Two-Day course on Solar PV Technologies

Two-Day course on SOLAR PHOTOVOLTAIC TECHNOLOGIES:

"An Introduction for Entrepreneurs, Investors and Policy makers"

Date: Nov. 3-4, 2008
Venue : Seminar Hall, Institute Guest House, IIT Bombay, Powai, Mumbai-76

Organizer:
Dr. Chetan Singh Solanki is currently assistant professor in Department of Energy Science and Engineering at Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB) India.

Fore More information click here

Manoj

CleanTech forum meeting - Lets Meet in Mumbai

Hi,

I will be at renaissance hotel on Oct 8-9 in Mumbai to attend Cleantech forum event there. If anyone of you like to meet or network, we can do some small selected get together or do personal meetings on fringes of the forum.

Let me know if there is interest.

Email: manoj@nexusindiacap.com

Manoj

Don’t Miss Next Month’s Cleantech Forum in Mumbai

Cleantech Group LLC is holding an inaugural forum in Mumbai on October 7-9th at the Renaissance Mumbai to help drive India’s rapid business growth in clean technologies. Since 2002, the Cleantech Forums® have brought together active investors and companies to facilitate the financing of emerging clean technology companies and broader market-based solutions. Presenting companies have raised over $1.4 billion through previous Cleantech Forums.

For two full days, an international assembly of investors, technology leaders, scientists and deal-makers will explore ways to shape the future of clean technology in Asia and throughout the world. In the keynote address, Shri Vilas Muttemwar, Minister of State for the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, will outline the governments' strategic approach to shaping the cleantech market.

You will hear from and be able to interact with Pankaj Sehgal of SUN Group, moderating a panel of experts from NEA, GEF and Nomura on India cleantech opportunities from the investor perspective. Ajit Nazre of Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers and Saurabh Srivastava of the Indian Venture Capital Association are among business leaders speaking on developments in software that helps address energy and resource efficiency and pollution abatement. You will also hear from prominent corporate executives from Tata Power, Mahindra & Mahindra, Praj Industries, Greenko Group, Unilever, REVA and BP presenting in sessions on trends, predictions, funding sources, and entrepreneurial success stories.

Other leading organizations participating include Moser Baer Photovoltaic Ltd., Ernst & Young, MPPL Renewable Energy Pvt Ltd., Greenko Group, and Deeya Energy. Top-tier venture capital and investment firms participating include Sequoia Capital India, IDFC Private Equity, Global Environment Fund, Kenda Capital, Nexus Capital India, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Khosla Ventures, and many others.

If you have not registered, or need additional information, please call Jawinder Kaur at +91 98103 59243, or contact india@cleantech.com. More information including the full program is available at www.cleantech.com/indiaforum

Manoj

Nexus India Capital invests in engine efficiency company SEDEMAC

Nexus India Capital invests in engine efficiency company SEDEMAC

Mumbai, September 9th, 2008: Nexus India Capital announces an investment in SEDEMAC Mechatronics, a company providing energy efficiency solutions for the automotive and renewable energy markets.

SEDEMAC is founded by Prof. Shashikanth Suryanarayanan, a high-energy, entrepreneurial professor from IIT Bombay who obtained his PhD at University of California, Berkeley. The company was incubated at SINE – IIT Bombay’s on-campus incubator. SEDEMAC has developed electronic control modules which increase the fuel efficiency and reduce emissions of small engines. It is working with some of the leading two wheeler companies in India and with global renewable energy firms.

“We were very impressed by the passion of Shashi and the SEDEMAC team to build a global company from India providing state-of-the-art solutions to increase the efficiency of engines across various industries from automotive to alternate energy. The domestic and the global markets are huge and the company is in the process of introducing their solutions across both,” said Sandeep Singhal, Managing Director, Nexus India Capital Advisors. He added that “Nexus is seeing similar cutting edge technology initiatives at IITs and other leading institutes and is looking to build similar partnerships.”

Shashikanth Suryanarayanan, Founder and Director, SEDEMAC, said “We are delighted to partner with Nexus to build a world-class company. We believe Nexus’s pro-active approach in working with a technology-intensive company like ours and their leadership in the CleanTech sector in India will act as key enablers of our growth. The investment will help with market introduction of energy efficient, low-emission products for small engines. ”

About SEDEMAC

SEDEMAC Mechatronics Pvt Ltd develops energy efficiency solutions for automotive and alternate energy businesses. SEDEMAC leverages its core technical strength in control-intensive electronics for the development of these products. For more information, please visit www.sedemac.com

Coffee with Nexus - Mumbai

Our next coffee with Nexus event will be at:

Date/Time: September 26, Friday, 6-8PM

Location:
Hall of Quest,
Nehru Planetarium,
Worli, Mumbai

Please RSVP to manoj@nexusindiacap.com as soon as possible because of limited seats.

