Sustainability Outlook Headlines

Government seeks to tap energy wasted by factories as power source

The government has drawn up a plan to tap waste heat as a source of power. In a draft policy, the ministry of new and renewable energy estimates that the potential in selected industrial sectors for waste heat power generation (WHP) is about 5,000 megawatts (MW).

According to the draft, as much as 20-50% of the energy used by industry is wasted, being released into the environment in the form of exhaust gases and liquids that flow out of plants.

“The industrial sector accounted for 44% (532 billion KWh) of total electricity consumed (1,208 billion KWh) in India for the year... Read more..

ReNew Power to set up solar rooftop for Indian Railways

ReNew Power Ventures, a renewable energy development company, won bids for 5 MW solar installations across various locations for the Indian Railways. The company will be investing close to Rs 35 crore in these projects which will supply energy to Railways through a 25-year power purchase agreements. 

This is the first set of allocations by Indian Railways to any company under PPA mode. Out of the total 5 MW... Read more..

China's Sany Group to invest $2 billion in Gujarat

Chinese conglomerate Sany Group today signed an MoU with the Gujarat Government to invest a staggering $2 billion over the next five years in various energy and infrastructure projects in the state. 

The pact for the proposed investment in the state was signed today in the presence of Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani at Gandhinagar after his meeting with the Chinese delegation, led by Liang Wengen,... Read more..

ReNew leads the pack in bagging rooftop solar projects

Having bagged 49MW of projects across different states and under different models of financing, ReNew Power is the biggest winner among the hundreds of solar developers who have been allotted parts of the Solar Corporation of India's (SECI) mega tender of 500 MW of solar rooftop projects. Other major winners are Jakson Engineers with 16 MW, Hero Solar Energy with 13.2 MW, Puroshottam Profiles with 12.5 MW and Bosch Ltd with 10.4 MW.

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IEA Warns That Climate Change Pledges Fall Far Short Of What Is Needed

One of the most important and comprehensive reports on the outlook for the global energy markets is the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) World Energy Outlook (WEO). Earlier this month the IEA published the World Energy Outlook 2016 – a 667-page report that dives deeply into recent developments across the energy sector and projects trends to 2040 under a variety of scenarios.

The report is important for a... Read more..

Hungry bacteria can help extract energy from sewage

Domestic sewage containing organic wastes, mainly from toilets and kitchens, may prove to be a source of energy that can be harvested by using hungry bacteria, scientists say.

"The levels of organic matter in sewage are too low to be directly recovered. We investigated how we can use bacteria to capture this material," said Francis Meerburg from Ghent University in Belgium.

... Read more..

BioSteel, Self-Healing Protective Fabrics Among Latest Innovations Revolutionizing Textiles

Hot on the heels of its release earlier this month of the world’s first football and running performance products made from upcycled marine plastic waste, adidas continues its journey toward revolutionizing materials with the unveiling of the world’s first performance shoe made using Biosteel® fiber – a synthetic version of spider silk.

Developed by German biotech company AMSilk, adidas’ Futurecraft... Read more..

Pollution control board to crack whip on brick kilns

With widespread reports of violation of rules by brick kilns in Jammu, the State Pollution Control Board (SPCB) has ordered a survey of units who continue to flout norms though installation of pollution control devices have been made mandatory by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).

Officials said following the directives, a majority of the 130 kilns in Jammu had installed monitoring devices but for... Read more..

Pollution Control Board raps Jal Nigam over tannery discharge

Taking serious note of flow of tanneries discharge into Ganga, the Pollution Control Board (PCB) has written a letter to general manager, pollution control unit of Jal Nigam in this regard.

The regional pollution control board office, expressing its displeasure, has asked the Jal Nigam to take all precautionary measures to check flow of tannery discharge into the river. The former has directed the latter to... Read more..

Overall power deficit at 0.7 per cent in April-October: Piyush Goyal

India recorded overall power deficit of 0.7 per cent in the first 7 months of the current fiscal, with availability of 681.34 billion units, as against demand of 686.09 BU, Parliament was informed today. 

The government has planned to make the country energy surplus with generating target of 1,178 billion units to achieve overall electricity surplus of 1.1 per cent in 2016-17. 

... Read more..

BGR Energy Systems bags Rs 2,789 crore order from NLC India

BGR Energy Systems has bagged Rs 2,788.60 crore order from NLC India Ltd for its 1,980 MW thermal power plant in Ghatampur, Uttar Pradesh. 

"On November 21, 2016 Letter of Award (LoA) was issued to BGR Energy Systems, Chennai, for the balance of plant package (GA3 package) of Ghatampur power project (3x660 MW) of Neyveli Uttar Pradesh Power Ltd (NUPPL), a subsidiary of NLC India Ltd (NLCI) to a value of Rs 2... Read more..

1% budget allocation of each government department to climate change adaptation

In a major decision to deal with climate change which is threatening to assume worrying proportions, the Uttarakhand government has decided to deploy one percent of the total budget of each of its 66 department towards climate change adaptation measures . State council on climate change has given the go-ahead for the move which is expected t be formalized soon. Experts said that the move, if implemented properly, is likely to induce sensitivity among departments towards dealing with the increasingly worsening... Read more..