California's Popular Politician, Harry Sidhu Honors Indian Solar Power Delegation

California, Oct 28, 2009
Raj, NRIpress.com

About 15 Indian Solar Power Development Delegation for 12- Day Orientation Visit (OV), was sponsored by the US Trade & Development Agency (USTDA). They represented private and public sector development interests, renewable energy regulatory bodies at both State and Federal levels, and related renewable energy agencies.

The key objectives of this OV are:

• To highlight U.S. technologies and services related to Indian goals to increase power generation and efficient utilization of solar energy resources to help meet electric power deficits. India is one of the fastest growing markets for clean energy technologies.
• India’s national solar plan, “Solar India,” seeks to make the country a global leader in solar energy through an ambitious roadmap of solar generation, distribution, and implementation targets. U.S. products, technologies and practices, as well as policies, in the solar power industry can serve to promote greater indigenous power production and solar energy development in India.

On the evening of Sunday October 25th, 2009 Anaheim city Council Member Harry Sidhu gave a very Special Dinner reception at Gandhi Palace (Inside Ramada Plaza Hotel) 515 W. Katella Ave., Anaheim, honoring the India Solar Power Development delegation on their visit to orange county. The social hour started around 6pm with sweet spicy snacks and the guests were having good time and sharing their views. Harry Sigh also invited some prominent business entrepreneurs to share their views with Solar Delegation team members.

Featured Speakers were: Marcie Edwards, General Manager, Anaheim Public Utilities & Asst. city Manager: Jigar shah, Sun Edison, Founder & Executive Board Member for the Carbon War Room and host Anaheim City Council Member Harry Sidhu.

Anaheim Public Utilities’ commitment to help customers install new solar electric generating capacity throughout our community is nothing new. In 2001, we installed the first grid-connected solar energy array in the City at the Anaheim Convention Center. Since then we have worked with individuals who have installed solar energy systems at their homes, as well as businesses and customers such as the Tiger Woods Learning Center, where a unique solar-electric curtain wall was installed in the auditorium lobby to add style to the functionality of solar power.

Anaheim Public Utilities’ introduced solar energy incentive programs for homes, business and schools in 2001. Available incentives are shown in the following table through the end of calendar year 2016. For incentive information specific to Residential, Income Qualified, Commercial, and Sun Power for Schools Program, please see the links at the bottom of this page.

On Wednesday, Anaheim City Council Member Harry Sidhu, other officials and Indian Solar Power Development Delegation went for Anaheim Energy Field for Solar Facility Tour, 1625 Ninth Street, Anaheim, CA

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Delegation List, India Solar Power Development OV, Oct 24-Nov 6, 2009

Government / Public Sector: Federal :

1) Debashish Majumdar, Chairman and Managing Director, Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Limited

Government / Public Sector: Rajasthan

2) Mr. Naresh Pal Gangwar, IAS..... Chairman & Managing Director, Rajasthan Renewable Energy Corporation Ltd.

3) Mr. D.C. Samant, Chairman, Rajasthan Electricity Regulatory Commission

4) Mr. Shreemat Pandey, IAS...... Principal Secretary-Energy, Government of Rajasthan

Private Sector

5) Mr. V. Saibaba, Chief Executive Officer, LANCO Green Power Pvt Ltd

6) Mr. M. K. Prasad, Senior General Manager, Jindal Power

7) Mr. Haziq Beg, Senior Vice President, IL&FS Energy Development Company Limited

U.S. Government Representatives

8) Mr. Henry Steingass [Oct 26-27 only], Regional Director, South and Southeast Asia, U.S. Trade and Development Agency

9) Mr. P Srinivas, Senior Commercial Specialist, U.S. Commercial Service

10) Ms. Cynthia Torres, U.S. Commercial Service, 11) Mr. Richard Swanson, U.S. Commercial Service

USTDA Contractors

12) Peter Lowenthal, Group Director, Renewable Energy / Clean Tech / Sustainability Practice, 360jmg

13) Rajita Majumdar, Project Manager, BCS, Incorporated

14) Sarah Ruen, Technical Research Analyst, BCS, Incorporated

According to the delegation, India has the best solar resource in Asia. All technologies work in India, even technologies that generate electricity only from direct normal and areas where utility scale solar farms will be deployed.

The Prime Minister’s council on climate change gave the green signal to the Indian National Solar Mission on August 3. It has two major components: solar power generation and manufacture of equipment to achieve it.

India’s capacity to generate solar power is negligible now: less than 10 megawatts (MW). The mission aims at 20,000 MW by 2020. Thereafter, it would aim at producing a tenth of the country’s power from solar. This would amount to 100,000 MW by 2030. The mission aims to increase domestic capacity to manufacture solar power equipment. For this, it plans to have in place by 2017 manufacturing capacity of 5,000 MW per year.

Several energy analysts see solar thermal as an answer to India’s quest for low-carbon growth.

Over all the program was very interesting and Anaheim City Council Member Harry Sidhu also asked guests for their views regarding Solar Energy. Dinner was served around 9pm .This special program ended around 10pm.

World's largest solar steam system comes up in Shirdi, Maharashtra


July 31,2009

Hindu and Muslim pilgrims visiting the shrine of Sai Baba in this town will be served food cooked with the help of a solar steam system, inaugurated by New and Renewable Energy Minister Farooq Abdullah Thursday, that officials say is the world's largest.

The solar steam system can generate 3,500 kg of steam every day - enough to cook food for 20,000 people. It has been designed for cooking food for devotees visiting the shrine devoted to Sai Baba, a 19th century Sufi saint who was revered by Hindus and Muslims alike.

The total cost of the new system at Shirdi, some 90 km from Nashik, is estimated at Rs.1.33 crore for which a subsidy of Rs. 58.4 lakh has been provided by the new and renewable energy ministry.

The system will result in annual savings of 100,000 kg of cooking gas. It has been designed in such a way that it will generate steam for cooking even in the absence of electricity to run the feed water pump for circulating water in the system.

The ministry offers support of up to 50 percent of the cost of such systems set up by non-profit bodies and up to 35 percent cost support to profit making bodies.

'Over 40 systems covering a dish area of about 12,000 sq metre have been supported by the ministry so far for various applications, though the major application is cooking only,' an official statement said.

Some of the large solar steam cooking systems installed include those at Mount Abu in Rajasthan for serving 10,000 people every day, and at Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh and Satyabhama university in Chennai, which cater to about 15,000 people a day. (Source: IANS)...for NRIpress.com

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