Manoj

My top ten points on CleanTech in India

Let me share some of my observations on CleanTech in India:

1. CleanTech is in nascent stages in India which gives opportunity to VC firms to nurture early stage companies in India and create long term value. In terms of hype and stage, we are still 5-6 years behind USA. In terms of market opportunity it runs into billions of dollars (DG replacement market itself is more than $10 billion).

2. India is a “CleanTech deployment, delivery and adoption” market rather than “CleanTech IP discovery and development” center. This means the cleantech companies in India will be manufacturing, projects, EPC or services companies rather than strong technology/IP companies.

3. CleanTech is still not that hot among young people leading to shortage of talent and lack of people who have experience in running cleantech companies before.

4. CleanTech in India will revolve more around energy efficiency rather than generation because of lower capital intensity.

5. CleanTech has capital intensity issues which can lead to slower growth initially in India on generation side.

6. CleanTech can solve India’s energy problems especially using distributed energy solutions. Entrepreneurs should look at this very seriously.

7. Massive opportunity for entrepreneurs in industrial captive power generation which are early adopters of CleanTech in India (DGs power most of industrial captive power which is ridiculously costly).

8. Cleantech solutions globally need to be localized to Indian conditions before their adoption here. Entrepreneurs have opportunity here.

9. Lot of global technology companies want to partner with Indian companies for deployment. Indian companies should reach out these companies for technology partnerships rather than re-inventing the wheels. There is a need to build that cross-border platform in India. Nexus is trying to become that bridge.

10. CleanTech has longer gestation period but has very highly non-linear scale opportunities which can potentially make a company big in short span of time.

Manoj

TIE CleanTech SIG Mumbai - Presentations online

Here are three presentations which were presented at our TIE CleanTech SIG Mumbai event:

1. Mr. Ragupathy talking about Green Building opportunity in India

2. Vivek Mehra talking about Yes Bank's role in CleanTech

3. Prof. Rangan Banerjee giving technology landscape in CleanTech in India

I hope you will enjoy these presentations.

Manoj

Distributed Energy - Solution for India's energy problems

In my view, renewable energy has the potential to solve power problems of India much more than for the developed world. Because 70% of our population is in 600 thousand villages across India, we need sources of energy which are distributed in nature and can use local resources to generate energy avoiding grid capital costs and distribution losses. Also most of our industries use captive power sources because of unreliable grid availability and these power sources are either Diesel ot coal based.

Fortunately, renewable energy solutions are usually very modular in nature and fit very well in a distributed infrastructure setting, be it solar, wind, biomass or small hydro. If we see from an Indian lens, renewables is more an enabler of distributed energy generation rather than a cleaner energy source (which may matter more for developed world). It being clean is a by-product for us, which is good since then there is no conflict.

India is by and large a sunny country with potential for lot of solar power year round which can be captured using lower technology intensive solutions like micro Solar Thermal. India has large arable land (55% of land is arable which is best in the world) part of which can be used for energy plantation if agriculture yields are increased. Weeds like Babool can be a great source for biomass power because water requirements are very low for Babool and can grow on wastelands (55 million hectares in India is wasteland). India has huge Agri-waste (600 million tonnes) which can be used locally for power generation using either biomass gasification or bio-methanation route. Biomass is a natural solar cell and storage issues, which exist in Solar PV, do not exist because nature stores energy as plant material which can be used for base-load /on-demand power unlike in Solar PV. We do not need West’s complex Solar PV technologies if we can concentrate on growing and efficiently using our biomass resources. The good thing is that economically too, the distributed energy sources like biogas plants are cost competitive to grid electricity if you take into account also the grid cost.

India has about 20 million agriculture pumps which are grossly inefficient. Of these 20 million, 5 million run on diesel which make them very costly to operate (farmers usually pay minimal amount for grid connected electric pumps but they have to pay for diesel). There is an opportunity to create distributed sources of energy which can power these diesel pumps on a standalone basis. The cost of running a diesel pump can be very high (given that it costs close to 30-40 cents/KWh of electricity).

