Electricity consumption from the manufacture of artificial intelligence (AI) chips has soared by more than 350 percent worldwide between 2023 and 2024, according to new research from Greenpeace East Asia. In East Asia, the global hub for AI semiconductor production, growing electricity demand from AI chipmaking has been met primarily …
THE new range of energy-efficient compressors for refrigerators being developed by Shriram Refrigeration Industries is a godsend, considering the appallingly inefficient consumption of energy in the Indian domestic sector. However, the impact of these devices may be much less than desired. Energy saving devices such as compact fluorescent lamps (cfls), …
A recent study by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has suggested that modifying and upgrading the existing machinery and technology in power plants and reducing transmission and distribution losses can ensure the availability of an additional 12,000 mw of electricity. According to the study, this will require an investment …
PLANTS have been doing it for millions of years now, but it is only now that scientists are tasting success in trapping the sun"s energy in chemicals and then using it to produce fuels. Plants and some bacteria harness solar energy through photosynthesis. But scientists trying to tap almost unlimited …
ON JULY 17, the construction of India's largest power station and one of the world's biggest private sector power plants would have begun. The ultra-modern, 2,015-mw plant in Dabhol, 170 km south of Bombay in Maharashtra's Ratnagiri district, is being pitched as the "most efficient solution" to the looming power …
In its cynical sense, the price of power is a phrase which often evokes rich imagery. Seen from any angle, the Indian government's decision to go in for what is going to be the world's largest, private sector electricity plant, to be constructed at Dabhol in Maharashtra by the US …
• Violin-makers may soon have to use plastic instead of rare hardwoods, according to the Fauna and Flora Preservation Society, UK. Supplies of pernambuco, used to make violin bows, and impigo, used in clarinets and oboes, are falling to crisis levels. Wind instruments, however, pose the biggest problem as customers …
An agreement between the Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB) and Enron Corp, a US-based multinational power company, to set up a 2,015 megawatt power plant in Dabhol in Ratnagiri district has come in for criticism. The plant is to be set up by General Electric and Bechtel Corp of the …
• Investors have been flocking to timber-based businesses in Malaysia, where timber related stocks are being traded at high prices. This is a result of a combination of strong timber prices and a comparative scarcity of timber-related listings on the Kuala Lumpur stock market. • Japanese electronics firms are looking …
LIFE WOULD not be possible without the light and heat received from the sun. For all the energy that we consume on earth -- whether in the form of biomass or oil -- the ultimate source is the radiation from this fairly ordinary star in the Milky Way galaxy. The …
The Tamil Nadu State Electricity Board (TNSEB) has been castigated by the Union ministry of coal for trying to import Australian coal to step up power generation. The ministry is worried the high sulphur content of Australian coal may cause acid rain. A disgruntled TNSEB has retaliated by pointing out …
CONFRONTED with the prohibitive cost of linking remote hill villages to state power grids, the government is pushing small hydro electric schemes as an alternative solution to meet their power needs. So convinced are government experts of the usefulness of these schemes, they have included a total investment of more …
THE POTENTIAL of small hydro power in the country has been estimated at nearly 5,000 mw, but only about 86 mw have been realised. Of this, about 25 mw is from micro hydel schemes. In the Eighth Plan, a capacity of 256 mw is expected to be added, of which …
Coal, oil and large hydel plants have always been associated with power generation, while small hydro systems have been shunned because of a belief that the "smaller the size, the higher the cost". On the face of it, this is true: In some small hydro schemes in the Uttar Pradesh …
Israeli scientists claim to have devised a cheap way to generate electricity in deserts near the coast by using sea water. The method can also be modified to desalt sea water and use it for desert farming. The scientists say in this process, sea water is pumped to the top …
BIPUL Adak is a puzzled man. "Why does the government flout its own rules?" he asks of the move to set up a thermal power plant on rich, fertile agricultural land near Calcutta. Disregarding environmental guidelines, the West Bengal government allowed the privately owned Calcutta Electric Supply Corp (CESC) to …
ELECTRICITY may soon be used to clean up chemical-contaminated soils using a new technology, which has been developed by scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The technology, which is expected to be put on trial by the end of next year, will cost about $25 per tonne. Current …
EVERY summer, power cuts torment residents of most Indian cities. However, a report submitted to the Union ministry for power by two non-resident Indian energy economists suggests that while technologies that would put a lesser load on the country's groaning power generation system are already available, animosity among organisations have …
REOPENING the Metsamor nuclear power plant is turning out to be a devil of a problem for beleaguered Armenia. The plant had supplied almost half of Armenia's electricity requirements, but was shut down after a devastating earthquake in the area killed 25,000 people in 1988 and raised fears that radiation …
THOUGH the implementation of a structural adjustment programme has yet to be announced by either Indonesia or the World Bank, recent events indicate such a step has already been taken. The 1993-94 Indonesian budget increases total income-tax revenue by 36 per cent and also raises the cost of transport, electricity …
PRIME Minister P V Narasimha Rao warned a conference of state power ministers recently that the "agriculture sector (must) no longer be entitled to free or concessional power supply." But the ministers, reluctant to ruffle the rich farm lobby, instead passed a resolution to implement by March 31 a minimum …
