Meghalaya has become the latest state to become a participant of the Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana (Saubhagya) programme, which aims to provide last-mile connectivity to all willing households in India by 2018. The programme was launched on April 20, 2018 by the state’s Chief Minister Shri Conrad Read more
Hero Future Energies has commissioned the country’s first large-scale hybrid renewable energy project—a combination of sun and wind power—in Karnataka’s Raichur district. The company has added a 28.8 MW solar project to an existing 50 MW wind project set up two years ago. Also, both wind and solar are ‘infirm’ sources of Read more
The Karnataka government inaugurated the first phase of a 2,000 MW solar park in the drought-prone Pavagada region of Tumkur district on March 1, 2018. The first phase of the `16,500 crore park called ‘Shakti Sthala’ will generate 600 MW, while the balance 1,400 MW is expected to be commissioned Read more
Costa Rica’s new president has announced a plan to ban fossil fuels and become the first fully decarbonized country in the world. Carlos Alvarado, a 38-year-old former journalist, made the announcement to a crowd of thousands during his inauguration. “Decarbonization is the great task of our generation and Costa Rica Read more
With 2.3 million solar panels—covering the equivalent of 2,200 football fields in the arid northern state of Coahuila— the Villanueva power plant, built by the Italian energy company Enel, is part of Mexico’s push to generate 43% of its electricity from clean sources by 2024. Arrayed across the sand in seemingly endless Read more
In 2017, Asia accounted for nearly two-thirds of the worldwide increase in renewable energy generating capacity, according to a report published in April 2018 by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). IRENA, an intergovernmental organization based in Abu Dhabi, reported that the global renewable energy capacity in 2017 was 2,179 Read more
Australia can help solve its water crisis by optimizing use of water-friendly solar energy, a new report concludes. Because solar power generation consumes minimal to zero water, it beats waterhungry coal-fired power production in terms of conserving an increasingly precious natural resource. That’s the verdict of the World Resources Institute (WRI). Its new report Read more
Transforming Agriculture in a Remote Village of the Sundarbans The Gosaba Island situated in the Sunderbans region of West Bengal in India is surrounded by tidal rivers connected with the Bay of Bengal, bringing water of high salinity (more than 30 dS/m), which is not suitable for irrigation in agriculture. Read more
India has a huge potential for installing grid-connected rooftop solar PV projects. Plenty of unused rooftop space is available in the buildings in the government, institutional, industrial, commercial, and residential sectors that can be utilized for installing grid-connected rooftop solar PV projects. The Government of India has also set up Read more
A transition to renewable energy is taking place in India and for it to be accelerated, there has to be an infusion of capital, which requires reducing risks, transaction costs, and enabling large-scale replication. These were some of the points discussed by experts at a special session on ‘Energy Transitions: Read more