Scientists Propose Building Solar Panel Roofs For India’s Highways

2nd Apr 2013

Scientists at the Gujarat Energy Research and Management Institute (GERMI) have made a proposal to cover major roads and highways in the state of Gujarat with elevated platforms that will hold solar modules.

The pilot project that they hope to install will cover the 205 kilometre long Ahmedaba-Rajkot highway, with computer simulations suggesting that the project would produce 104MW of electricity.

Following a success in Gujarat the scientists hope that the idea will spread to other highways around the country, and have estimated the power generation potential for some of the major national highways.

The 93km Ahmedabad-Vadodara highway could produce 61MW of solar power, the 5,839km Golden Quadrilateral Highway which connects four Indian cities could generate 4,418MW of power, and the 7,300km North-South-East-West Corridor which stretches across all of India both length and breadthways, is estimated to have the potential to create 5,524MW.

You may be questioning the need to build the solar PV panels on roofs over the highways, and the answer is land. Land in India is a highly limited resource and therefore expensive. Doubling up, by using the same land for highways and solar farms is a handy way of reducing costs. Talks have even been held about the possibility of introducing the same system to the nation’s railway network.

Other than the cost of land there are other advantages to building solar roofs along the highways: most transmission lines in India run alongside the highways, which mean connecting to the grid wouldn’t be too difficult or expensive; some of the power generated could be used to light the roads at night, and power infrastructure located along the highway; also, many major industrial parks are located off the highways, so providing the power from the solar panels would be much cheaper and more efficient as it does not require long transmission lines.

By. James Burgess

Roughly 50 ruling LDP lawmakers call for end to nuclear power

Roughly 50 lawmakers of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, or more than 10 percent of the party's members in parliament, have called for an end to nuclear power generation in Japan in the future, a senior party member said Friday.

Just four lawmakers were in favor of building new nuclear power plants in a survey of 407 LDP members in both chambers, with responses obtained from about 320.

Among the lawmakers who responded, more than 80 percent called for making use of renewable energy while maintaining nuclear plants to supply electricity to the country.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who heads the LDP, has criticized those advocating an end to nuclear power generation as "irresponsible," while expressing his readiness to reduce the country's reliance on nuclear power.

The senior party member who revealed the results of the internal survey said those calling for an end to nuclear power have a "larger than expected" presence in the party.

The Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan, the powerful trade group for the nation's power utilities, had lobbied LDP lawmakers to support new nuclear power plant construction in connection with the survey, sources close to the matter said Friday.

In a leaflet distributed to LDP lawmakers, the federation provided model answers to questions in the survey, the sources said, evidence of lobbying by the industry to maintain nuclear power generation in Japan.

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Corruption, black money catch govt eye before polls | Business Standard

In what can be construed the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) effect, the Centre has expedited measures against graft and black money. After cracking down on Cyprus for not sharing information, the government is getting tough with other non-cooperating jurisdictions and setting up offices abroad to tighten the noose around evaders.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has cleared the long-pending proposal to set up income-tax overseas units (ITOUs) in eight more countries, finance ministry officials said. Interestingly, the decisions came after the results of Assembly polls last month, characterised by Congress' defeat in four major states and the impressive debut of AAP in Delhi.

ITOUs, which facilitate and expedite the exchange of information process under double-taxation avoidance agreements (DTAA), were established in Mauritius and Singapore earlier. Later, the government announced to create ITOUs at Cyprus, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, the United Arab Emirates, the UK and the US. The decision, however, has come only now. India has been putting pressure on tax havens to share information in whatever way it can. DTAAs are being renegotiated and new Tax Exchange Information Agreements are being signed. When it blacklisted Cyprus for not sharing information, the move was to send a strong message to other tax havens that India could take a similar action against them.

Acting upon the list shared by France giving names of Indians with secret bank accounts in HSBC Geneva, the tax department has been issuing notices to people who are not sharing information. In this case, Finance Minister P Chidambaram recently wrote to Switzerland as without its help the Indian government cannot make much headway.

INDIAN POLITY : A POWERHOUSE OF SHAMELESS NATIONAL MISLEADERS

The Indian prime minister, Dr Manmohan Singh yesterday was candid enough in accepting his government failures in controlling inflation, checking corruption and tackling unemployment which have been the major banes of his government during its tenure all through. In spite of all this how he could bring himself to he singing praises for the achievements of his government particularly when talking about the growth achieved during the last nine years. One starts wondering whether he is an overrated economist or an underrated politician. But one thing is quite clear that he could feed the nation on some statistics which as numbers are true but in true essence totally misleading. When inflation during all this period has been at a level of 10% and more, when the government salaries have doubled on account of increases in dearness allowance alone in the last seven to eight years, is the GDP increase a result of more production or a result of stagnant production with increased prices of goods and commodities due to inflation.The first mathematical guess appears to be suggesting a contraction in the overall produce. The nation will be grateful if the loyal statisticians of this insincere polity give out figures of produce in tonnage and numbers as the case may be, rather than the rupee value. The Indian nation is lucky that the inflation did not reach astronomical figures for then the polity perhaps would have fed the nation with growth rates exceeding even 20% and would have sought credit instead of being ashamed of their total failure.