Clean energy market monitor: March 2024
Clean energy is growing rapidly, as annual deployment of a number of key technologies has surged ahead in recent years driven by policy support and continued cost declines. Their growth is starting to
Clean energy is growing rapidly, as annual deployment of a number of key technologies has surged ahead in recent years driven by policy support and continued cost declines. Their growth is starting to
India is fast waking up to use of energy-efficient lighting. Ever mounting power consumption with demand outstripping supply every year has further made it essential.
Cold and isolated, iceland may be the last place that comes to your mind when you think of data centres.
Only up to powering light bulbs so far, "salt power' is a tantalising if distant prospect as high oil prices make alternative energy sources look more economical.
City-Based Agharkar Research Institute (ARI), in association with GreenLeaf Renewable Energy Pvt Ltd, has announced the launch of 3EBT, an innovative technology to produce biogas from de-oiled castor
Oil at $100-plus a barrel incentivises search for all kinds of substitutes and/or alternative oil extraction technologies.
Coal-fired power plants are taking hits from all sides.
INTERNATIONAL Finance Corporation (IFC) will soon start providing assistance to municipal bodies in carrying out energy audits (details of energy availability and consumption). Based on these audits, the corporation will provide financial assistance to energy-saving companies working with municipal bodies. IFC would also provide technical assistance to municipal entities in floating energy tenders. "We are in talks with more than 200 municipalities across the country. IFC would be providing these municipalities assistance in energy audits. IFC would also provide financial support to energysaving companies if they are not being completely supported by the municipal corporations,' IFC chief investment officer (south Asia) Anita Marangoly George told ET. IFC, a World Bank arm, has prepared a new manual in association with the Bureau of Energy Efficiency and Alliance to Save Energy to bring out the energy audits. IFC claims 20-30% of India's energy requirements could be addressed if municipalities adopt the energysaving mechanisms suggested in the new manual. IFC would provide support to the municipalities throughout the bidding process for bringing the energy audits as well as awarding contracts to the energy-saving companies for the implementation of energy-saving techniques in the towns.
A new type of power plant harnesses the sun
Solar cells generate electricity from sunlight without producing' pollution, but some environmentalists have been concerned about the potential negative impact of this photovoltaic technology. This is because the manufacture of solar cells involves toxic metals such as lead, mercury and cadmium and produces carbon dioxide, which contributes to global warming. However, the first comprehensive study of the pollutants produced during the manufacture of solar cells gives them a reassuringly clean bill of health. Researchers at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York report that photovoltaic cells produce far fewer air pollutants than conventional fossil fuel technologies when manufacturing is fully accounted for. The study will appear next month in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, Vasilis Fthenakis and colleagues gathered data from 13 solar cell " manufacturers in Europe and the US over three years. The cells included four major commercial types: multicrystalline silicon, monocrystalline silicon, ribbon silicon and thin-film cadmium telluride The study concluded that generating electricity from solar cells reduced air pollutants by about 90 per cent compared with using electricity generated in conventional power stations
If two scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory are correct, people will still be driving gasoline-powered cars 50 years from now, churning out heat-trapping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere