Corona is not All Bad News

The Himalayas are visible 125 miles away in India for the first time in 30 years after coronavirus saw pollution levels drop across the country. The snowy mountain range can be seen clearly among billowing clouds as the India’s pollution levels drop.

Do we really want to go back to BAU for 100% after corona or should we use the corona-shock to push through measures that were in the pipeline for decades anyway? How about limiting flying, limiting global trade and stimulate local production, increase speed renewable energy transition, forbid gasoline cars by 2025, etc., etc.

[thesun.co.uk] – CRYSTAL CLEAR Himalayas are visible 125 miles away in India for 1st time in 30 years after coronavirus lockdown saw pollution plummet

Power Mix India

[cleantechnica.com] – Share of Fossil Fuel In Indian Power Mix Drops For 14th Consecutive Quarter

Molten Salt Storage

Wire Up Geothermal Heat With Graphene

Two Russian scientists discovered that graphene can have exceptionally large thermal conductivity, up to 5300 W/(m.K), something like 12,000 times better than copper and got rewarded with the Nobel Prize in 2010. Watch the video below showing how you can cut though ice with a graphene blade, using heat from your fingers. The Manoj Bhargava Indian billionaire thinks that graphene (carbon) cables could revolutionize how we extract heat from geothermal wells and distribute heat and invests in the technology. The idea is to abandon the concept of geothermal heat transfer through fluid motion, and instead use thermal conductivity of graphene to bring heat to the surface of the earth via wires, without moving material, pumps and pipes.

[wikipedia.org] – Manoj Bhargava
[phys.org] – Physicists show unlimited heat conduction in graphene
[wikipedia.org] – Graphene
[thinkgeoenergy.com] – Could a new approach to thermal conductivity revolutionise geothermal?
[futurism.com] – Thanks to Graphene, We May Harness The “Limitless Energy” Beneath Earth’s Surface
[graphene-info.com] – Graphene thermal conductivity

Kamuthi Solar Power Plant Construction Documentary

Location: Kamuthi
Power: 648 MW (2nd largest in the world)
Commission date: 13 June 2016
Panels: 2.5 million
Annual generation: 1.3 TWh
Project: 8,500 workers completed the project in 8 months
Contractor: Adani Power
Grid connectivity: ABB Group

[wikipedia.org] – Kamuthi Solar Power Project
[Google Maps] – Kamuthi Solar Power Project

Texas Solar Tower Go Ahead?

What we love about the project are the video and music, but that’s about it.

Last year we reported about an Australian company promoting the design of a solar downdraft wind tower and expressed our skepticism regarding the energy efficiency of the project:

[deepresource] – Solar Downdraft Wind Tower Planned in Arizona

To our amazement, Environmission reported that Texas agreed to invest 1 million $ in the undertaking.

[enviromission.com.au] – Texas Solar Tower Development Agreement US$ Banked

Furthermore, India seems to be interested as well:

[cleantechnica.com] – EnviroMission Reports Progress On The First Solar Chimney In India

[wiki2.org] – Solar updraft tower

India Ready to Pay Iranian Oil in Euro

New Delhi, March 23: India is likely to grant Iran’s request to be paid fully in euros for oil, against the current practice of partial payment in rupees… Reports quoting Mohsen Qamsari, director for international affairs of the National Iranian Oil Company, said, “Indians are interested in increasing oil imports from Iran and we welcome this matter in the event that it would be possible for us to receive payments in euros in our accounts.”

[telegraphindia.com]

Wind-Coal Break-even in India

[source]
The cost of wind power has dropped below the price of coal-fired energy in parts of India (like Karnataka, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh) for the first time as improved turbine technology and rising fossil-fuel prices boost its competitiveness, Greenko Group Plc said. The current cost to build wind farms in India is about $1.25 million a megawatt.

[renewableenergyworld.com]

India opens world’s largest solar park

The newly-developed solar power park will be a 500-megawatt system using state-of-the-art thin film photovoltaic technology and should be fully completed by the end of 2014. It now has an operational capacity of 214 MW and has already become the largest such single location in the world, spread over 3,000 acres (12 km2) of mainly wasteland.

[RussiaToday]