years.

The project was launched jointly by the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the French President Emmanuel Macron following the conclusion of the first-ever summit of the International Solar Alliance in New Delhi earlier this year.

The company also commissioned a 190 megawatt (DC) project in Rajasthan. The project is actually split in two projects, each having an AC listed capacity of 70 megawatt each. The projects are located in the famous Bhadla solar power park which will be home to India’s cheapest solar power projects in a few months. Solairedirect had bid for the projects at Rs 4.35/kWh (6.4¢/kWh) for these projects which was a competitive bid at that time.

Solairedirect finally signed the power purchase agreement for a 338 megawatt (DC) solar power project to come up at the Kadapa solar power park in the state of Andhra Pradesh. The company has placed a bid of Rs 3.15/kWh (4.8¢/kWh) in April last year. The bid was the lowest for any solar power project in India at that time.

The project, with AC capacity of 250 megawatts, faced several delays as the power distribution utilities in Andhra Pradesh initially refused to sign a power purchase agreement (PPA), claiming that they do not require any additional solar power. But as we analyzed earlier, that was not true. The utilities have now agreed to sign the PPA reportedly after NTPC Limited (the company that floated the tender) agreed to ‘bundle’ thermal power with the solar power generated from the project. This would further reduce the price Andhra Pradesh utilities pay.

Engie also won rights to develop wind energy projects in the states of Gujarat and Tamil Nadu. The company will develop 80 megawatts of capacity which it secured through competitive auctions.

Source: cleantechnica.com

ABB Mobile App Takes Safety into the Digital Era

30.03.2018

ABB AbilityTM SafetyAPP for power generation and water customers enables plant employees to quickly report safety risks, improve situational awareness and reduce potential safety risks.

Since its introduction in 2014 in ABB, SafetyAPP has driven the reporting of 50,000 safety risks and reduced the number of serious incidents in Europe by 50 percent.

Previously, reporting hazards was a lengthy paper-based process that discouraged employee engagement and gave only a partial picture of safety in the company. With the SafetyAPP, businesses have immediate insights and traceability into the safety risks at their sites.

Employees download the app to their smart phones and use it to report any hazard they observe at work, without having to return to their desks to issue a report in another software. Risks reported could range from a slippery floor to unsafe practices observed.

In a simple five-step procedure, which takes about two minutes to complete, employees name the risk they have observed, take a photo and briefly describe it.

Once the report is sent, the app notifies the employee’s safety line manager, who then assigns a person to rectify the risk within a defined deadline.

Not only does the app transform reporting, tracking and managing hazards into a simple procedure, it raises staff awareness of safety and makes employees more observant of safety hazard in their surroundings. ABB data show that the more risks are reported, the fewer serious incidents occur.

One company whose senior management immediately saw the value in the app is multiutility Iren.

“We have more than 6.000 employees working every day at several sites in our territories,” says Massimiliano Bianco, Iren’s chief executive officer. “ABB’s SafetyAPP helps keep our people safe by making it easy to report, track and manage hazards. Its digital format provides us with valuable information on safety at our sites, which we are using to raise awareness to a higher level.”

The SafetyAPP is part of ABB Ability™ Collaborative Operations portfolio for power generation and water, which enables customers to improve the safety, performance and profitability of their people and operations. ABB Ability is our unified, cross-industry digital capability — extending from device to edge to cloud — with devices, systems, solutions, services and a platform that enable our customers to know more, do more, do better, together.

ABB is a leading provider of integrated power and automation solutions with unparalleled experience in partnering with the energy and water industries, bringing customers improved operations and sustainable progress. We deliver integrated and secured digital systems, services and solutions to automate and optimize the performance of conventional and renewable power plants and water facilities.

ABB (ABBN: SIX Swiss Ex) is a pioneering technology leader in electrification products, robotics and motion, industrial automation and power grids, serving customers in utilities, industry and transport & infrastructure globally. Continuing a history of innovation spanning more than 130 years, ABB today is writing the future of industrial digitalization with two clear value propositions: bringing electricity from any power plant to any plug and automating industries from natural resources to finished products. As title partner of Formula E, the fully electric international FIA motorsport class, ABB is pushing the boundaries of e-mobility to contribute to a sustainable future. ABB operates in more than 100 countries with about 135,000 employees. www.abb.com

MHI Vestas Signs Four MoUs For Taiwanese Offshore Wind Development

30.03.2018

The burgeoning offshore wind industry in Taiwan has received yet another massive boost after one of the world’s leading offshore wind energy companies, MHI Vestas, announced that it has signed four Memorandums of Understanding with leading local companies to begin building out their supply chain in the region.

MHI Vestas — the joint offshore wind partnership between Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Vestas — announced on Wednesday that it had signed four Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with four Taiwanese companies, namely CSMC for wind towers, Tien Li for blade manufacturing, Swancor for composites and resins, and Formosa Plastics Corporation for materials for blade manufacturing. The agreements are part of MHI Vestas’ ongoing manufacturing strategy in the region.

“The Taiwan offshore wind market has impressively put itself in a front-runner position in the region,” explained incoming MHI Vestas CEO, Philippe Kavafyan. “Having the benefit of early selection of a portfolio of projects allows us to enter into these manufacturing agreements with great confidence. We are honoured to announce these partnerships today – partnerships that will spur the expansion of highly-skilled, local manufacturing jobs.

“In bringing our market-leading 9 megawatt (MW) turbine platform and a rich heritage of energy infrastructure experience through Mitsubishi Group, MHI Vestas is well positioned to be the market leader in Taiwan.”