Distributed sources of energy therefore can be very useful in Indian context which may not make sense from developed world perspectives. They usually prefer very high concentrated scale of operation because of good grid connectivity and primary urban power demand. In India, I see first Diesel Generators going out of fashion once the distributed clean energy solutions start coming which are easy to operate, generate power on-demand and are affordable. I think it is time somebody starts thinking replacing DGs given that 25k MW of power is generated by DGs in India. Entrepreneurs are you listening?

Manoj

TIE CleanTech SIG Mumbai launch

Finally what began as a small gathering of CleanTech enthusiasts at Nexus India Capital's office 5 months ago has now taken a formal shape. Nexus has pioneered formation of a CleanTech SIG (Special Interest Group) under TIE umbrella in Mumbai. I chair the SIG and we have a core team of extremely passionate CleanTechies who are working together to create a platform where people can come together and share knowledge and build passion. We believe this passion will drive a buildup of an active CleanTech ecosystem in India.

If you want to use this platform to speak to an audience, spread the knowledge or can help in core activities of the SIG, please contact me at manoj@nexusindiacap.com

Thanks
Manoj

Coffee with Nexus

Nexus India Capital, a leading venture capital firm in India, wants to make sure that they are accessible to entrepreneurs. This group aims to bring together entrepreneurs who are interested in participating at our monthly event, "Coffee with Nexus", which is a limited seat event held in Mumbai, India every month. If you are an entrepreneur who is struggling with scalability issues or lost in term sheet or thinking of starting a fresh business and need VC validation, come and attend our “Coffee with Nexus” event.

Join “Coffee with Nexus” LinkedIn Group: http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/721417

Next Event: September 24, Wednesday, 3-5PM

Location:
Nexus India Capital Advisors
201 B Phoenix House
462, S. B. Marg, Lower Parel
Mumbai 400013

CleanTech event in Mumbai

Date: Aug. 30, Saturday, 10AM-12:30PM

Venue:                Nehru Planetarium, 

                               Hall of Quest,

                               Worli, Dr.A.B.Road, 

                               Mumbai – 400018

1. 9:30AM-10AM : Registration

2. 10:00AM-10:15AM : Event introduction - Sandeep Singhal, MD, Nexus India Capital

3. 10:15AM-11AM : “CleanTech Technology Landscape in India” – Prof. Rangan Banerjee, Head of Energy Systems Department, IIT-Mumbai

4. 11AM-11:30AM : “Green Building Opportunity in India” - Mr. S Raghupathy, Head of CII-Green Business Center, Hyderabad

5. 11:30AM-12PM : “Role of banks in CleanTech ecosystem” – Vivek Mehra, Country Head, Sustainable Investment Banking & Private Equity, Yes Bank

Rita Soni, Country Head, Responsible Banking, Yes Bank

6. 12PM-12:30PM : Networking over snacks and coffee

This is a paid event and hence following fees are applicable. The fees can be paid at the event reception.

Per Session Fees

TiE Members – 250

Non-Members – 400

Students – 100

Package Discount for all 3 sessions

TiE Members – 600

Non-Members – 900

Students - 200

Please RSVP as soon as possible as seats are limited. Also please forward this to folks you know who will be interested in this.

RSVP:      manoj@nexusindiacap.com

                 anahita@tiemumbai.org

Other events to follow:

1. CDM workshop - September

2. Building and scaling a CleanTech company in India : A leading CleanTech company CEO – October

3. CleanTech Business Plan competition - October

Energy Recovery: is there a similar company in India?

An interesting IPO which did very well on first day (in bad times). They recover pressure energy back from waste stream to boost the feed seawater, reducing energy consumption of sea-water desalination. Simple concept but very powerful and useful.

This is a good animation of how it works.

http://www.energyrecovery.com/px_technology/ERIPX3DAnimation.mov

Founded in the early 1990s, Energy Recovery develops systems that capture and recycle energy from desalination. The company says that its main product – PX Pressure Exchanger (PX) – conserves up to 98% of the energy.

And, in terms of market coverage, PX systems are installed in over 300 desalination plants. As a result, Energy Recovery's growth rate has been particularly strong. Revenues have gone from $4 million in 2003 to $35.4 million in 2007.

