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Solar Energy Vs Solar Power – 3

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Credit: Ron Tandberg My earlier blog post talks about Solar Power and Solar Energy and recommends to add Solar Energy to our vocabulary. But, the revolutionary change that we pride ourselves with – is to specify solar heaters in terms of power KWth instead of in terms of energy – Litres Per Day – LPD.  Oxymoron! LPD – Litres Per Day vs KWth Solar heaters have been traditionally specified as LPD meaning – Litres Per Day.  Why? The traditional solar heaters have been worldwide used in domestic water heaters.  When do we need hot water at home?  Mornings.  Does the sun shine in the mornings?  No.  So, essentially, we are collecting sunlight and solar energy that shone yesterday and using it today.  In that scenario, it is good to express the capacity as LPD – How many useful Litres of hot water can be generated per day. LPD essentially represents the energy collected throughout the day. LPD vs KWth – how to represent the size of solar heaters? But, when it comes to Solar Process Heating systems, we need to work on generating the high temperature required consistently during the day.  That means, we need to have the “power” to heat requisite quantity of water instantly using solar generation. That is why we specify our collectors in terms of KWth! Here are other articles that talks about KWth rating of solar heater collectors. Methodology to present the installed capacity of solar collectors in GWth Simple method for Converting Installed Solar Collector Area to Annual Collector Output ~ Bhoo, CEO, Aspiration Energy

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SolarMax – 2

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A follow up article on our earlier post SolarMax principle One example to make a difference between LoadMax and SolarMax amply clear is to take an example of Street Lights. Let’s take a standard model – Sharp Street Light. Lets take the model: SSLL 1018 The basic light there is a 18W light. Load per day:  Let’s say the 18W light runs for 12 hours – Dusk to Dawn 18W x 12 Hours = 216 WHr is what is needed per day. Let us look at what thay have designed it with: Solar capacity:  80 W. 216 WHr / 80 W = Less than 3 hours. So, the solar street light is designed to produce enough energy within 3 hours of sunshine. Sounds great and logical – when you evaluate from a general LoadMax principle.  But, imagine this – more than 300 days a year, sunshine will be for more than 5 hours.  So, Every single day on 300 days a year, 80W x 2 = 160 Whr is wasted.  And, we pay for that generation upfront. Lets take batteries:  12 V, 75 AH.  Not to be a purist in battery design for ease of calculations – I will consider VxAH as a proxy for WHr. 12 V x 75 AH = 900 VAH or approximately 900 WHr. We observed above that the requisite WHr per day is only 216 Whr.  So, this is designed with 4 times the requisite capacity. I am not taking accurate figures.  For an application like solar street light where Hybridization with existing conventional sources of power is difficult, and where the focus is on automated reliable operations, I have no arguments against this design philosophy.  And, battery design is more to do with Depth of Discharge and life-time of batteries. But, I am taking this as an illustration of LoadMax principle. If there were backup conventional sources available – I would build this with a 50W module and 50 Ah battery – which is far more economical.  That will be “SolarMax”. One word of caution though: SolarMax immediately means that it needs to be hybrid – to take care of low generation periods of solar energy.  Wherever hybrids are not possible or feasible or desirable – we need to go back to LoadMax.

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Solar Energy Vs Solar Power – 2

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In many public forums, I talk very loudly about Solar Power vs Solar Energy. I am not meaning the technical difference between Power and Energy. I am talking about what the market and general public understand.  The moment we mention “solar” – because of widespread Government side subsidies and awareness programs worldwide, people connect it with “Solar Power”, generally meaning Solar Photovoltaic plants  (PV). But, we use energy in various forms – Light, Heat, motion, cooling, and so on.  The good news is:  Solar Power a.k.a Solar PV based solar electricity generation is a high quality energy – meaning it can be converted to many other energy forms efficiently without losing much of it. Does that mean that we should always go to the high quality of energy (electricity) and then convert it to low quality energy always? Conventional wisdom says, YES.  But, solar changes this. Solar heating – at low temperature is very efficient – at 80-90% efficiency compared to paltry 13-17% of solar PV.  Moreover, costs are 50% if we compare KW capacity to to KW capacity or – KWHr generation cost to KWHr generation cost. What does that mean? We should somehow change the perception and add “Solar Energy” (to mean all forms of energy – heat, light etc) to our vocabulary rather than just “Solar Power” (“to mean electricity”). ~Bhoo, CEO, Aspiration Energy

