Punjab ties up with MNC to set up Solar Power Plant

Mohali: The Government of Punjab is planning to set up a 250 mega watt (MW) Solar Energy Power generation plant, the largest in India, in collaboration with an American company.

The state Minister for Environment and Non-Conventional Energy Bikramjit Singh Majithia, did not reveal the name of the company but said that the company has already set up a 250 mega watt solar generations plant in Texas, USA and has now offered to set up a similar plant here. The company will also be offering power at competitive rates.The state is now waiting for the chief minister’s approval.

The Punjab Government is looking for a large chunk of land in the state which could meet the vast land requirements of such a huge Solar generation power plant.
The state had also asked an Israel-based company to set up a pilot one mega watt solar power plant on a piece of land available with the National Institute of Renewable Energy in Kapurthala.

Suniva and Titan Energy Systems in Cell Supply Agreement.

Titan Energy Systems Ltd., the India-based solar module manufacturer, has entered into a contract worth more than US$480 million with Suniva for the supply of high-efficiency monocrystalline Solar cells.
The take-or-pay agreement is scheduled to see the delivery of the cells from Suniva's Atlanta facility through 2013.
Rao SYS Chodagam, Managing Director of Titan believes that Suniva's optimized Solar cells fit well with Titan's high-efficiency module application platform, and this agreement will allow Titan to diversify its quality supply chain.

Renewable Energy India Expo in New Delhi

The Renewable Energy India 2008 Expo, the largest fair on renewable energy in India was held in Pragati Maidan for 3 days starting from 21^st of August 2008.

Inaugurating the event, Mr. Vilas Muttemwar, Hon'ble Minister Minister of State for New and Renewable Energy, urged the gathering to not just consider renewable as an attractive business proposition but as a duty and responsibility of every individual to find and use environment friendly ways of generating energy. Keen to promote new projects, the Minister promised to welcome practical suggestions from the industry leaders. The show had huge response from the Indian as well as global leaders of this industry

Many important sessions were also held during the day with key industry spokespersons and experts sharing their opinion with the visitors. The first conference session of the days focused on various aspects of wind energy sector, the second day focused on Solar energy sector and the third day was on bio and hydro energy sector. The event concluded with a conference on Youth summit, educating and need of awareness among youth about renewable energy.

The event was organized by Exhibitions India group. More than 200 exhibitors and major players of the industry were the part of the expo. International exhibitors were amazed with the participation as it was three times more than the last year.

Solar energy gets glamorous and ‘Unforgettable support’

"The Unforgettable Tour" of Amitabh Bachchan will be really Unforgettable Tour because they are not only entertaining the people over the world but they are going to spend some part of profit of the very good cause. Amitabh Bachchan and Wizcraft (event organizing company) have teamed up with Rajendra Pachauri, head of the Nobel Prize-winning United Nations climate panel, to help raise money for a project that will generate power for 100 villages in Asia and Africa.

Mr. Bachchan, along with Abhishek, Aishwarya , Preity Zinta, Ritesh Deshmukh are involved in the 'Light A Billion Lives' campaign, which aims to provide solar lanterns in villages spread across nine countries. The film stars will raise money and work for the campaign initiated by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in India during their concert tour in North America and Europe.

With the film stars entering to support the cause, Mr. Pachauri (also heads TERI) is quite confident that they will able to achieve the target by February 2009 and this will also help to raise awareness about this cause.

At least 1.6 billion people worldwide do not have access to electricity; the 'Light A Billion Lives' campaign would target villages in countries like India, Myanmar, Pakistan, Ethiopia and Malawi.

Priety Zinta, the 33 year old actress is also very excited to be involved in this campaign and believes everyone from the industry should come ahead and support campaigns like these.

Solar rickshaws in old Delhi soon

The Government of Delhi will introduce solar rickshaws in the Chandni Chowk area of old Delhi. On this Gandhi Jayanti, solar rickshaws will replace man-pulled pedicabs in the Chandni Chowk area of old Delhi. Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal, who also represents the constituency in parliament, advised the Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit to introduce these green vehicles from October 2.

The rickshaw would weigh 210 kg and would be able to run at a speed of 15 to 20 km per hour, reports IANS. It will run by a solar battery, which would suffice for a journey of 70 km. The battery would take five hours to be charged with the help of solar panels in the charging unit which will be functional above the Delhi metro stations, an official of the city government said.

It is expected that these rickshaws would ply within a radius of 3 km from the Chandni Chowk metro station. The solar powered rickshaws in Chandni Chowk would be a pilot project and its success will pave the way for implementation in other areas. Chief Minister of Delhi expressed confidence that the project will be eco-friendly, passenger-friendly and suitable for a locality like Chandni Chowk. The rickshaw would cost approximately Rs 17,000.

The much awaited site for the solar industry in India has now been uploaded on the server.

