Aspiration Energy, Blog

Footprints – Second edition

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After a successful inaugural footprints event, SICCI and CIIE, this time along with TiE is hosting the second edition of “Footprints“, to celebrate Climate Change Action in Manufacturing Industry on 28th August, 2015 at 6 PM. PROGRAMME AGENDA: Date: 28th August, 2015           Time: 6.00 p.m.          Venue: My Fortune, Chennai Welcome Address: Mr. Jawahar Vadivelu, President, SICCI Theme Address:  Mr. Bhoovarahan Thirumalai, Chairman, SICCI Energy Committee Speech By: Mr Srivats Ram, Managing Director, Wheels India Limited Speech By: Mr. Ranganath N K, Managing Director, Grundfos Pumps India Pvt. Ltd. Interactions Vote of Thanks Mr Ranganath N K, will be talking about the green initiatives at his organisation.  He is noted for his focus on water and energy conservation.  Mr. Ranganath is the Managing Director of Grundfos Pumps India Pvt. Ltd, since its inception in 1998. About Mr. Ranganath: Managing Director, Grundfos Pumps India Pvt. Ltd. since its inception in 1998. Mr. Ranganath’s focus has been on water and energy conservation. Ex-Chairman of the CII – Tamilnadu Council Ex-President of the Madras Management Association The EX-Chairman of the board of AEEE Member of the Working Group on ‘Land & Water’ constituted by the Planning Commission, New Delhi for the Formulation of Twelfth Five Year Plan 2012 – 2017 Mr Srivats Ram, will be talking about his experience in automobile industry and his organisation\’s green initiatives.  He serves as Managing Director of Wheels India Limited. He has over 3 decades of work experience in Vehicle and Component Industry. He serves as the President of The Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India (ACMA). About Mr. Srivats Ram: Managing Director, Wheels India Limited Chairman and Managing Director, Sundaram Hydraulics Limited Director, TVS & Sons Pvt Limited Director, Axles India Limited President, Automotive Component Manufacturer’s Association (ACMA) – 2010-11 President, TKM Suppliers’ Association – 2006-2009 Senior Vice President, Madras Management Association – 2012-13 President, Madras Management Association – 2013-14 23 years experience in Automotive Industry It is easy to leave carbon footprints and move on, while it requires conscious effort to try and rub some of those carbon footprints and leave green ones instead. This series of event is all about taking that extra mile and make little changes that will make our planet a better place to live. While it takes more effort to start not green and move towards green, it is easier for new entrepreneurs to start their venture greener way. SICCI, TiE and CIIE invites everyone this event. To register for the event, please click here Viji Suresh, Aspiration Energy

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Few questions; few answers (3) – FAQs on Roof Top Solar PV Plants