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Solar Energy vs Solar Power

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When I was invited to this conference on Energy-Economy-Environment, I was very happy.  I was even super-happy to see the backdrop – as it had more mention of “Energy” than “Power”. But, the entire first half was devoted to power – and solar and wind power themselves were an “alternative option”, and speaker after speaker spoke about the power situation in Tamil Nadu and grid situation, and so on. I was curious, and started counting words “Power” and “Energy” in the program agenda. . It was: Page 1:  Power    6  ; Energy  3  .  Hands down, “Power” wins! Page 2:  Power   11  ; Energy 2 .  Hands down, “Power” wins! Page 3:  Power    1    ; Energy  11 .  Hands down, FINALLY “Energy” wins!  I was talking in this session, and was very happy! Finally, I mentioned this to the audience and explained how Aspiration Energy is focused on the “other” side of solar – the energy side, rather than just the electrical power side. ~ Bhoo, CEO, Aspiration Energy

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Centralized solar plants, a death trap for birds?

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California’s new solar power plant is actually a death ray that’s incinerating birds mid-flight. I am generally not a great fan of centralized solar plants as compared to off-grid and onsite generation. But, I have never thought of such seemingly simple technology causing this kind of trouble to the environment.  Being a death-trap for birds.  Whew! I am sure human ingenuity will solve this issue! ~Bhoo Photo courtesy: Sebastian Anthony

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“Interest in solar water heating spreads globally” – NY times.

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Interest in solar water heating spreads globally – says NY times. Solar water heating – particularly for industries is not a ready, mainstream market yet. We and a few of our colleagues are creating the market – by creating awareness and increasing credibility. I am happy to see such articles from New York Times, that recognize the increasing popularity and also the enormous potential that this simple technology holds. I feel once again happy to be in this space – and specifically in the industrial water heating space. I am very happy that our installations are getting worldwide recognition including Climate Solver. I have revised confidence that our pipeline worth 200+ MW will mature in the next few quarters! Renewed confidence on this space! ~Bhoo, CEO, Aspiration Energy

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Impact of budget 2014-15 on Solar

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“₹500 crore provided for ultra modern solar power plants in Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir.” ~says Finance Minister Mr. Arun Jaitley while presenting Union Budget of India 2014 From our CEO’s desk: So, what is the impact of budget 2014-15 on Solar? Everyone is talking about Rs. 500 crores for MW scale power plants in Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Ladakh. Rs. 100 crores for the Narmada Canal like MW scale power plants and excise duty cuts. That is just a surface look. I decided to dig deep. Tobias’s article at the budget allocation numbers last year interested me and I decided to analyse the equivalent numbers this year. Let’s try to understand: Grid Interactive and Distributed Renewable Power gets Rs. 1949 crores. If the above 600 crores gets deducted from this remaining would be Rs. 1349 crores. (Note: There is a separate allocation in the budget for rural agricultural pumping of Rs. 500 crores. That does not have equivalent provision in the head of “Renewable Energy for Rural Applications” in the budget – which is only Rs. 132.50 crores). We have many reports that say that the subsidy bill pending itself is Rs. 1000 crores for off-grid projects. If the total allocation is only 1349 crores, that means, new off-grid projects will only get 349 crores. If 500 crores pumping budget is included in the above, then, we have a deficit even for meeting past commitments, and what new commitments can be taken? So, probability of getting subsidies in off-grid schemes will remain like right now? Like sub-50%? Specifically about Aspiration Energy: I am confused on how this earlier NCEF funds for solar thermal applications is accounted: MNRE Solar Thermal Group This had a separate allocation of Rs 108 crores for solar heating in the industries alone. Is that mentioned in the budget somewhere? I am not able to see it. I never expected that reading the budget can be so difficult. Can someone understand these things better? Source: http://indiabudget.nic.in/ub2014-15/eb/sbe69.pdf My conclusion: We will continue to focus more on off-grid industrial heating and the market that treats subsidies as bonus and not as an essential part for economic justification. Is it all doom? No. Voila! Why am I looking at the MNRE budget? What are we replacing? Mostly diesel and Natural Gas, right? Where is that headed? Link 1: http://www.naturalgasasia.com/india-defers-decision-to-hike-gas-prices-12818 Link 2: http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2014-07-10/news/51301153_1_diesel-prices-petrol-and-diesel-oil-ministry-data I am happy that most of our prospective customers see the crisis of impending price rise and understand the value of “hedge” protection that solar provides against the impending fuel price rises for long years. So, we will focus more on replacements and not worry about subsidies but treat subsidies as bonus!