Manoj

CleanTech event - Lets meet

I will be at this CleanTech event for two days. If anyone of you is also present there will love to meet. Drop me an email at manoj@nexusindiacap.com

2nd India CleanTech Forum
10th & 11th July 2008
The Taj Mahal Hotel
1, Mansingh Road
New Delhi - 110 011 India.

For more Information, please visit

http://www.cleantechforum.com/

Manoj

Why Water is still not that Hot?

Usually one big crisis draws attention of the world towards a growing problem and that then kickstarts a whole new set of opportunities. Can this California drought event create a bagful of opportunities in water?

Below are my reasons as to why water is still not that hot as energy is:

1. Water is a big problem but which can be tackled easily by smart use of it. The biggest benefit of water is that we can recycle it which unfortunately is not possible in energy space. Expect recycling to reach the European/Isreal levels (upto ten times) in USA and India too. Also the other benefit is that water is actually abundantly present which can be made “available” by desalination technologies or rain water harvesting (only 3% of total water is freshwater) which is unfortunately not the case with energy.

2. It is hard to force consumers to pay more for water since historically water has been seen a very abundant and free commodity unlike energy which needs to be generated at a cost. Water is a low margin business because of inability to pass increased cost to them. The only point which makes water more important than energy is that it is one of the basic needs for human survival.

3. Basic need for water is for drinking and cooking use. The other uses of water people adjust themselves depending on water availability (use less water for bathing, shaving etc as happens in villages). Usually people do not show that flexibility in energy and find it more painful to adjust to lower levels.

4. Energy direct touchpoints are more in our life than water. We get in direct touch with water when we eat or drink which are few in a day. With energy we are in touch at all the times (Air conditioning, TV, Internet, Travel, Mobile phones) and we immediately get uncomfortable when it is switched off. For individuals, therefore energy seems like a bigger problem than water and therefore the hype associated with energy can be easily created.

5. Not a lot of technological innovations that can happen in water industry unlike in energy. At least thats the perception.

6. Typically, water retail consumers spend less than 0.1-0.2% of their income on water and more than 1% on energy (electricity+fuel) making energy a much bigger industry (atleast ten times more, $5 trillion Vs $500 billion).

Any thoughts?

Manoj

CleanTech Networking Event : 3-6PM, 5th July, 2008

As you may know CleanTech is the buzzword of this decade and is rightly so. With 380 ppm of carbon
dioxide in our atmosphere and $125/barrel of crude oil glaring in our face, CleanTech is the need of the
hour. Whether we are polluters or not, we all will be impacted by the climate change. As part of our
initiative to increase awareness in the society, Nexus India Capital along with Al Gore's Climate
Project Group, Vinod Khosla chaired CleanTech India group and TIE Mumbai have teamed up
to provide a platform for networking and discussion on "CleanTech in India". 

We invite you to attend this event and contribute in building awareness on CleanTech in India.

Date: July 5th, Saturday, 3-6PM

Venue:    The Climate Project India,

               2nd Floor, Victoria House,

               Pandurang Budhkar Marg,

               Lower Parel, Mumbai - 400 013

               Landmark: Bombay Dyeing Showroom

Brief agenda:

1. "The Inconvenient Truth" - Anjuli Pandit & Gaurav Gupta, Climate Project India

2. "CleanTech Landscape in India - A VC perspective" - Manoj Gupta, Nexus India Capital

3. "CleanTech - Global Perspectives" – Jaswinder Kaur, CleanTech India

4. "Carbon Trading landscape in India", Dr Milind Antani, Nishith Desai Associates

5. Q&A, discussions and networking

6. Snacks, Tea and Coffee

RSVP:      manoj@nexusindiacap.com

               anjuli@climateprojectindia.org

Please RSVP as soon as possible as seats are limited.

Some tips if you are looking for VC funding

This is not related to CleanTech but I thought this may help in general. Here are some tips from me if you are looking for funding from a VC firm.

1. Be very focused: You have an hour or two to prove yourself when you are meeting a VC firm. Do not spend too much time in teaching the VC firm the market landscape. The chances are they have come across ten companies like you before. Come straight to your offering, what differentiates you, your team background, competitive landscape and how big your business can become. Always include how much you are looking to raise and how do you plan to use that capital in the presentation.

2. Show your commitment: VCs like entrepreneurs who show commitment to their venture. That commitment can be in the form that you have put lot of your own capital in the venture, you have left your job and working full time on the venture or it can be that you have worked hard in thinking through all the issues, challenges and risks in executing the business and have a definite game plan.

