Reply by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) in compliance to the National Green Tribunal (NGT) order dated January 21, 2024 in the matter of ‘News item titled “Feeling anxious? Toxic air could be to blame” appearing in Times of India dated 10.10.2023’. NGT had directed CPCB to file a …
Solar power has started replacing conventional power in some areas even as researchers persevere in developing more efficient solar cells to tap this clean source of almost limitless energy (New Scientist, Vols 145, 146, Nos 1969, 1974). In Germany, bus stops, shelters, parking ticket machines and speed warning signs powered …
THE expression sinall is beautiful has been proved true in the case of the internal combustion engine. Rick Mayne and his colleagues at Split-Cycle Technology in Arundel, Queensland, Australia, have substituted a few large pistons with scera small ones in a 2-stroke engine and claim that this would sharply reduce …
Negotiations are in the final stages between the Union ministry of nonconventional energy sources (MNES) and the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) to establish a Wind Energy Centre at Kayathar in Tamil Nadu. MNES secretary 8 R Prabhakara says that Tamil Nadu is the ideal location as it accounts for …
AN AMERICAN company, Ultralife Batteries, has launched the world's first lightweight rechargeable battery made entirely from solid materials. The battery, launched a few weeks ago, can be recharged more than 1,000 times with only a tiny loss of capacity. In comparison, conventional batteries can be recharged a maximum of 200 …
The American industry is pushing for a new lease of life to solar thermal power technology. As a first step in this direction, Solar One, a solar thermal power project located in California is being renovated (Solar Today, Vol 9, No 2). The Luz International Company which set up and …
GEOTHERMAL power is fast emerging as a significant source for electricity in several island nations, mainly in the Indian Ocean and the Pacific regions (The Royal Geographical Society Magazine, Vol 68, No 3). For instance, Indonesia is setting up 2 geothermal power plants each of 55 mw capacity on the …
In India, the Union ministry of non-conventional energy sources is pursuing various R&D; projects to harness the geothermal energy available. About 340 hot springs have been identified in the country, with temperatures varying from 60oC to 130oC. A 5kw experimental power plant is being operated at Manikaran in Himachal Pradesh. …
The US firm, Amoco-Enron Solar Power Development Corp of Houston, Texas, has proposed a solar photovoltaic (SPV) power plant in Rajasthan's Thar desert. The 150 mw project is estimated to cost Rs 1,000 crore (Solar Today, Vol 9, No 1). This proposal comes in the wake of a breakthrough in …
To conserve energy. the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board has introduced a range of distribution transformers called Amorphous Metal-core Distribution Transformers (AMDT). These transformers could reduce the "noload po"wer loss", or idling loss to 60 watts (w) as compared to 260 w by a conventional transformer. Says Tamil Nadu's minister for …
HAZEL O'Leary's visit early this month has renewed the conviction that, as she promised, India retains a high-priority status in America's renewable energy establishment. The US energy secretary's agenda for promoting her country's commercial and environmental interests is backed by its industry. American enthusiasm has obviously been energised by growing …
THE ministry of non-conventional energy sources (MNES) is giving the rich city dweller in the country an optional source of electricity: rooftop photovoltaic cell units which convert sun rays into electricity. The proposal is commendable since, compared to CO2 emitting coal, it is cleaner, and ultimately cheaper, technology. However, what …
IN TOO pat a manner, some critics have already seen in us secretary of energy Hazel O'Leary's wide-ranging talks with her counterpart Indian ministers, evidence of a forced transfer of exorbitant energy and environment technologies, for which this country would have to, proverbially, pay through the nose. The criticism is …
AN INDICATOR of a society's level of development is the quantity and quality of the energy it consumes. This is made clear by the wide disparity in per capita energy consumption in industrialised and developing countries. USA consumes more energy annually than Africa, Latin America, India and China put together. …
WHAT DIRECTIONS are science and technology going to take now that UNCED has put environment on the political agenda? Though they were not very much in the spotlight, many scientists were present in Rio to stress that while the development of science and technology has been held responsible for the …
THOUGH no commitments have as yet been made by industrialised countries to reduce &rbon; emissions, car manufacturers in the West are already gearing themselves up for renewable and cleaner technologies in the near future. The European Community is pushing for stabilisation of carbon emissions by the year 2000. In Germany, …
THIS YEAR, US President George Bush announced that US $1.4 billion is to be made available in 1993 to the US Global Change Research Programme (USGCRP), which will lead to a massive increase in humankind's understanding of the earth's atomosphere. As a part of the programme, a network of remote …
• Pesticides manufacturer Monsanto is testing genetically-engineered cotton resistant to the deadly bellworm. The cotton contains genes from a natural ly-occurri ng bacterium called Bacillus thuringiensis which kills the bollworm. • Hundreds of wind turbines produced by the Japanese corporation, Mitsubishi, are now being used on one of the largest …
