Sunday, September 26, 2010
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
New blog post : Greening of Toys - Inducing innate sustainable behavior in Kids http://bit.ly/9GBTIg
Monday, September 20, 2010
Achieving the Wind Energy Potential of India - Challeneges and Imperatives (1 of 2) http://ping.fm/WnQ5j
Sunday, September 19, 2010
New blog post : Has New-york Times Spotted the Black Swan - imperatives for the news paper industry http://bit.ly/dbaMUE
Has New-york Times Spotted the Black Swan - imperatives for the news paper industry http://ping.fm/womqJ
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Achieving the Wind Energy Potential of India - Challenges and Imperatives (2 of 2) http://ping.fm/c1LbV
Friday, September 17, 2010
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
North America's electric system is facing serious challenges. Major questions exist about its ability to continue providing citizens and businesses with relatively clean, reliable, and affordable energy services. The recent downturn in the economy masks areas of grid congestion in numerous locations across America. The "information economy" requires a reliable, secure, and affordable electric system to grow and prosper. Unless substantial amounts of capital are invested over the next several decades in new generation, transmission, and distribution facilities, service quality will degrade and costs will go up. These investments will involve new technologies that improve the existing electric system, and advanced technologies that could revolutionize the electric grid.
The vision of the smart grid is to break down barriers between transmission and distribution, communications, and back office systems to create a fully integrated network that provides diagnosis and resolution of problems as they arise and enables real time exchange of information between the utility and its customers.
The power transmission and distribution system is being transformed into a smart grid that integrates a multitude of distributed energy resources, uses solid state electronics to manage and deliver power, and employs automated control systems. The power industry, trailing behind other economic sectors already revolutionized by computerization, will see inexpensive computing power and low cost bandwidth infuse every element of the grid with digital intelligence in coming decades.
Advanced metering plays a major role in any smart grid infrastructure, and wireless applications are at the heart of advanced metering communications systems. The wireless comm. networks that will support advanced metering systems in the future will provide faster & more accurate use, load, and disruption information, which will help utility companies plan & manage their resources more effectively.
The vision of the smart grid is to break down barriers between transmission and distribution, communications, and back office systems to create a fully integrated network that provides diagnosis and resolution of problems as they arise and enables real time exchange of information between the utility and its customers.
The power transmission and distribution system is being transformed into a smart grid that integrates a multitude of distributed energy resources, uses solid state electronics to manage and deliver power, and employs automated control systems. The power industry, trailing behind other economic sectors already revolutionized by computerization, will see inexpensive computing power and low cost bandwidth infuse every element of the grid with digital intelligence in coming decades.
Advanced metering plays a major role in any smart grid infrastructure, and wireless applications are at the heart of advanced metering communications systems. The wireless comm. networks that will support advanced metering systems in the future will provide faster & more accurate use, load, and disruption information, which will help utility companies plan & manage their resources more effectively.
Saturday, September 11, 2010
The EuroStat report at http://bit.ly/bhvvFL finds an encouraging trend of improved renewable energy usage across Europe.
Key Findidngs of the report:
Energy dependency fell by 5.7%
Gross inland consumption fell by 5.5% in 2009
Production of primary energy sources dropped for the third consecutive year
Energy intensity dropped for the sixth consecutive year
Russia was once again the main supplier of oil, natural gas and coal
As summaries in the New-york times, the report finds out that from 2008 to 2009 alone, the use of renewable energy in the European Union increased 8.3 percent. Portugal now gets nearly 45 percent of its electricity from renewable sources, up from 17 percent five years ago. It also found that the production of energy from hard coal and natural gas showed an “important decrease†(9.2 and 10.1 percent, respectively). To reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the European Union is also aggressively pushing its members to cut back on their use of coal.
Renewable energy now accounts for 18.4 percent of energy production in the European Union, just behind natural gas, which provides 19.3 percent. Energy intensity – a measure of how much energy is used to make a unit of economic output – dropped for the sixth straight year. That means member nations are learning to use energy more efficiently.