3. Do not mumble: You should come out very strongly and passionate when you are talking to VCs. Make sure all people can hear you well and you do not eat words in between. More than your venture, VCs are judging you as a person. Can you sell? That is the question on the back of their mind.

4. Never say you do not have a competition: VCs usually will throw you out if that is the case. One thing that can signal is that you do not have a market and other thing it will do is make hard for VCs to benchmark you and also in some cases understand what you are doing and how big you can become.

5. Get yourself referenced: It is very important to get yourself referenced through somebody who knows the VCs. The chances are you will have lesser uphill climb if a strong person who knows the VCs is first introducing you to them than you doing that directly.

Intel Capital warns of 'cleantech' bubble

The president of Intel Capital, one of the biggest venture capital investors, has warned that his industry is on the brink of another dangerous asset price bubble, particularly in so-called “cleantech” environmentally friendly technologies.

Arvind Sodhani told the Financial Times: “The biggest challenge for venture capital companies is when valuations get out of whack – this always ends in pain, and we’ve started to see a little bit of that in the recent past.

“It is particularly the case in cleantech/greentech. These areas are hugely overvalued for their fundamentals. The credit crunch has made it slightly better but not much.”

Clean technology spans a range of industries including alternative energy, energy storage, recycling and waste management and advanced new “clean” materials.

Total “cleantech” investment by all groups including venture capitalists was estimated at $94bn last year, up from $75bn in 2006, according to New Energy Finance, a consultancy.

Mr Sodhani compared the rush to invest in areas such as solar power and waste management to the overheating of the internet boom, when venture capitalists were burnt by hundreds of failed investments after the dotcom bubble burst.

Clean energy accounted for 7.4 per cent of all US venture capital investment last year, up from 1.1 per cent in 2003, according to the National Venture Capital Association and PwC.

However, Mr Sodhani said cleantech would still be a key focus for Intel Capital, especially in the wake of rising energy costs. “The way energy has been used and consumed has been grossly inefficient because we lived in an era of cheap energy.

“Technology is going to be deployed across the energy consumption food chain to help make it more efficient,” said the boss of Intel Capital, which has invested more than $6bn in over 1,000 companies and 40 countries since it was created in 1991.

Mr Sodhani said Intel Capital’s portfolio, which was valued at $2.6bn in September 2007, had produced its highest returns in recent years from India, followed by China, then the US and finally Europe.

He said this explained why venture capital was dominated by global funds able to straddle the globe. “The venture capital industry has discovered that innovation and entrepreneurship takes place all over the world and not just in Silicon Valley or Route 128 in Boston.”

The main focus for Intel Capital in recent years has been to invest in the high-speed Wimax internet technology to ensure the mobile spectrum is opened up to all users, rather than being dominated by different proprietary technologies.

CleanTech market landscape

I will recommend people to browse this link to get a broad overview of CleanTech market

http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/greentech-market-taxonomy-chart.html

Manoj

CleanTech Top 10 Startups

I thought worthwhile sharing this list of top 10 CleanTech start-ups (Source: www.greentechmedia.com). Technology landscape cover innovative battery storage, Solar Thermal, lower cost PV cell, electric Car and transportation network, Smart Grid monitoring and metering, fuel cell, LEDs and biofuels through gasification route.

Is anybody aware of similar companies in India, specially in the battery space? Let me know if you have come across interesting companies like these in India.

1. A123 Systems : Fast-charging, high-cycle lithium ion batteries are based on a proprietary nanophosphate electrode technology developed by the founders at MIT.

2. Gridpoint: SmartGrid Platform which acts like a modem, transmitting information about the distributed load from homes and businesses to a centrally located GridPoint Operations Center.

3. Project Better Place: Create an integrated electric vehicle transportation network providing vehicles, charging stations, batteries, and an innovative financing package.

4. BrightSource: Solar Thermal concentrator using flat mirrors

5. Luminus Devices: LED lights

6. Coskata: Biofuel from multiple feedstock using syngas to liquid fuel route.

7. Bloom Energy, Inc.: Solid Oxide fuel cell

8. TH!NK: Electric car

9. Suniva: Higher efficiency PV cell

10. Silver Spring Networks: Smart grid with real-time networking between energy consumers and energy suppliers on open-platform Internet protocols.

Manoj

CleanTech Event: 2nd India CleanTech Forum

Upcoming CleanTech event:

2nd India CleanTech Forum
10th & 11th July 2008
Uppal Orchid Hotel
New Delhi, India

For more Information, please visit

http://www.cleantechforum.com/

Manoj

Comparison of India and USA energy landscape.