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What does our logo mean?

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In a fundamental sense, our logo symbolizes the action “Fast Forward”. It talks about the need for the world to move fast to a cleaner, renewable and cheaper source of energy. The logo also represents our company’s goal to help our clients to Fast Forward to the Solar future ! The blue arrow represents the traditional power houses, the fossil fuel industry. Just like Helen of Troy whose beauty launched a thousand ships, this resource or rather the lack of it will launch a thousand wars. The orange arrow represents Solar energy. Clean, in-exhaustive, cheaper and certainly an entity that cannot be controlled or fought over. The text portion is placed on both sides to show our aspiration to move from the fossil fuel age to the Solar age. The logo in whole talks about how we aspire to fast forward to the solar future. Solar is the future oil.

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Fast forward to the solar future

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  Do you hear Earth\’s silent whisper?  What is she trying to communicate to us? Against the smoke, noise, draught, floods, even if she screams her distress, we actually might miss to hear her. Those who heard her distress, talk about going green, saving energy, prevent global warning, etc. But the awareness lectures are always attached to the term \”for your future generations\”.   The word \”future\” actually gives the impression that the need is not immediate and slows down the seriousness of the situation.  To quote an example people are aware that the activities such as Yoga, physical exercise, walking and healthy diet prevents heart disease, hypertension or diabetes.  But, don\’t we usually postpone it till we encounter a real heart-attack?  Unless we face the dire state or symptoms that compels us to take the exercise route we generally wouldn\’t. This being the case, all over the world, Governments through various measures compel, coerce people or offer economic incentives like subsidies and preferential tariff.  For example, CDM and RPO are more of such measures.  The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) stimulates sustainable development and emission reductions and  demands (or compels) people. There are only broadly 2 measures. Viability gap funding:  Capital subsidies, feed-in-tariff, Accelerated depreciation etc., fall into this category.  Either pay money against investment, or pay against generation – but pay more to whoever invests. Compulsions:  Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO) demands (or compels) people to generate certain portion of their energy from clean sources.  Kyoto protocol etc., are at the country level but the same compulsion to reduce energy usage or generate using clean sources. There are some combination measures – like The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) or Renewable Energy Certificates (REC) stimulates sustainable development and emission reductions.  Essentially an intelligent combination of the above 2. Overall, the effect is slow adoption.  Earth is essentially stuck with the paradigm that – it is either \”protect future\” or \”current profit\”.  Is there some way to have it both ways? In the world expecting instant gratification, quarter on quarter growth, what does Aspiration Energy mean when it talks about, \”Fast Forward to the Solar Future\”.  Is there anything for the present in it? Yes! of course!  Industrial process heating and rural electrification are the best of both the worlds.  It gives immediate benefits – call it instant gratification.  And, at the same time it fulfils all the other aspects of Earth\’s future protection. Aspiration energy offers economically viable solutions, that save the environment and is installed on the otherwise wasted factory rooftop space.  

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