SolarIndiaOnline.com (www.solarindiaonline.com)is an initiative of professionals to promote the development of Solar Industry. Our associates span across the globe and include various experts in the industry along the wide spectrum of research, manufacturing and marketing.

The group offers various services in:

* Setting up solar energy and product production units
* Setting up solar farms
* Establishing contact between buyers and suppliers of raw materials and products
* Assistance in compliance with Regulatory Issues in India
* Planning and organizing finance requirements
* Research Services

The site was launched with the Renewable Energy Expo 2008, on 21st August 2008.
A great step to promote Solar Industry in India.

BioSolar Reveals Secret of Less Costly Solar Power: Cotton and Caster Beans

Bio Solar Unveils Highly-Anticipated Details Behind its BioBacksheet™ Solar Cell Component at Today's SPIE Symposium on Solar Applications and Energy in San Diego

Santa Clarita and San Diego, CA – August 12, 2008 – BioSolar, Inc. (OTC BB: BSRC) surprised attendees at today's SPIE Symposium on Solar Applications and Energy in San Diego by revealing that materials derived from cotton and castor beans compose the company's proprietary BioBacksheet™, a protective covering, traditionally made from expensive petroleum-based film, used in the back of virtually all photovoltaic solar cells.

"Until today, this information has remained highly-guarded over the past 18 months as BioSolar established academic and industry credibility," said BioSolar Chairman and CEO, Dr. David Lee. "Now that our technology is strongly protected both domestically and abroad, we are able to share this exciting news with the public."

While not revealing core proprietary or patent-pending elements of the intellectual property, BioSolar's Chief Technology Officer, Dr. Stan Levy, divulged in his presentation today that the bio-based components are a composite of cellulosic material derived from cotton, combined with an arcane nylon (nylon 11) derived from castor beans. Dr. Levy detailed the procedures and results of the company's 18-month product development effort to engineer the BioBacksheet™ from non-food, plant-based materials. He provided an in-depth look at the science and applied technology behind the unique bio-sustainable formulation and state-of-the-art manufacturing processes used to create the company's BioBacksheet™ product. The two sustainably sourced components are combined utilizing the company's proprietary manufacturing process.

"We have demonstrated that functional photovoltaic backsheets can be produced from renewable resources," said Dr. Levy. "We believe that the BioBacksheet™ is a viable alternative to backsheets currently in use. Not only is this product produced from sustainable and renewable resources, but is expected to be more cost effective than the current backsheets."

"Also, manufacturers currently enduring a six-month wait for materials like DuPont's petroleum-based Tedlar protective material will undoubtedly be interested in this development," added Dr. Lee.

Dr. Levy further highlighted the fact that the materials – both individually and in combination – meet or exceed the characteristics of various testing and performance standards for the photovoltaic industry. While additional testing is being conducted as part of the run-up to full-scale production, no fundamental problems have been found with the product up to this point.

Dr. Lee gave high praise to Dr. Levy and the development team's efforts. Commenting on the response to the presentation, Dr. Lee said, "As a publicly traded company we have a responsibility to our shareholders to maximize the value of their investment. With this presentation, Dr. Levy has laid out the exciting results of the past year-and-a-half's hard work. This tremendous success and the positive feedback from those manufacturers who have been testing our product samples are guiding our drive to full production capacity."

SPIE Optics+Photonics is the largest and most technically prestigious optical sciences and technology meeting in North America. The Solar Energy + Applications track of the conference is dedicated to finding ways to move toward secure, affordable, and environmentally sustainable energy to meet the world's accelerating energy needs.

Solar Energy

Solar energy is energy from the Sun in the form of radiated heat and light. It drives the climate and weather and supports life on Earth. Energy from the sun has many features like global distribution, pollution free nature and present in plenty.
Earth continuously receives 174 PW of incoming solar radiation (insolation) at the upper atmosphere. When it meets the atmosphere, 6% of the insolation is reflected and 16% is absorbed. Average atmospheric conditions (clouds, dust, and pollutants) further reduce insolation traveling through the atmosphere by 20% due to reflection and 3% via absorption. The atmospheric conditions not only reduce the quantity of energy reaching the earth's surface, but also diffuse approximately 20% of the incoming light and filter portions of its spectrum. The remaining is still a vast amount of energy that is available to be harnessed and put to work.
The absorption of solar energy by atmospheric convection (sensible heat transport) and evaporation and condensation of water vapor powers the water cycle and drives the wind. Sunlight absorbed by the oceans and land masses keeps the surface at an average temperature of 14 °C.The total solar energy absorbed by Earth's atmosphere, oceans, and land masses is approximately 3850 zettajoules (ZJ) per year. The Solar Energy travels to the earth at the speed of 1,86,000 miles per second. In one hour more sunlight falls on the earth than what is used by the entire population in one year.