A brief chat I had yesterday with Pashupathy Gopalan of SunEdison brought to me an important point - the Indian solar sector is unique in its cut-throat competitiveness and really low margins, something surprising for an industry that is nascent. I personally saw how in the US the margins for...

Castor oil is increasingly finding application in the manufacture of polyurethane foams. The polyurethane is produced from polyols based on castor oil.  Polyols can be reacted with diisocyanates to make polyurethanes. There are a limited number of naturally occurring vegetable oils (triglycerides) which contain the unreacted hydroxyl groups that account...

I had briefly touched upon the possibility of having castor oil as a feedstock for biodiesel in my earlier post. I will expand on this theme a bit more in this post. While castor oil is unlikely to be a significant contributor to the biodiesel industry in the next 3-5...

You might be wondering what castor oil is doing in a blog about renewable energy and sustainability. But castor crop and oil are closer to sustainability and renewable energy than most of us think. The castor plant has been known to man for ages. Castor beans have been found in...

 (pic courtesy - CleanLatvia) The Inventor's Problem The world, in my opinion, has two categories of people – those who know to do things, and those who know how to do people. As far as I have seen, the intersection of these two categories has few people in it. That...

EAI's Narasimhan Santhanam was a featured speaker at the recently concluded SolarCon at Bangalore. Narasimhan participated in a panel discussion session on financing for solar PV power plants . This panel also included: Vineeth Vijayaraghavan of Panchabuta Gaurav Sood of SolaireDirect SJ Vijay of Solomon Leap Associates and representatives from...

RENERGY 2013 Conference will take place at Chennai Trade Centre, May 9-11, 2013, and is organized by TEDA, part of the State Government of Tamil Nadu. RENERGY 2012 turned out to be a fine success, and in the process, all of us at EAI learnt a whole lot. Subsequently, EAI...

EAI, the marketing coordinator for RENERGY 2013 organized by TEDA, is proud to announce that GE Power Conversion, ENERPARC, CWET & Vikram Solar have joined as key sponsors and supporters of RENERGY 2013, India's most productive renewable energy event, May 9-11 @ Chennai GE Power Conversion - This division of...

Unique Solar PV Workshop on 13th March, 2013, @ The Lalit, New Delhi Operation and Maintenance is one of the most critical requirements of successfully and profitably operating power projects. Good O&M practices have an impact on both technical and financial performance of the projects while improving the life of...

Solar PV Installer's Training at Bengaluru iAcharya Silicon along with Underwriters Labs (UL) with will be conducting a comprehensive solar PV workshop & training for installers, in Bengaluru. This will be especially of interest to prospective solar PV installers, system integrators and EPCs. All participants will get a UL Global...