India meets solar mission target for FY18 thanks to year-end push

India is likely to have met its target of adding 10,000 watt of solar power generation capacity in the year ended March 2018, thanks to a sudden spurt of installations during the final months of the year (Jan-Mar), going by numbers released by an independent group. According to Mercom India, a consultancy that tracks the […]

82% of landowners accept compensation for Jaitapur Nuclear Power Plant

Around 82.5% of the landowners at the site of the upcoming Jaitapur Nuclear Power Plant in Maharashtra have agreed to receive compensation under the project, the ministry of atomic energy said today. Out of 2,236 people whose land needs to be acquired for the mega project, 1,844 have accepted the compensation and 1,820 have received […]

Yes Bank lends Rs 750 cr to Mahindra Group for Rewa solar plant

Yes Bank said it will lend Rs 750 cr to Mahindra Renewables Pvt. Ltd., part of the Mahindra Group, for constructing a 250 megawatt solar farm in the solar park at Rewa in Madhya Pradesh. The project has raised another Rs 200 cr from other financial institutions and achieved financial closure, the bank added. The […]

Mahindra to invest Rs 500 cr into electric vehicle development

Automaker Mahindra & Mahindra said it will invest Rs 500 cr at its Chakan plant in Maharashtra for product development and capacity enhancement in its electric vehicle operations. The investment is in addition to the Rs 6,500 cr expansion program that is already going on at the plant that also makes non-EV models, India’s biggest […]

Ashok Leyland bets on Israel-based company’s Aluminum Air battery for electric commercial vehicles

Ashok Leyland, the auto arm of the Hinduja Group said it signed a Letter of Intent (LoI) with Phinergy, an Israel-based company that is developing Aluminium Air batteries for long-range vehicles. Unlike lithium ion batteries, which need to be recharged after 200-500 km, a vehicle that uses aluminum air battery can run for several thousand […]

No new plans to modify National Green Tribunal – Govt

The BJP-led government at the center has said that it has no further plans to amend the powers or constitution of the National Green Tribunal, the quasi-judicial body set up by the previous UPA government for protecting the environment. “There is no amendment proposed in the Constitution and functions of the National Green Tribunal,” Mahesh […]

Orient Green Power sells biomass units; sees the wind turning

Orient Green Power Co, the renewable arm of the Shriram Group, said it has sold much of it biomass power generation business to a unit of its promoter and that its wind power business is benefiting from higher offtake by the Tamil Nadu power distribution company. The company had around 96 megawatts (MW) of biomass […]

6,500 MW of wind projects to be auctioned in 3 months in India

The central government and various state governments will award contracts to set up another 6,500 MW (6.5 GW) of wind energy projects in the next three months, the ministry of renewable energy said. Combined with the 3 GW awarded in the first nine months of this fiscal year, this will take the total amount of […]

SOLAR MISSION: It’s another nail-biter for India in 2017-18

India faces steep odds in its race to meet its solar power addition targets for the current year. Last year, the country had added only 5.53 GW of incremental solar power capacity against a target of 6 GW. This year, the target is 10 GW. However, as of November end, it has added only 3.46 […]

BJP MP seeks solar lights for forest encroachers

Bishnu Pada Ray, the member of Lok Sabha representing Andaman & Nicobar Islands has asked for permission to install solar lighting systems in the homes of forest encroachers who are under order by the Supreme Court to evacuate the forest land. Ray wrote the letter seeking permission to install the lighting system in the homes […]

EU to invest Rs 1,300 cr in India’s solar and wind power via Yes Bank

The European Investment Bank, the lending arm of the European Union, will invest $200 mln (Rs 1,283 cr) into the Indian solar and power sector via a deal with Yes Bank in order to support the growth of renewable energy in the country. The investment will be routed through a renewable financing program with Yes […]

Stubble Burning: 1,493 Haryana farmers fined Rs 40 lakh

Around 1,500 farmers from Haryana have been fined a total of Rs 39.85 lakh for burning agricultural stubble between July to October this year, the government said. The action was taken to dissuade farmers from burning agricultural waste. Burning of agricultural waste has been blamed for worsening air quality levels in national capital Delhi. Air […]

India to see 6 GW of wind power auctioned in 5 months

Inox Wind Limited, the most aggressive player in bidding for new wind power projects, said it expects almost 6 GW of new wind power projects to be auctioned in India over the next five months. In comparison, the country added 5.4 GW of wind power capacity on the ground in the last financial year that […]

Infosys included in Dow Jones Sustainability Index

Infosys said it has been inducted into the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) and is now part of two of the indices — DJSI World and DJSI Emerging Markets. The indices measure the economic, environmental and social performance of companies and are based on the companies’ corporate governance, risk management, branding, climate change mitigation strategies, […]

South India still water-stressed despite decent monsoon

Despite a decent monsoon season, water levels at storage facilities in India continues to be below those of last year as well as the 10-year average. Of particular concern is the situation in South India, only 39% of the total capacity of the reservoirs has been filled so far. Usually, the number should have been […]

Tata Power to set up electric vehicle charging stations in Mumbai

Tata Power announced its plan to set up electric vehicle charging stations across Mumbai, and has set up the first one at its compound in Vikhroli. “These chargers would facilitate electric car users to charge their cars (Battery Electric Vehicles such as the Mahindra e2O, Nissan Leaf, etc) at any time safely and conveniently. The […]

India achieves only 14% of rooftop solar power target

Even as India more or less sticks to the target on adding large solar farms under its ambitious Solar Mission project, the other leg of the plan — rooftop solar — remains woefully behind target. Under the solar mission, India is supposed to have put in 5,000 megawatt of solar plants on the roofs of […]

Surya introduces 32-watt full-size ceiling fan with BLDC technology

Surya Roshni, one of India’s oldest electrical brands, said it launched what could be India’s most power efficient full-size ceiling fan — the SS-32. The fan belongs to the new breed of brushless or BLDC fans that use an electronic circuit to convert alternating current into direct current or DC, instead of a brush. Surya’s […]

India is the first country to reuse nuclear waste on large scale – Minister

The Department of Atomic Energy today said that India is the first country in the world where the waste produced by nuclear power plants is being used for civilian applications. Jitendra Singh, the minister of state overseeing the department, also allayed concerns about any possible leakage of radiation from spent fuel. “There has been no […]