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