“The decoupling of increasing economic activity from increasing energy consumption is a goal for sustainable development,†the report notes. Emerging economic giants like China have been loath to define binding greenhouse gas reduction targets but have instead set as their goal reducing their energy intensity.
The report found that energy consumption across the European Union dropped 5.5 percent, to levels not seen since the 1990s – although at least some of the reduction is a result of the global recession.
Key Findidngs of the report:
Energy dependency fell by 5.7%
Gross inland consumption fell by 5.5% in 2009
Production of primary energy sources dropped for the third consecutive year
Energy intensity dropped for the sixth consecutive year
Russia was once again the main supplier of oil, natural gas and coal
As summaries in the New-york times, the report finds out that from 2008 to 2009 alone, the use of renewable energy in the European Union increased 8.3 percent. Portugal now gets nearly 45 percent of its electricity from renewable sources, up from 17 percent five years ago. It also found that the production of energy from hard coal and natural gas showed an “important decrease†(9.2 and 10.1 percent, respectively). To reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the European Union is also aggressively pushing its members to cut back on their use of coal.
Renewable energy now accounts for 18.4 percent of energy production in the European Union, just behind natural gas, which provides 19.3 percent. Energy intensity – a measure of how much energy is used to make a unit of economic output – dropped for the sixth straight year. That means member nations are learning to use energy more efficiently.
“The decoupling of increasing economic activity from increasing energy consumption is a goal for sustainable development,†the report notes. Emerging economic giants like China have been loath to define binding greenhouse gas reduction targets but have instead set as their goal reducing their energy intensity.
The report found that energy consumption across the European Union dropped 5.5 percent, to levels not seen since the 1990s – although at least some of the reduction is a result of the global recession.
Friday, September 10, 2010
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Renewable energy is dramatically approaching grid parity from a cost perspective in many places. For example, recent maps published by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory show that solar energy, even at the residential level, will be cost effective in most of the U.S. by 2015. Now that the rebate program has been extended to 2016, the cost of equipment and deployments are dropping and new financing models are being developed. This is most promising and absolutely thrilling to me
Friday, September 3, 2010
US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) proposed new fuel economy labels for cars and light-trucks coming to showrooms.
The new labels for fuel efficiency come on the heels of recently improved standards for fuel economy and global warming pollution finalized last April. The standards, which phase in during model years 2012 to 2016, increase the average fuel economy of new vehicles to 34.1 miles per gallon and hold emissions of greenhouse gases to no more than 250 grams of CO2 per mile starting the mandate from 2012.
EPA and NHTSA have proposed two label designs. The new labels also introduce greenhouse gas emissions rates (in gCO2/mile) and a fuel consumption rate (gallons/100 mi) along with traditional miles per gallon metric and an estimated annual fuel cost. The fuel consumption metric is helpful because it relates directly to operational costs and environmental performance. For example, when comparing two cars that differ in fuel consumption rates by 20 percent, their fuel costs and global warming emissions will also differ by 20 percent. The redesign of the fuel economy label was partly driven by the need to label emerging vehicles that run, at least partially, on electricity instead of gasoline or diesel fuel to compare the value of these new non-petroleum technologies with their conventional oil-powered counterparts.
EPA and NHTSA propose to further simplify the process of finding the cleanest, most efficient vehicles by grading all cars, minivans, SUVs and pickups with A+ (best) to D (worst) letter grades. The letters summarize the characteristics of fuel efficiency, global warming pollution and cost of operation.
The new labels for fuel efficiency come on the heels of recently improved standards for fuel economy and global warming pollution finalized last April. The standards, which phase in during model years 2012 to 2016, increase the average fuel economy of new vehicles to 34.1 miles per gallon and hold emissions of greenhouse gases to no more than 250 grams of CO2 per mile starting the mandate from 2012.
EPA and NHTSA have proposed two label designs. The new labels also introduce greenhouse gas emissions rates (in gCO2/mile) and a fuel consumption rate (gallons/100 mi) along with traditional miles per gallon metric and an estimated annual fuel cost. The fuel consumption metric is helpful because it relates directly to operational costs and environmental performance. For example, when comparing two cars that differ in fuel consumption rates by 20 percent, their fuel costs and global warming emissions will also differ by 20 percent. The redesign of the fuel economy label was partly driven by the need to label emerging vehicles that run, at least partially, on electricity instead of gasoline or diesel fuel to compare the value of these new non-petroleum technologies with their conventional oil-powered counterparts.