Here is a comparison of India and USA power landscape. We do not consume anything compared to western world. That does not mean we should strive to consume that much. It is important that we strive for efficiency of use. Our GDP is $4 trillion (PPP), China's $10 trillion (PPP) and USA is ~$13 trillion. We are around three times less in GDP compared to USA but consume 8 times less power. Hmm!!

1. US installed power capacity is 1067k MW compared to India which has 132k MW (USA is 8 times more). China has 710k MW (5 times more). China added in 2007 alone 90k MW which is 70% of total installed capacity of India!.

2. USA power comes from Coal (49.7%), Nuclear (19%), Natural gas (19%), Hydro (6.5%), Fuel oil (3%), Biomass (1.6%) and Wind+Solar+Geothermal (1.2%). For India, power comes from Coal 54%, Natural Gas 11%, Hydro 26%, Nuclear 3%, Wind (5%), Biomass (1.0%)

3. Current per capita power consumption comes to around 600 units (KWH) per year for India as against 13k units per year for USA (world average is 2200 units/year). USA consumes 20 times more per capita electricity than India.

4. Wind energy installed capacity (2007): Germany (22300 MW), USA (16800 MW), India (8000 MW), China (6100 MW)

5. Biomass energy installed capacity: USA (11000 MW), India (1250 MW)

6. Globally, wind power has continued to grow at 25-30% per year since 2000, and will reach at least 93k MW cumulative capacity in 2007 (up from just 7.5k MW in 1997). Small hydropower and biomass power reached 73k MW and 44k MW, respectively, in 2006. Geothermal power is another 10k MW. Grid-tied solar PV continues to grow at 50-60% annual rates, and now accounts for almost 8k MW.

7. Coal reserves: USA (~300 billion tonnes), India (92 billion tonnes). USA produces around 990 million tonnes, while India produces around 407 million tonnes (India coal quality is low).

8. Oil reserves: USA proven oil reserves declined to a little less than 21 billion barrels as of 2006. With production of around 5 million barrels per day as of 2006, this represents about an 11 year supply of oil at current rates. With consumption at 21 million barrels per day (7.7 billion barrels per year) (2007), US reserves alone could satisfy US demand for only three years. India consumes 1.1 billion barrels/year which is 1/7^th of USA consumption. India reserves are 5.7 billion barrels.

Powering the Planet

"Powering the Planet" is an insightful article written by a Caltech professor. I will recommend reading it.

http://authors.library.caltech.edu/9302/01/LEWmrsb07.pdf

Manoj

"The Green Cover" - Weekend Activity Group

I have been having this itch to start a group which will strive to increase the green cover of our localities and beyond. The aim will be to make it sustainable in the long run and make it a fun weekend activity.

I will like to brainstorm with folks interested in becoming part of this. Any group you know in India and abroad which is actively doing this? How do we make it economically self sustaining activity? How to make sure plants become trees and there is proper maintenance? Can we bring in some sponsorship element? How to involve the goverment? Where to plant and what? Grow bioenergy crops?

I will be open to discussions on phone on weekend and reachable at this email address: manoj@nexusindiacap.com

Manoj

What is CleanTech - Part 2

Let me give a shot here on explaining CleanTech in a very simple way as we see it. We have divided cleantech opportunities in three broad buckets:

1. Energy - Thermal, Power and Fuel
2. Water - Water desalination, recycling, drip irrigation
3. Agriculture (Food) - Organic farming, supply chain efficiency, yield improvement

These three buckets also form the basis of our day-to-day basic needs. Energy as a whole is $5.2 trillion market, water $500 billion and Food is close to $3 trillion market. These are big markets but also have bigger problems which translate to bigger opportunities.

Cleantech essentially is using resources more efficiently - getting more by using lesser resources. You can still be using coal, but getting more output. You can still be using gasoline, but getting more mileage out of it.

We, developing nations, can have bigger impact on CleanTech simply because we have choices which developed world did not have when they were expanding their energy infrastructure left and right. We have choices to:

•To burn coal more efficiently

–Coal Gasification

–Carbon sequestration

•To choose renewable energy

–Capex requirement is similar to coal ($1/W)

–Cost/unit is competitive (Rs 2-3/unit)

–PLF can be high (> 80%, Biomass)

•To use resources more efficiently

–Smart monitoring

–Water recycling

Lets choose them as we grow. We can grow faster.

