Discount retailer reaches 'green' sales goal earlier than expected.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. reached an annual target of selling 100 million energy-efficient light bulbs ahead of schedule after heavily marketing them as a way for consumers to save money and fight global warming, the retailer said Tuesday.
The world's largest retailer set the target, which roughly doubled its previous annual sales, late last year as part of a series of green policies. It expanded shelf space, cut prices and ran ads for the swirly compact fluorescent bulbs, or CFLs.
Wal-Mart worked with suppliers to reduce CFL prices by about half, to around $1.65 per bulb for the equivalent of a 60-watt incandescent bulb from around $2.40 a year ago. That compares to about 24 cents for the incandescent bulb.
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It's interesting but very competitive & crowded space for manufacturers of CFLs.
Life can only be understood backwards—but it must be lived forwards
Produced at less than $1 per watt, the panels will dramatically reduce the cost of generating solar electricity and could power homes and businesses around the globe with clean energy for roughly the same cost as traditionally generated electricity.
Sampath has developed a continuous, automated manufacturing process for solar panels using glass coating with a cadmium telluride thin film instead of the standard high-cost crystalline silicon. Because the process produces high efficiency devices (ranging from 11% to 13%) at a very high rate and yield, it can be done much more cheaply than with existing technologies. The cost to the consumer could be as low as $2 per watt, about half the current cost of solar panels. In addition, this solar technology need not be tied to a grid, so it can be affordably installed and operated in nearly any location.
Cadmium telluride solar panels require 100 times less semiconductor material than high-cost crystalline silicon panels.
Sampath has spent the past 16 years perfecting the technology. In that time, annual global sales of photovoltaic technology have grown to approximately 2 gigawatts or two billion watts -- roughly a $6 billion industry. Demand has increased nearly 40% a year for each of the past five years -- a trend that analysts and industry experts expect to continue. By 2010, solar cell manufacturing is expected to be a $25 billion-plus industry
Life can only be understood backwards—but it must be lived forwards
The location of the special economic zone is being finalised as proposals have been received from six states -- Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, the minister said at India Energy Summit 2007 organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce here.
The ministry would form a joint venture with the state government and private players, who would be a part of the zone, he said.
Muttemwar said there is a potential to produce up to 2,50,000 MW power from renewable sources in the country. The Renewable Energy Ministry aims a capacity addition of up to 14,000 MW in the 11th plan, while its target for the 12th and 13th plans stand at 30,000 MW. "By the end of the 13th plan (2021-22) renewable power capacity is likely to reach 54,000 MW, comprising 40,000 MW wind power, 6,500 MW small hydro power and 7,500 MW bio power," the minister said.
"Over 10,500 MW renewable power-generating capacity has been installed till September this year, comprising of 7,321 MW from wind, 2,013 MW from solar power and 1,222 MW from bio-power," Muttemwar said
Life can only be understood backwards—but it must be lived forwards
China`s and India`s plans to produce more biofuels could cause shortages of water, which is needed for crops to feed their growing populations, says a recent study by the International Water Management Institute or IWMI.
Both countries are counting on maize and sugarcane, which need large amounts of water, for much of their biofuels. ``Crop production for biofuels in China and India would likely jeopardize sustainable water use and thus affect irrigated production of food crops, including cereals and vegetables, which would then need to be imported in larger quantities,” researchers said.
Setting aside more land for biofuels could also raise prices for everything from eggs to beef, as feed would become more expensive.
The IWMI study said China aims to increase biofuels production fourfold to around 15 billion litres of ethanol - 9 per cent of its projected gasoline demand - by 2020, from a 2002 level of 3.6 billion litres.
India is pursuing a similarly aggressive strategy. Last month it announced plans to double the requirement for ethanol-blend gasoline to 10 per cent in the next year.
To meet their biofuels targets, China would need to produce 26 per cent more maize and India 16 per cent more sugarcane, the study found. It said doing so would require an extra 75 litres of irrigation water per person per day in China, and an additional 70 litres per day in India, beyond what is needed for food.
The IWMI researchers said the situation could worsen as there were already dire water shortages in parts of China and India.
The study suggested that the two countries could focus on crops that need less water, such as sweet sorghum for ethanol, and species including the jatropha bush and pongamia trees for biodiesel.