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Capacity of the power plant Solar PV power plants are specified in KWp, not KW.  KWp means Kilowatt Peak.  Please read this link for more information. So a quote for 100KWp does not guarantee that you will get 100 units of electricity per hour. Typically a 100 KWp plant will produce 1,50,000 to 1,80,000 Units of electricity per year. The actual generation every month, week, day and hour will depend on various factors and location. 2. What are the parameters that affect actual generation? Actual delivery of energy will depend on the following parameters: Sunshine intensity:  The variation of sun\’s intensity in your location. The history of this data is available for your specific location (latitude and longitude). You can look for it in MNRE\’s database. Angle of the sun to the installed base.  We normally propose fixed tilt installation – which means modules are fixed at an angle and sunshine incident angle on the module will vary by the day. Ambient Temperature : Change in Ambient temperature affects the solar cell temperature and in turn that it will affect the power generated. You can look at the solar module specification to know the power de-rating for various cell temperatures. 3. What happens when the solar energy generated is more than what we need or if it is less than what we need? Solar energy is infirm power, and that is why, we either sync it to the Electricity Grid or have a battery back up or Sync it to a DG set. For Industrial applications, we sync with grid or DG. When the solar power generated from the plant is less than what is required by your load, the additional required energy will be drawn from either grid or DG for supplying the load. If it is more than what is required, it can be fed back to the Grid, provided you have a net meter connection. 4. Can Sunshades and porticos be used for mounting solar panels in addition to roof tops? In theory, Yes. But feasibility needs to be studied by an engineer during preliminary assessment. 5. Can the Solar plant be synchronised with Grid Power and DG Power? Yes , it can be synchronised. Check the specifications of the invertor – it should mention that it is sync-able to both DG and Grid. 6. Can AEPL do a turnkey project from design, engineering and supply to mounting on roof top, installation and commissioning, including the electrical circuit for power evacuation? Yes. The detailed scope of work will be detailed in the commercial contract. Drawings will be submitted for customer’s approval. 7. Can AEPL take care of the CEIG approval and also organize Net Metering facility? Yes. There will be a liaising fee for the same. 8. Do we need Lightning arresters in addition to what we already have in the building? If the condition of the existing arresters are OK, then additional arresters may not be required. This will be ascertained during execution. 9. Who will do the Earth pit for the Solar Plant? Separate chemical earthing up to 5ft as per standard design norms will be constructed by us as part of our execution scope. 10. Will the mounting of Solar Panels, damage the roof / weathering course? Will it load the roof? No damage will be caused because of mounting Solar panels. The additional weight of Solar panels will be within the load bearing capability of concrete and metal roofs. If customer uses Asbestos roofing or if the roof is damaged in some places, the same needs to be replaced / repaired by customer. The structural details of the mounting arrangement will be submitted for customer’s approval before commencement of the project. In case of concrete roofs, there are 2 basic approaches: Penetrative fixing of modules: In this case, sufficient care is taken in finishing the rooftop back after competing the foundation to ensure that the resultant surface is equal or better than the original surface. Dead weight:  If you are very strict that there should be no perforations, then we need to go for concrete legs which will function as weights to hold the module and structure.  We can design optimally, based on your requirements. 11. Are there are any Safety Standards for Solar Power Plant? Yes there are published safety standards for roof top solar power plants. AEPL will ensure that the supply and installation follows all the safety standards applicable. 12. Will you guarantee the no. of units produced or the efficiency of Solar Plant? Yes we can guarantee the no. of units produced per year per KWp installed. This guaranteed generation will vary from location to location. The exact guarantee figure will be incorporated in the commercial contract. In any case since the contract is based on price per KWH, if the plant produces less, the revenue is less.  Which means, there is an in-built guarantee and incentive for us to produce the most. 13. Can the Solar Panel withstand wind, rain and seismic conditions? Yes, the design takes care of all these conditions, as relevant to the city / location of installation. The structural engineering and drawings on roof top installation will be submitted for customer’s approval. This can be further validated by the customer with the help of a suitable architect  / expert. 14. What are the warranty terms? Solar PV Modules are covered under a 20 year manufacturer warranty with performance warranty with the following terms: 90% minimum rated performance in 10 years 80% minimum rated performance in next 15 years. Inverters are covered with a 5 years warranty with the following terms: As per the Manufacturer All other structures, electrical wiring and other components are covered by 1 year warranty. 15. Do you offer AMC? Yes. Please refer to our Warranty and AMC terms below: Quarterly inspection of Solar Panels,Inverters,protection circuit, cabling junction boxes,means of isolation and earthing for 5 years, 4 Visits for the entire system Staff will be trained for cleaning as to

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Few questions; few answers (1) – About Aspiration Energy