The MoUs also build on Mitsubishi Group’s existing experience in energy infrastructure in Taiwan, giving MHI Vestas a leg-up in its build-out.

“Mitsubishi Corporation (MC) has been actively operating in Taiwan since the 1940s, especially in the power business,” added Mitsubishi Corporation Taiwan Chairman & CEO, Mr. Koji Nemoto. “MC has installed a number of power plants together with MHI for Taipower and other owners. At the same time, MC has been building a great relationship with MHI Vestas through the offshore wind business in Europe.”

“With this background, we highly welcome and fully support MHI Vestas for its market entry to the emerging offshore wind market in Taiwan and we are confident that they will greatly contribute to realising the energy transition in Taiwan.”

The move by MHI Vestas follows a bevvy of similar announcements from offshore wind competitors Siemens Gamesa and Ørsted (formerly DONG Energy) over the past few months, which highlights a new focus on the Taiwanese offshore market and its surrounding regions.

In January of last year, DONG Energy invested in Taiwan’s first offshore wind farm, the 120 MW Formosa 1 project set to be developed by local company Swancor Renewable, and also supported by Macquarie Capital. In December, the company now known as Ørsted announced that it had moved several steps closer to beginning work on the massive 2 gigawatt (GW) of Taiwanese Greater Changhua offshore wind projects, acquiring environmental approval and securing a subsea cable partner in Taiwanese Woen Jinn Harbour Engineering.

“Local content has been placed at the center of our project development activities,” said Matthias Bausenwein, Ørsted’s General Manager Asia Pacific and Chairman Taiwan. “In the past year, the local Ørsted team has met over 170 Taiwanese companies and identified 15 companies for close collaboration. CWP has a very strong background in large-scale steel manufacturing and shown significant ambition to invest in offshore wind manufacturing business.”

At the same time, the newly-formed Siemens Gamesa has been making its own way into the Taiwanese offshore wind market, signing in December a Memorandum of Understanding with the Taiwan International Ports Corporation to investigate the possibility of developing an offshore wind manufacturing and deployment site. Siemens Gamesa also opened offices in Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, and signed a second MoU to explore potential manufacturing sites at the Taichung Harbor for offshore wind components, office facilities, and staging areas including storage, pre-assembly, and quayside load-out.

“The promising potential of the Taiwanese offshore market combined with our positive experience with the government has encouraged us to intensify our efforts,” said Andreas Nauen, CEO Offshore, Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy. “We are convinced that this emerging market offers interesting business opportunities. As one of the world’s leaders within the offshore wind industry, we look forward to gaining a foothold in this market.”

Source: cleantechnica.com

Reports: McDonald’s to Pilot Alternatives to Plastic Straws

30.03.2018

McDonald’s has become the latest big name brand to step up efforts to tackle plastic waste, revealing it is to trial more sustainable alternatives to plastic straws and is closing in on ensuring 100 per cent of its packaging is recyclable.

In an interview with Sky News, McDonald’s UK boss Paul Pomroy said the company would soon be trialling paper straws in two of its restaurants, as part of a wider effort to reduce plastic straw waste.

“[One thing] we’re looking to do is to move to recycled paper on the straws and biodegradeable paper straws,” he said. “That test, I’m really proud to say, will start next month, here in and around London.”

He added that all McDonald’s restaurants would also seek to reduce the number of plastic straws they hand out. “Customers have told us that they don’t want to just be given a straw, they want to have to ask for one, because straws is one of those things that people feel passionately about, and rightly so,” hetold the broadcaster. “We’re now moving those straws behind the front counter, so if you come into McDonalds going forward, starting next month, you’re going to be asked if you want a straw.”

Pomroy also confirmed work was continuing to ensure all of the company’s packaging is recyclable. “Eighty per cent of what you have in Mcdonald’s is now recyclable, we’ve offered recycling facilities for our customers and I’m really proud of the journey we’ve been on,” he said. “The only thing left for us now to move forward on is the lids that go on to our cups, we’re working with our suppliers… We’re really close. It’s one of those things, technology is advancing all the time and we hope within the next year to be able to have a hot lid and a cold lid that serves the same purpose that’s recyclable.”

The news comes on the same day as the government announced it is to consult on the introduction of a national Deposit Return Scheme that could cover all drinks containers.

It also follows a raft of pledges from retailers and hospitality firms to crack down on plastic packaging, including McDonald’s recent global announcement it is to accelerate efforts to curb packaging waste and adopt a science-based emissions target.

In related news, Starbucks last week stepped up its efforts to ensure disposable coffee cups are more widely recycled with the announcement of a $10m partnership with Closed Loop Partners and its Center for the Circular Economy to deliver a new “NextGen Cup Challenge”.

The coffee chain said the technology challenge was “the first step in the development of a global end-to-end solution that would allow cups around the world to be diverted from landfills and composted or given a second life as another cup, napkin or even a chair – anything that can use recycled material”.

Colleen Chapman, vice president of Starbucks global social impact, said the project amounted to a “moon shot for sustainability”.

“No one is satisfied with the incremental industry progress made to date, it’s just not moving fast enough,” she said. “So… we are declaring a moon shot for sustainability to work together as an industry to bring a fully recyclable and compostable cup to the market, with a three-year ambition.”

The company said the industry-wide technology challenge would run alongside an internal research project to trial a new bio-liner, made partially from plant-based materials, for use in paper cups. The six month internal trial will test both the environmental impact of the new material and whether the cup’s liner can meet stringent safety and quality standards. Starbucks said the trial marked the 13th internal test of its kind in the last year alone, as the company works to deliver a “Greener Cup”.

Source: businessgreen.com

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