Low Carbon News in India in August 2014
India’s First Ethanol-Run Bus Rolls out in Nagpur
India’s first pilot project to test ethanol-run environment-friendly public buses was launched in Nagpur by Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari on Friday.
The “Green Bus” project is a brain child of Mr Gadkari, who claimed the carbon-dioxide emissions from the bus will be as low as 75 per cent to 90 per cent — depending on the purity of ethanol.
Nonetheless, the emissions will be monitored for the next three months by the Nagpur Municipal Corporation, the state and the central governments.
A massive Rs. 6 lakh crore annual fuel bill has ruined the economy, Mr Gadkari said. Using ethanol is expected to reduce the fiscal deficit and fuel imports by Rs. 2 lakh crore. Plus, ethanol being currently priced at Rs. 50 a litre, it would mean cheaper transport for the people.
China electric-vehicle makers seek to plug into Gujarat
The city could soon see electric ambulances, police cars and even buses manufactured by Chinese companies. China’s electrical vehicle manufacturing industry is exploring investments in Gujarat and also eyeing an industrial park here. A seven-member delegation from China was in the city for two days to identify a location and seek partners for joint ventures.
The delegation was in the state as part of an event hosted by China India Trade and Investment Centre (CITIC). “A key advantage of hybrid or plug-in electric vehicles is regenerative braking due to their capability to recover energy that is normally lost during braking, as electricity is stored in the on-board battery.
The delegation members included manufacturers of electrical vehicles for SUVs, two and three wheelers, road cleaning vehicles, city sanitary car, ambulance, police car, among others. The chairman of the China Electrical Car Association and Wenzhou Electrical Car Association was part of the delegation. Among companies at the delegation were Green Field Motor Co Ltd, VOCH Group Ltd, YueHua Control Group Ltd., Zhuji Yongcheng Auto Co. Ltd., Wenzhou Jinpi Machinery Manufacturing Co Ltd and JBON Control Industry.
E-scooters for women in India
An Ahmedabad-based electric vehicle manufacturing company Morello Yamasaki, which is a joint venture between Mumbai’s Arya Group and Japan’s Yamasaki Motors, is planning to come up with these low speed electric scooters within the next two months. Rajit R Arya, chief executive officer, Morello Yamasaki said that the company was planning to price the vehicles at around Rs 35,000 and there would be a 10% discount for women buyers.
“The Nirbhaya scooters are targeted at women commuters especially as these have this general package radio service (GPRS) enabled tracking system built into the scooters. The scooters would be connected to the mobile phones through an application and at the press of a button would communicate the location of the user to her family members whose numbers she has fed into the system. It would continue to transmit the location thereafter in every two or three minutes,” Arya explained at the sidelines of a conference on ‘Sustainable Mobility with Electric Vehicles organised by CII.
He feels that the product would have a demand amongst the women commuters especially in the backdrop of women safety related concerns in recent times, and hence has also strategically named it ‘Nirbhaya’ after the unfortunate victim of the December 2012 Delhi gang-rape case.
However, these scooters fall into the low speed category with a maximum speed of around 25 km per hour, and according to Arya do not require a two-wheeler license to drive one. As such the effective speed attained during peak traffic hours in cities is not more than 25-30 kmph, he reasons.
India’s first plant that recycles construction waste
Over the last five years, India’s first and only recycling plant for construction and demolition (C&D) waste has saved the already-polluted Yamuna and the overflowing landfills of Delhi from 15.4 lakh tonnes of debris.
A Ministry of Urban Development circular on June 28, 2012, directed States to set-up such facilities in all cities with a population of over 10 lakh. But, till now the existing facility at Burari is the only one.
In the past few months, efforts are on to increase the plant’s production, as well as set up more facilities to reduce the amount of waste dumped at landfills. The erstwhile unified Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) had started the plant in 2009, with Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) operating the 10-acre site at Burari at Jahangirpuri in North Delhi.
