Read an interesting article on solar ink that can assist in printable solar cells. Australian researchers have created ‘solar ink’, which can capture sunlight and turn it into electricity, that can be printed on some materials and can used to charge smartphones and laptops. The solar cells can be printed onto...

09/14/2014 admin Uncategorized Comments off 2 Rayon is an extremely popular fabric, and is used by most major clothing brands. It’s made by a complex chemical process, but at the beginning it starts with wood chips, which are turned into a product called dissolving pulp. Like all products that come...

I had been updating a blog I run on cleantech innovations, the Cleantech Gallery, for the past 8 months. Thought it is a nice time of the year to present some of the really interesting/innovative ideas in cleantech I had included in that, in 2014. Here we go. I have...

  Imagine you are a nobody like me. Now imagine that you are sitting right behind Ratan Tata. Yes, THE Tata. He is sitting right in front of you for not just a few flickering minutes, but for 3 full hours. For a change, he is not in high level consultations with top honchos. In...

Yet again, we have heard about the government's seriousness about RPO (renewable purchase obligation). The only difference is that, this time it is by the NDA government. Now, why would we take this any more seriously than all of the earlier attempts? Optimists point to the following: 1. To enforce RPO,...

EAI has launched Suncyclopedia, the Solar Encyclopedia  . This is a unique web resource that introduces solar energy in a simple and easy-to-understand manner to all those who wish to understand solar better. While there are a number of web resources available that explain solar energy, most of these are...

An interesting news report in The Hindu on a Kenyan effort to manage human waste, "Turning Human Waste into Clean Energy", got me down recent memory lane. Two years back, my team had helped out the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in their efforts on finding solutions to fecal waste in India. Putting jargons aside,...

Colleges (and to a certain extent schools) are likely to be some of the earliest adopters of solar power from their premises. There are three reasons for this: 1. Most colleges are running during the same hours as the sun is up and running. Thus, the need for storage (batteries) is reduced...

Schools are great places for solar. Not only do they provide many schools a nice, alternative way to generate power. Most schools have that ideallic streak in them - what better time to teach folks to be idealistic than when they are, well, not yet folks. Indian schools are just warming to...

In our Rooftop Solar series, I look at some interesting rooftop solar installations in hotels around the world. To make it easy on your eyes, I have provided as many pictures as possible, with links to the original news articles. Hope you like these. The 1.6 MW rooftop array at...