Green energy: Lakshadweep to generate electricity from coconut leaves, stem, husk and shells

In what is likely a global first, inhabitants of 11 Lakshadweep islands have decided to stop using diesel and turn to coconuts for meeting their frugal power needs.

An alternative energy expert has shown the residents how to generate sufficien telectricity from coconut leaves, stem, husk and shells. With millions of coconut trees on the islands, supply will never be an issue and it will also help cut down on pollution in the archipelago.

About 200-440 km off the south western coast of India, Lakshadweep - a Sanskrit name that means one hundred thousand islands - consists of 36 islands in all, 25 of which are uninhabited. The main source of power for the inhabitants of these fragile ecological coral islands for long has been diesel generators.

"Diesel is costly and electricity produced from these generators costs around 28 per unit against conventional power cost of about 3-4 per unit. The power department of Lakshadweep offers 90% subsidy - about 25 on every unit of power sold - and spends 80 crore each year, which is a drain on the government," SP Gon Choudhury, advisor to the Lakshadweep's power department, told ET.

Choudhury, a nationally renowned solar power expert, was invited by the Lakshadweep authorities to suggest ways to set up solar power generation systems on the islands for minimising pollution. "After studying the landscape of the cluster of islands, its habitat and the ecological system, despite being a solar expert, I suggested setting up small bio-mass power generation systems on each island that will use coconut leaves, husk and the shells."

Assured, cheap fuel supply

Wind power has also been ruled out due to land constraints," Choudhury said.

He claims power from coconut is a global first. These trees being an intrinsic part of the island and available in such abundance, fuel for the power plants is assured and comes almost free of cost. "Energy content in the fuel is very high and it will bring down cost of generation from 28 per unit to 11 per unit," he said.

Ravi Chandar, executive engineer at the Lakshadweep power department, says: "It will reduce emissions by 80-90% in comparison to diesel generators and outgo on account of subsidy will reduce from 80 crore per year to a meagre 8 crore every year."

The plan is to set up biomass units with a total installed capacity of about 10 mw that will meet the power demand of the population. "Investment for the project has been pegged at 80 crore. It will be set up on a built, operate and transfer basis. The company that builds the units will run it for 10 years after which it will be transferred to the government," said Chandar.

A detailed project report has been prepared and passed by the Lakshadweep authorities, which will start inviting expressions of interest next month, he said.

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Companies are increasingly realizing the importance of going green

Companies are increasingly realizing the importance of going green. The 2011 Carbon Disclosure Project report, prepared for 551 signatory institutional investors representing $71 trillion of assets, shows that the majority of US companies are taking climate change action, despite an absence of mandatory rule. In addition to a desire to be more socially responsible, companies now understand how being seen as green benefits their business. 

• A study ”The Value of Green: The Effect of Environmental Rankings on Market Cap”  by N Blumenshine of Middlebury College concluded that “companies with high environmental rankings have higher market cap values than comparable companies with lower rankings”.
• Findings in Australia by Nielsen, the market research firm, found that 68%  of consumers are willing to pay more for products from companies who support worthy causes concerned with the environment
• According to an Ipsos Mori survey, 80% of respondents across 15 developed nations would prefer working for a company that “has a good reputation for environmental responsibility” – the figure was 81% in the U.S.
• A poll on green employment by MonsterTRAK.com, a job website, found that 92% would be more inclined to work for a company that is environmentally friendly.
• Cassandra Walsh, an HR coordinator at an IT company, and Adam Sulkowski, an assistant professor, analyzed 113 companies from the S&P 250 and concluded that ”Employees are more likely to be satisfied with their jobs if they work for a company that’s perceived to be environmentally friendly”.  A firm’s financial performance had no correlation with employee happiness levels, the researchers found.
• HSBC, which employs more than 300,000 staff worldwide, has been running a “climate champion” program since 2007. When HSBC staff were asked how they felt about working at the bank, Mr Thomas says the highest scoring item was the company’s sustainability work. (Financial Times, March 21, 2011)
• Gallup’s surveys suggest Indians are more worried about their environment than are people in rich countries (The Economist, Dec 17-30, 2011)

Reducing carbon emissions and shifting to cleaner technology are long-term and costly solutions. A simple, easy and effective way for a company to go green is to plant trees. Trees provide flowers, fruit, fodder and fuel to communities and living creatures, improve water catchment areas, offer shade to nomads and their livestock, prevent soil erosion and give shelter to birds and animals and benefit posterity while decarbonising the world.

Grow-Trees.com gives companies an easy way to go green by allowing them to plant trees with just a few clicks at Rs. 50 per tree. Each tree planted can be gifted out to a recipient through a tree-dedication certificate. Companies are planting trees to celebrate employee birthdays and anniversaries, to honour new and loyal customers, to honour speakers, to recognize dealers and distributors, for new Facebook fans, as part of CSR or to offset emissions.

Grow-Trees has planted over 406,000 trees on public and community lands across India. Over 130 companies such as Thomas Cook, SBI Life Insurance, Panasonic, DHL, Nokia, Franklin Templeton, Kotak Credit Cards and Mahindra Reva have planted trees through Grow-Trees.  Allowing companies to satisfy a private purpose while doing social good by planting trees is a novel way to increase the green cover of the world.