India has already announced plans to plant about 3.1 million hectares of jatropha plantations by 2009, and to identify another 40 million hectares of wasteland by then to grow the plant. Jatropha seeds are crushed and mixed with fuel to produce biodiesel.
Life can only be understood backwards—but it must be lived forwards
There are basically three issues driving policy on biofuels. Issue number one is energy independence or at least reduction of foreign oil. The second is promoting the agriculture sector including rural area development. The final reason is the need to cut down on green-house gases.
People have done life-cycle analysis of biofuels, from planting, extracting the sugars and oils and then converting into fuel. And it clearly shows that ethanol and biodiesel are both energy positive.
Ethanol now accounts for about 2% of US gasoline consumption.
But the fuel economy cannot really be based on an incentive system. Just do the math.
We as a company do feel that biofuels can stand on their own two feet, using cheaper feedstock like agricultural and forest waste and new technologies.
Biodiesel is made by adding methanol to vegetable oil; we add hydrogen to the oil and take all the oxygen out. It is the oxygen in biofuels like ethanol and biodiesel that make them corrosive. Green diesel by contrast is completely fungible with today’s diesel. It is inert, it doesn’t react on the side and is easy to store. So using green diesel does not require vehicular engine modification or new infrastructure. The same pipeline and distribution channels can be used for green diesel as for petroleum diesel.
We are in the process of building the first commercial green diesel plants. Compared to biodiesel, the production costs of green diesel are about the same. But as fungible fuel the potential savings would be huge.
Other solutions such as jatropha and other nonedible oils as feedstock for biofuel do make sense for India.
---Jennifer Holmgren, director of the Renewable Energy and Chemicals Business at UOP, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Honeywell, a Fortune 500 company.
Life can only be understood backwards—but it must be lived forwards
The target consists of 500 MW from biomass projects and 1,200 MW from bagasse projects,
Besides, sugar mills having crushing capacity of 2,500 tons per day in Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Punjab and Haryana have an estimated potential of about 5,000 MW surplus power generation through optimum bagasse-based co-generation.
This report has highlighted the need to maximally develop domestic supply options and diversify energy sources. It has also projected that renewables may account for 5-6 per cent of India's energy mix by 2031-32.
Life can only be understood backwards—but it must be lived forwards
The most intersting company to watch out is NanoSolar co funded by Google guys and proprietary manufacturing technology to print solar cells on alumium foils. They shipped their first foil recently.
Feb 7: The National Bio-Diesel Policy was announced in the year 2005 and since then, 20 purchase centres have been opened all across the country. However, the success of the programme seems to have been bogged down by differences between the delivered price of bio-diesel fixed by the petroleum ministry -- on the basis of the price of high speed diesel (HSD) -- and the price being demanded by various suppliers.
The delivered price ofbio-diesel was originally fixed at Rs 25 per litre, which has since been revised to Rs 26.50 per litre. However, when bids were invited from various parties for supply of bio-diesel, the indicated rate ranged from between Rs 35 to Rs 52 per litre, which would have rendered the use of the alternative fuel unviable.
The oil marketing companeis have now taken on the onus of going directly to the field to extract biodiesel..
The following are compamy-wise details of activities on this front:
IOC: The company has planted 150,000 seedlings of jatropha on 62 hectares of railway land in Gujarat. It has also signed a MoU with the government of Chhattisgarh to form a joint venture to collaborate on the plantation of Jatropha. Recently, the Madhya Pradesh government allotted the company 2,000 hectares of land in Jhabua for plantation of these plants.
BPCL: BPCL has planted jatropha on around 1,000 acres of land and is expected to cultivate another 1,000 acres in the green belt of the Bina Refinery by March this year. The company is also in talks with various state governments to take up jatropha plantation on a cooperative farming basis. It has also set up a research and development plant for bio-diesel at Vashi, in Mumbai.
HPCL: The oil marketing major has signed a MoU with GB Pant University, Pantnagar, for plantation of 10 lakh jatropha plants, installation of a transesterification unit, and tissue culture-related research and development. It has completed the plantation of 5 lakh plants at Pantnagar. The company is also keen to sign an agreement with the Chhattisgarh Government for jatropha cultivation on a large scale
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