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We started our blog a year back during July 2014. When we look back, the year had moments of jubilations, we became a WWF climate solver, won couple of projects that differed from the usual industries we worked on. Great learning curve. We are now 40 posts richer, sharing our thoughts, our views, current trends, setbacks. This is our 40th blog post, with a promise that there will be more blog posts that will strive to create the awareness within the industries to use Solar as their fuel, we present to you our few questions, few answers series. What we might feel as a simple question can have wealth of meaning. The simplest questions fetch answers that in turn pave way for research and growth. Few questions; few answers: Who are we? Aspiration Energy Private Ltd (AEPL) provides roof top, Solar Thermal Systems on pay-per-unit (KWH) model, for Industrial Heating Applications in the temperature range of 60 to 120 Degree Celsius. By innovative systemic enhancements to proven technologies, AEPL has achieved a cost per MW which is 30-40% cheaper than Solar PV and Solar CSP, making it economical and viable without government subsidy. The monthly bill is based on the heat energy delivered to the process through a heat exchanger. AEPL takes all the risks and converts the CAPEX investment in to an OPEX expense similar to fuel purchase / utility bill. What is our vision? According to a KPMG report in 2012, there is a potential to replace 4.8 Million Tons of Oil per year in Low Temperature Industrial heating applications (< 250 Deg cel) in India alone, valued at USD 3.5 Billion per year, requiring 70 Million SQM of thermal collectors. This translates in to 20,000 MW of Solar thermal capacity in manufacturing sector alone. Our vision is to achieve 10,000 MW within the next 5 years. At an average of 2 MW per factory, the no. of possible projects over the next 5 years in India is 5000+ executed through 50+ partners. What are the obstacles that mar our vision? Inspite of solar thermal being 30-40% cheaper than Solar PV and Solar CSP, due to the dependence on commercial financing, we are finding it difficult to provide PPU rates like Rs.3.0 per KWH. 90% project finance with a longer tenure say 15 years can speed up the voluntary adoption. Voluntary adoption and decision making is very slow. If the Government mandates the use of Solar thermal for all industrial heating below 120 Deg Celsius, we can execute 10,000 MW for industrial heating in India alone. Million of Tons of Oil could be saved per year. The resultant foreign exchange saving and energy security advantages for India will be huge. What are our innovations and how they benefit? Innovations in Systems Design: Through our constant enhancements on existing globally proven ETC solar thermal collectors, we achieve higher temperatures required in the industry (60 -120C). The design and engineering innovations allows us : To install large scale systems on factory roof tops (500 KW to 5 MW) Efficiently extract the heat from the ETC modules Transport it through 1000-2000 meters of pressurized piping circuits Transfer it to the manufacturing process of the customer through a heat exchanger. The energy delivery is measured and totalized at the customer’s process end for monthly billing purpose, if only the guaranteed process temperature is achieved. Energy generated below the guaranteed process temperature is not billed.’ Pumps, Solenoid Valves, Temperature Sensors and PLC based Automation are used to manage energy delivery and billing. We have achieved INR 45 Million per MW (USD 700,000) for projects executed in India which is 40% cheaper than Solar PV and 30% cheaper than Solar CSP. The energy delivered is 4 times more than Solar PV per SQ MTR. Innovations in Business Model: By linking the monthly payments to the thermal energy delivered, we completely de-risk the project for the customer and make it in to an opex expense like fuel purchase or utility bill. (5, 10 or 20 year contracts with pre-agreed rate per KWH). The asset is owned by AEPL or a leasing company or a third party investor. For customers who have accelerated depreciation benefits, we offer a very unique “Customer Owned but Pay-per-unit monthly billing model”. The customer owns the asset in his balance sheet and claims income tax benefits. The monthly billing (PPU price X Energy Delivered) realized from customer is posted in AEPL books in two parts : a) interest free EMI for the balance asset value and b) performance linked fee for AEPL. Comprehensive O&M and AMC are also offered as an option. How unique are our innovations? Burning of fossil fuels in boilers, is the most common approach for industrial heating applications even for temperatures in the range of 60-120 Deg Cel. Grid electricity is also used in some places. The cost per unit of thermal energy derived from these sources is on par or higher than the prices offered by AEPL for Solar Thermal Energy. Solar CSP systems (Concentrator Dish type) cannot be mounted on factory roof tops and ground space availability is a major constraint in manufacturing industry. They are also 30-40% more expensive than AEPL thermal systems and hence require government subsidy to make it viable. While these are justified for high temperature applications (>250 Deg Cel), these are not economically viable for 60-120 Deg Cel. Traditional Solar Water Heaters used in Domestic and Commercial sectors cannot be used for Industrial heating applications. ~to be continued

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Footprints Event

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SICCI and CIIE together are hosting an event, \”Footprints\”, to celebrate Climate Change Action in Manufacturing Industry on 23rd June, 2015 between 6.30 PM to 8.30 PM.  This event is supported by HSBC and Infuse Ventures. Venue: My Fortune, Cathedral Road Being the first event in the series that are planned to follow, Mr. Bharat Joshi, The honorable British Deputy High Commissioner, Chennai has agreed to inaugurate the Footprints event. Inaugural address – 6.00 – 6.30 PM: By Mr. Bharat Joshi, The honorable British Deputy High Commissioner, Chennai  Mr. Bharat Joshi\’s, varied career has been spent dealing with a full range of HMG objectives, including promoting political and economic reform and improved human rights; improved UK prosperity through trade; climate change and UN policy issues. A major part of his portfolio in Chennai is focused on enhancing the trade and investment partnership between the UK on the one hand, and Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Pondicherry on the other. Address – 7.00 – 7.45 PM: Mr. V. Narasimhan, ED – Foundry Division, Brakes India Limited. Mr. V. Narasmihan, will share with us the Case studies and success stories of climate change mitigation/energy efficiency action taken at Brakes India Limited. Mr. Narasimhan, is actively involved with Confederation of Indian Industry as Chairman of TPM Club India for five years and Co-Chairman of the Manufacturing Competitiveness Committee of CII – Southern Region in 2012. He is a member of the Working Group on “Green Manufacturing” constituted by the Planning Commission for the Twelfth Five Year Plan. He has been nominated as an advisor to the Deming Prize Committee by the Union of Japanese Scientists & Engineers. He is very much interested in Environmental Management & Corporate Social Responsibility and a very keen golfer and avid sports enthusiast. Address – 7.45 – 8.30 PM: Mr. S. N. Eisenhower, Director – Operations, Saint Gobain Glass India. Mr. S. N. Eisenhower, will share with us the Case studies and success stories of climate change mitigation/energy efficiency action taken at Saint Gobain Glass, India Mr. Eisenhower, is a proud pioneer in promoting green initiatives inside the organisation he works for. He also has been elected the chairman of CII Tamil Nadu State council for 2015-2016. Networking and Dinner – 8.30 – 9.30 PM It is easy to leave carbon footprints and move on, while it requires conscious effort to try and rub some of those carbon footprints and leave green ones instead. This series of event is all about taking that extra mile and make little changes that will make our planet a better place to live. While it takes more effort to start not green and move towards green, it is easier for new entrepreneurs to start their venture greener way. SICCI, CIIE invites everyone to step in to this event and step out greener in mind, heart and practice. To register for the event, please click here Viji Suresh, Aspiration Energy