EPA and NHTSA propose to further simplify the process of finding the cleanest, most efficient vehicles by grading all cars, minivans, SUVs and pickups with A+ (best) to D (worst) letter grades. The letters summarize the characteristics of fuel efficiency, global warming pollution and cost of operation.
Electronic Industry demonstrating proactive corporate citizenship on Conflict Minerals http://ping.fm/Gu6ta
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Ford Uses Innovative Liquid-Cooled Battery System to Help Focus Electric Owners Maximize Range: DEARBORN, Mich., S... http://bit.ly/aUKlpt
India has a vast supply of green energy resources, and has a significant program for deploying these resources. The various types of Renewable Energy in India - are Wind Energy, Solar Energy, Hydro electric and bio mass energy. The Renewable Energy market in India is pegged at US$600 million, growing at 15% per annum. The Government’s renewable energy target by 2030 is 200 gigawatts, estimated to require US$200 billion in capital investment. Currently, 3.5% of installed capacity is in the renewable sector, producing 3700 MW. Renewable energy is projected to produce 10,000 MW by 2012.
India Energy and Electricity Scenario: India consumes 3.4% of global energy. The Indian power industry is growing at a rapid pace. The Annual demand is increasing by 3.6% over the last 30 years. There is surging demand from domestic and industrial sectors.
Industrial sector − 35.5% (2006-07)
Domestic sector − 25.87% (2006-07)
The State Electricity Boards (SEBs) are main agencies for the generation and supply of electricity. Private investments in the Power Sector have been allowed since 1991, and therefore there is increased participation of private and global players.
The different sources of Power in India are Coal, Gas, Hydroelectric, Wind, Solar. Coal is still the biggest source of Power. The installed capacity for power generation in India is 1,49,391.91 MW.
Though 82.4% of villages are electrified less than 60% of households consume electricity. Thus the per capita consumption of electricity is the lowest in India. Industry followed by Agriculture are the two main sectors that consume power. But the power sector in India faces many roadblocks like ineffecient distribution systems, low capacity utilization and poor maintenance.
By 2012, India will need another 60 to 70 GW of power, the demand would be 950,000 MW by 2030
For the Indian economy to grow at 9% annually, additional capacity of 60 GW must be added every five years. This requires approx. US$100 billion in investment every five years. The domestic sector will cross 29% by 2011-12, industrial sector will remain almost stagnant. The Government promise of 100% electricity to domestic users will push up consumption. Government policies and foreign investment in the sector will aim at bridging the huge gap between supply and demand of electricity in India.
Industrial sector − 35.5% (2006-07)
Domestic sector − 25.87% (2006-07)
The State Electricity Boards (SEBs) are main agencies for the generation and supply of electricity. Private investments in the Power Sector have been allowed since 1991, and therefore there is increased participation of private and global players.
The different sources of Power in India are Coal, Gas, Hydroelectric, Wind, Solar. Coal is still the biggest source of Power. The installed capacity for power generation in India is 1,49,391.91 MW.
Though 82.4% of villages are electrified less than 60% of households consume electricity. Thus the per capita consumption of electricity is the lowest in India. Industry followed by Agriculture are the two main sectors that consume power. But the power sector in India faces many roadblocks like ineffecient distribution systems, low capacity utilization and poor maintenance.
By 2012, India will need another 60 to 70 GW of power, the demand would be 950,000 MW by 2030
For the Indian economy to grow at 9% annually, additional capacity of 60 GW must be added every five years. This requires approx. US$100 billion in investment every five years. The domestic sector will cross 29% by 2011-12, industrial sector will remain almost stagnant. The Government promise of 100% electricity to domestic users will push up consumption. Government policies and foreign investment in the sector will aim at bridging the huge gap between supply and demand of electricity in India.
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