A meeting of the North Delhi Municipal Corporation’s Standing Committee on Thursday approved the waste collection contract with IL&FS till 2019 and sanctioned Rs. 23 crore for the expenditure on transporting the materials to the plant. Members of the committee visited the plant on Wednesday.
With near-constant buzz of construction activity across the Capital, 5,000 tonnes of waste is produced by building, demolition and land-clearing activities every day. Though the plant was set up with 500 tonnes per day (TPD) capacity, it has more than doubled today.
As of now, most of the C&D waste produced in Delhi ends up being dumped along the Yamuna or in the Ridge area. Making recycling difficult, it is usually mixed with municipal solid waste.
The IL&FS facility gets mixed C&D waste from 28 designated points in three zones of the North Corporation, which pays for transportation. The civic body collects and transports the waste to the plant from the remaining of the areas. Once at the plant, the waste is segregated into big concrete pieces, mixed C&D waste as per size and unrecyclable materials like plastic and wood, which are sent to a waste-to-energy plant in Okhla. The plant uses manual segregation for bigger plastic pieces as well as a magnetic separator for metallic objects.
The waste is crushed, washed and used to make ready-mix concrete, kerb stones, cement bricks, pavement blocks, hollow bricks and manufactured sand. Not only does the plant reduce the load at landfills, it is also better for the environment as it uses treated effluent supplied from the Delhi Jal Board.
Noida plans to generate energy from waste
The authorities of Noida, Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway are working to set up a waste-to-energy plant — the district’s first solid waste management plant 1 by 2016. The Rs 260-crore project, which aims to promote non-conventional energy and generate renewable power, will treat nearly 1,000 tonnes of waste generated by the district every day and is expected to be ready by 2016.
Despite an annual budget of over Rs 100 crore and 1,600 employees working to keep Noida clean, various city localities are facing waste disposal problem. Established nearly 40 years ago, the city is yet to have a land fill site to dispose the waste it generates.
States asked not to overdraw from grid
The Northern Regional Load Dispatch Centre has sent an SOS to all northern states to curtail overdrawing in Northern Grid. The alert issued after high power demand in the northern region caused fluctuations in grid frequency this week.
All states have been asked to be on alert. Delhi is one of the northern region constituents and has been seeing an unusually high power demand in the second fortnight of August, as compared to previous years.
NRLDC had tightened grid frequency bandwidth last year to ensure grid stability, but reports came in that some states like UP, Rajasthan and Jammu & Kashmir were overdrawing heavily from the grid to meet the load demand. The situation has been aggravated because NRLDC said some power units had pulled out from generation due to the ongoing coal shortage.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/41252661.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst
Develop green bank for renewable energy: NRDC-CEEW report
The government should consider developing a green bank and green bonds (capitalised through the National Clean Energy Fund, issued by the central or state governments) to leverage more private investment in renewable energy, according to a report on ‘Renewable energy jobs and finance’ published by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW). The report, which assess domestic and international opportunities to fund clean energy in India, was released by Suresh Prabhu, head of the Advisory Group for Integrated Development of Power, Coal and Renewable Energy recently.
According to NRDC-CEEW analysis, India’s solar and wind programs have catalysed rapid growth providing much needed energy access, creating employment opportunities for India’s workforce. The analysis also finds that deployment of innovative financing solutions is needed in order to scale India’s renewable energy markets and widespread job creation.
According to NRDC-CEEW report, Indian government should boost financing for renewable energy projects by improving access to low cost finance, using diverse financial mechanisms such as infrastructure debt funds, priority sector lending and tax incentives (such as accelerated depreciation and tradable tax certificates). It recommends implementation of generation based incentives and penalties in combination with any form of viability gap or tax related capital subsidies.
http://www.business-standard.com/content/b2b-manufacturing-industry/develop-green-bank-for-renewable-energy-nrdc-ceew-report-114082700812_1.html