Blog, Solar thermal

Solar Thermal Power plant vs Solar Thermal Energy Plant

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I am asked in many forums about the delays and cost over-runs of solar thermal power plants, and how we have chosen to play in this field. Lets understand the differences: 1. Solar Thermal Power plants deliver electrical power – produce steam using sun, and produce electricity by running a power turbine using the steam. Solar heaters that we deliver directly deliver heated water into process heating systems. The sunshine is converted to heat, and used as heat energy. In Solar Thermal Power, sunshine is collected as heat, and then converted to electricity. 2. The technology that we use (ETC – Evacuated Tube Collectors) has a worldwide installation base of 175 GW. (64.6% of thw total worldwide installed base of solar heaters of 269. GW). This is comparable to 142 GW of solar power installations worldwide.  and 3.65 GW of solar thermal power plants worldwide.  Contrary to popular belief, solar heaters are HUGE and has been proven for decades. 3. Solar thermal power plants are based on optical concentrators, and the concentrating technology is relatively new, not yet fully proven.  ETC collectors have been around for more than 3 decades.  (Take an extract from session called brief history.  We need to make our own version of history, not from here.   You can learn more about ETC Collectors here. ETC is certainly a mature technology whereas concentrating solar is a relatively new field, yet to prove its mettle, while holding a lot of promise. ~Bhoo, CEO, Aspiration Energy

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SHIP – the Noah’s Ark of energy?

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SHIP – the Noah’s Ark of energy? Solar Heat for Industrial Process – is now named as SHIP by many consortium around the world, particularly Europe. It is so economical that I feel it is aptly called as SHIP. It is like Noah’s Ark of the energy future! SHIP: Renewed focus in Europe Good to see this project. There is a lot of focus on SHIP – Solar Heat for Industrial Process – here.

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Better late than never – October 2014 events

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It has been a month since I wrote a blog post.  I noticed that there were few interesting programs I attended during the month of October and November but missed out writing about them. Thought of sharing it now,  it is better to be late than never 🙂 I attended 2 events within a span of 3 days – both focused on our field: The first was a stakeholder Workshop – II on “Vision and Action Plan for development of decentralized solar thermal in India ” on October 14, 2014 in New Delhi.  This was conducted by Shakti Foundation and Greentech knowledge solutions. Sameer Maithel, spoke about the Chasm in Industrial Process Heat. How real! How insightful! Yes, we have such huge number of leads – we are talking with who-is-who of the industry – TVS, Tata, Godrej, ITC, Mahindra, and so on. But, even in our sales cycle – it is a chasm – the technical evaluation gets over, the commercial evaluation gets over – but before it translates to Purchase Order, there is a Chasm. The chasm is one of getting all the stakeholders together and making them fully motivated to transact. I am happy to see that the industry is seeing this Chasm and making efforts to close it. We can all read this book: Crossing the chasm The second was a Workshop on monitoring, design and certification of solar process heat on 16 October 2014 in New Delhi.  This was conducted by So-Pro India. Tarun Kapoor, Joint Secreatry of MNRE attended both the sessions. This shows the growing interest in our chosen area. I am very happy that this often neglected area is grabbing attention. Both sessions talked about how we can get policy / market awareness and credibility changes to grow the market for Solar Heating. There was a significant focus on Solar Heat for Industrial Process (SHIP) So-Pro event was 100% focused on Industrial process heat. One thing of great note here – like in any business, the quality of entrepreneurs and eco-system during the initial period determines the growth of the industry. In that sense, it is great to be part of this community – the people who were present were tachnically, commercially and behaviorally so competent to understand issues, their solutions and way to take this industry forward. Great to be part of this community.