Content Source : http://rise.mahindra.com/why-are-companies-going-green/

iqgains new year wishes

iqgains new year wishes, a photo by IQGains - TheEliteClub on Flickr.

Wishing you a fabulous 2013 with full of great achievements and experiences.

IDEAS DEFINE US OUR PAST, OUR PRESENT AND MOST IMPORTANTLY OUR FUTURE

Urban Farming – Singapore Style

Singapore is one of the richest countries in the world, complete with a thriving urban center of commerce and development. But for all the riches the country possesses, they lack in farmable land - unable to produce large quantities of locally farmed vegetables.

Sky Greens has come up with an innovative solution to fit Singapore’s needs: a tropical vertical urban farming system that uses minimal land, water and energy resources. The low-carbon, hydraulic water-driven green technology was developed by Mr. Jack Ng, whose goal was to produce higher yields of edible veggies per unit of land. The patented green technology allows tropical vegetables to be grown all year round, as the harvests are housed in protected outdoor greenhouses, safe from pests and temperamental weather conditions. To that end, the production yield of Sky Greens is impressively five to ten times more per unit area compared to other Singaporean farms growing vegetables by conventional methods.
Considering that only 7% of vegetables in Singapore are locally grown, Sky Greens is a great solution to increase the production and delicious consumption of fresh local vegetables.        
[Source: Sky Greens]

Are you looking for a platform to connect with investors for your business ideas !

Networking is essential to effective leadership in today's organizations. Leaders who are skilled networkers have access to people, information, and resources to help solve problems and create opportunities.

Printing a Green Future

KG SINGH AND Sidhartha Bhimania set up EnNatura. By outsourcing the manufacturing to small companies, they got by without making major capital investments. But getting companies to use the ink was another matter. They paid companies to use the product. The gamble paid off.

The Challenge

THE OFFSET printing business — think media, publishing, advertising and packaging, to name a few industries — consumes more than 3 million tonnes of hydrocarbon-based printing ink and chemicals, and emits over 5 lakh tonnes of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) annually. Apart from posing a serious threat to workers in the printing industry, VOCs are massive contributors to global warming. The key health and environmental challenge is posed by the petroleum component of ink, released as emissions during the drying and washing process. The resulting photochemical smog not only depletes the ozone layer, it can be linked to respiratory ailments in workers, including tuberculosis and an increased risk of cancer.

The Idea

KRISHNA GOPAL SINGH, a chemical engineer from IIT Delhi, and his friend Sidhartha Bhimania were brainstorming ideas for a start-up when they discussed it with their professor, who, it turned out, was working on ink. The solution seemed obvious: develop an ink that had negligible emissions. The challenge wasn’t just in developing eco-friendly ink though; it was in ensuring that this ink gave the same spectacular printing results and vivid colours as the conventional variety.

The real issue? Resin. The duo realised that they needed to develop their own resin to control emissions. Soon, they created a pH-sensitive resin from renewable feedstock, enabling them to create a biodegradable ink that causes zero emissions.

The next step? To do away with the use of hydrocarbon solvents. The unique chemical formulation of the ink also makes washing easier when recycling waste paper; the pH-sensitivity of the resin means the ink can be washed off with a mildly alkaline, aqueous wash solution, doing away with the need for hydrocarbon-based solutions that use kerosene. Not only does this dramatically reduce the environmental and energy footprint, it can be a game-changer in altering the economics of recycling. Singh estimates that washing costs are cut by as much as 85-90 percent compared with traditional methods.

The result? A fundamentally different printing process that has taken VOC emissions down to zero and makes recycling less expensive.

The Innovator

KG SINGH AND Sidhartha Bhimania set up EnNatura. By outsourcing the manufacturing to small companies, they got by without making major capital investments. But getting companies to use the ink was another matter. They paid companies to use the product. The gamble paid off. But they didn’t have enough money to produce quantities to meet the demand. They switched strategies by going to publishers and NGOs who were interested in green issues rather than printers themselves. With funding from the government and a venture capitalist, they have been able to get their dream off the ground.

The Impact

IT’S EARLY DAYS yet but having ironed out chemical issues, they have 10 printers now using their ink in varying quantities. “It’s a slow process,” says Singh. “Ink is a small cost vis-à-vis the cost of paper but its impact is very high; the wrong ink can lay waste very expensive paper. So adoption is slow and printers wait a long time, often months, to check how the ink deals with fading and other post-printing issues. But the fact that we have got 10 printers who now work with us is, in many ways, the end of stage 1 of the project. It’s time now for scale.”

The Way Forward

CHALLENGES OF SCALE are almost invariably linked to funding: no different for EnNatura. To meet the large-scale demand, they need to invest in manufacturing and marketing. “There’s actually been no barrier to trials,” says Singh. “People try the product easily enough. But to switch to using this in serious quantities requires commitment from printers. We have got the product right after trials and reformulations for around 18 months with printers. Now we need to look at the business and operations end of it.”

Source: http://rise.mahindra.com/printing-a-green-future/