Manoj

Nexus India - Sponsor of Climate Change Event, Pune

Nexus India Capital is sponsoring the Climate Change 2008 event oragnized by WISE (World Institute of Sustainable Energy) on April 22 and 23 at Le Meridien, Pune. The website of the event is:

http://climatechange08.wisein.org/

If you wish to know more about the event, please send me an email at manoj@nexusindiacap.com

-Manoj

Nexus becomes Founding member of CleanTech India

Nexus India Capital becomes founding member of India chapter of CleanTech Group, which is a Global group promoting CleanTech worldwide. This group is chaired by Vinod Khosla and Sun Group, IDFC and Nexus are on the advisory board of this group.

http://cleantech.com/India/index.cfm?pageSRC=FoundingMembers

Manoj

Time article on Clean Energy Scam

Just in case somebody missed this, please do read this article on Clean Energy Scam in Time Magazine:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1725975-1,00.html

Clear Skies Solar to develop $20M India project

Clear Skies Solar to develop $20M India project

April 8, 2008

The solar installer said the 5 megawatt power plant would be the first of several projects in the country.

Massapequa Park, N.Y.-based solar installer Clear Skies Solar (OTC: CSKH) said today it signed a $20 million letter of agreement with Utter Pradesh, India's Power Cube to develop a solar power system in India.

Clear Skies said the deal, subject to financing, would be the first of several solar photovoltaic projects in the country.

"India represents the first of many untapped markets that Clear Skies Solar plans to enter in 2008 and 2009," said Ezra Green, chairman and CEO of Clear Skies.

"Recognizing the role that solar power will play in the global search for cleaner and more abundant energy sources, Clear Skies Solar has built the infrastructure necessary to support this type of international expansion and to develop large-scale projects at an accelerated pace in order to support global power needs."

Clear Skies said the initial project is for the design and construction of a 5 megawatt solar power system that will supply power to support a steel mill and the community's energy grid system.

"Clear Skies Solar has shown that it has the ability and innovative construction techniques to execute this contract, and we look forward to this project beginning in October of 2008," said Mohan Kejriwal, chairman of Power Cube.

Clear Skies plans to provide technology, engineering and construction services on the project, and said it would also be prepared to provide the operation and maintenance services needed.

Kejriwal said the companies expect the solar power plant to be operational before March 2009.

Source - www.cleantech.com

India's NTPC to work with NGRI on geothermal

India's NTPC to work with NGRI on geothermal

April 1, 2008

The two groups plan to identify potential sites for setting up geothermal power projects in the country.

New Delhi-based power company NTPC signed a memorandum of understanding to work with the government-backed National Geophysical Research Institute to identify potential sites for geothermal power projects in the country.

State-controlled NTPC, which stands for National Thermal Power Corp., is India's largest power company.

"Both the organizations have agreed to associate for formulating a long term strategy to set up the first geothermal based power project in India," said NTPC in a statement.

The company said Tattapani in the state of Chattisgarh has been identified as the first project site.

India, which is new to the renewable energy market, has yet to establish any geothermal power.

In February, Reykjavik, Iceland-based Glitnir Bank announced a joint venture for geothermal exploration in India (see Glitnir to bring geothermal to India).

Glitnir is partnering with Noida, India-based LNJ Bhilwara Group, a diversified business with operations in power generation.

India's National Geophysical Research Institute, established in 1961 in Hyderabad, has a scientific staff of about 200.

The institute's work includes the exploration of hydrocarbon and coal, mineral exploration and engineering geophysics, and exploration, assessment and management of groundwater resources.

NTPC said it has an installed capacity of 29,144 megawatts through 26 power stations, covering nearly 20 percent of India's installed capacity and contributing 29 percent of the country's power generation.

The company expects to have more than 75,000 MW of capacity by the year 2017.

Food , Food, Food!

Recently I read a news article on food shortage in India. It seems we are back to 1970s level in terms of per capita food availability.

• In 1979 per capita availability of cereals and pulses had gone up to 476.5 grams per day. The corresponding figure in 2006 was 444.5 grams per day, according to provisional government statistics.
• In the eight years between 1996 and 2004, when agriculture was growing at a low 2%, there was, in fact, zero growth in foodgrains.
• China per capita availability is almost double that of India

The big question is why this is the case when:

• China has lesser arable land (124 million hectares) compared to India 162 million hectares.