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Workshop on Renewable Energy – Solar Thermal Systems, Hosur

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It was a focused gathering of Industry Engineers and few finance persons from the industrial belt of Hosur with an openness to know details on “Renewable Energy – Solar Thermal Systems” on 18th December 2014. The workshop was conducted by Aspiration Energy in association with CSIR – CEERI. Dr. Harish Barshillia, Chief Scientist from National Aerospace Lab, Bangalore talked about various aspects of surface coatings required for Solar Systems for achieving mid and high temperatures. Surface coatings plays an important role in solar systems. He pointed out that in solar thermal systems, high quality absorber coatings are able to absorb upto 95% of the energy in sunlight throughout the spectral range whereas for photo voltaic (PV) the commercial technology available has only 20% absorption of the spectrum. Dr. Bala Pesala, Sr Scientist at CSIR, Chennai spoke about the new emerging concepts in the solar field that would be a hybrid of Solar PV and Thermal. The most awaited talk was from our ” Proud Pioneer”, Mr. Shunmuganathan, Sr. Engineer from Harita Seatings, who shared their experience and the benefits they enjoy on Aspiration Energy’s latest solar systems installed at Harita Seatings. A proud moment for Aspiration Energy. Following this, our Solar Thermal Head Mr. Manoharan and CEO, Mr. Bhoo Thirumalai presented more details about Aspiration Energy’s mission, vision, technology and financial model, “Pay as you Save” (PAYS) model.   Mr. Raman, International Business & Investment Specialist, Onefinite LLC, talked about the Energy Security and world economics on fuel. The gathering had all the perspectives that were required for opting to Renewable Energy and also responded positively that their recommendation to Aspiration Energy Solar Thermal Systems for their companies. There was a interesting interactive session with the crowd , who all later dispersed for a sumptuous lunch. After lunch, a Site visit to our Harita Seatings installation was arranged for workshop participants. ~Revathy Ramakrishnan, Marketing, Aspiration Energy

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IGMTP – Germany trip sponsored by German taxpayers

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I approached the entire program with skepticism – A Government sponsored program?  1 month?  Will it be useful?  Germany? To think a country is taking such a long term vision of their international trade relations – by taking a bunch of business people from that country and provide free training to them – Awesome! 21 companies were chosen from India for this 2014 IGMTP program.  The interview and selection process with Hanna of GIZ was a revelation of sorts – unbelievable – the questions were centered around – will this company and person benefit from the program.  As unbelievable as it it, it is a fact, and I realized it during the 1 month there. Skepticism was flowing in others’ minds too.  One of my colleagues kept asking why German Government is investing this kind of money.  They kept on repeating that it is for long term trade relations.  As unbelievable as it it, it is a fact, and I realized it during the 1 month there. Germany – will it buy superior technology from India?  As unbelievable as it it, it is a fact, and I realized it during the 1 month there. Are they trying to sell to India?  In a couple of lectures they did mention that the capacities in Germany needs new markets.  And, they are a very export oriented country.  But, the reality is, this particular program is really, truly bi-directional – not just export promotions, but true intent of trade ties in both ends.  As unbelievable as it it, it is a fact, and I realized it during the 1 month there. In this program I learnt that there are other similar programs run by other countries like Korea, Japan, etc.  But, the very interesting difference is:  Personal Business Visits.  I could choose someone / some business that is purely relevant to my business, and during this program, they sponsored me to make that visit.  Not just paying for travel and expenses, but also actually arranging for logistics, and one step further – even making calls to help fix the appointments!  As unbelievable as it it, it is a fact, and I realized it during the 1 month there. The indebtedness I feel for India to provide me with all the nearly-free education with scholarships, with this program, Germany has created in me, and I hope that I can contribute to German-Indian trade to make the program successful in the medium term. ~Bhoo, CEO, Aspiration Energy

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High temperature

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New vacuum tube collector that generates heat up to 120 deg C. Very interesting article and technology. Our combined approaches of Integrative concentration™, StayLiquid™ , FlexiFlow™ are already creating temperatures like 110 deg C in our installation in Padi, Chennai. It is doing so at least for 5 hours in a day for a minimum of 250 days in a year! Once we install scaled system of our new innovation in U-tube type ETC collectors, I am positive we can cross 120 deg C. We are hoping that this innovation above can be much lower in cost than what we can do with U-tube.

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