• India has the second largest arable land after USA

I think these are some of the major reasons:

• In India, net irrigated area has just grown from ~ 50 million hectares in 1990s to ~ 55 million hectares currently.
• China’s around 45% land is irrigated while for India that number is 34%.
• India’s crop yields are less than half of many regions. India’s wheat yield at 2600 kg / hectare is well below that of china (4100 kg / hectare) and Europe (5000 kg / hectare).
• Most of the land holding (more than 60%) is fragmented at 1-2 acres/farmer.
• Fertiliser use in China is 279 kg/hectare as against 103 kg/hectare in India.

Using fertilizers to the tune of China’s is not the best solution to increase yield because of externalities like diseases due to use of fertilizers. We should start looking at options like drip irrigation since 90% of the water use in India is in agriculture and we can save water by as much as 100 times by drip irrigation. Also we should look at organic farming to increase yield which is more sustainable in the long run. Other option is to go for GM crops but that becomes controversial in lot of ways.

-Manoj

Conference : Climate Change India 2008 - Pune

Climate Change India 2008
22 and 23 April, 2008
Le Meridien, Pune

For more informtion, please visit:
http://climatechange08.wisein.org

Conference: 2nd India Cleantech Forum - Delhi

2nd India Cleantech Forum
10th & 11th July 2008
Uppal Orchid Hotel New Delhi, India

The conference will cover:

• Renewable Energy: Solar, Wind, Biomass, Small Hydro, and other
• Energy efficiency and Green building technologies
• Advanced materials
• Water treatment and sanitation
• Distributed generation
• Waste management, treatment, and conversion to energy

For more information, please visit:

www.cleantechforum.com

What is CleanTech?

Before we start discussing CleanTech in India, lets first understand this very basic question - What is CleanTech? In my view, the quest to understand CleanTech will unravel various opportunities in this sector. In the basics lie the opportunities. Therfore, lets first try to define CleanTech.

Cleantech in my view straddles three broad areas - Energy, Water and Food. These are very basic needs of of any human society and different societies are on different ladders wrt the development and consumption in these areas. The developed world had started their greed of more energy, more water and more food way back in early part of last century. In their hunger of these basic needs, they unfortunately created associated devils - Green house gases, polluted and depleted water resources and chemical pesticides/fertilizers which did give them more resources but also gave them more diseases. All these externalities were never accounted for while they were relishing the benefits.

India and China are where the developed world were a century back. They are claiming their right to satisfy their greed. But can this earth afford to feed these two giant babies?

For developed world, CleanTech largely means bringing back the environment to the pollution levels of pre-industrial revolution period. For them it is largely "replacing" their consumption with cleaner alternatives. For example, for them the bigger questions are can we replace our coal plants with clean-coal technologies like coal gasification.

For India and China, CleanTech largely means how can we minimize the damage to the environment while not compromising on growth. For us, it is largely "addition" to our consumption by the alternatives resources which are cleaner. For example, for us the bigger question is that whether we should go with Coal or renewables. If India and China choose to go on renewable rampage, we can just overwhelm the whole renewable market.

For example, China added 90 GW of installed capacity to their grid in 2007 alone. This is around 1/11th of US installed capacity and 70% of India's installed capacity. If China chooses to go on renewable route instead of Coal, they can just dominate the whole renewable market in the world. They have a choice which unfortunately the developed world did not.

India per capita consumption of electrcity is 1/20th of US per capita and 1/4th of World average (Indians consume around 600 units/year). This means that if we started consuming electricity like Americans we will need to improve our power infrastrcuture by 25 times of what we have. Similarly, like China, we have a choice to go for renewables.

Hence, for developing countries like India "CleanTech" means increase in the availability of energy, food and water with no additional impact on environment. For developed world, it means decrease in the green house gases, effluents and chemical fertilizers with no adverse impact on availability of the resources.

The developed world need to internalize their externalities of the past (cleanup the past). We need to make sure we minimize the externalities themselves in the future as we grow (make sure no cleanup required in future). I think this difference is very important as we try to understand the opportunities in CleanTech. The opportunities which developed countries are trying to go after in CleanTech may not necessarily translate directly into the opportunities we may have in India. It is very important for us to understand local needs of India and then try to derive opportunities from them. Localization of opportunities will be very important going forward.

I hope this helped the people in underastanding CleanTech at a very basic level.

-Manoj