Orient green power raises $ 55 million in a private equity funding

Recently, cleantech sector India has seen surge in VCs investment. It seems, all big VC firms are making beeline to invest in Indian cleantech sector. Last such investment is from Olympus capital who are investing $35 million in Orient green power. Bessemer venture partner and Shriram EPC are also investing $ 10 million each in same round.
source:- vcccircle

Exro designs a new turbine generator, 50 % more efficient

Well I can't help covering renewable energy.. ExRo, a wind energy start-up, has reinvented turbine's generator such that its efficiency has gone up 50 %. This new design has replaced traditional mechanical transmission with electric transmission. This new design can adapt to change in wind direction and speed with a bit of blade pitching and maintain optimal rate of electricity production. It uses stack of generator instead of a generator with large diameter to generate more power. Usage of stack allow easy customization of turbine with respect to local wind condition. Read the full article here.

Paper thin speakers, made from nanotube

Researchers in china are developing next generation paper thin speaker which will be transparent, flexible, and stretchable. Made of carbon nano tube, It can be mounted on various shapes, such as room walls, clothes or gadget surface and will throw sound in all directions. This research is definitely going to revolutionize the speaker industry replacing traditional coil-magnet type of speaker. So soon we will be seeing  slicker mobile phones and a  film replacing ear phones. read the full article at sciencedaily.

Nokia N96 Bruce Lee Edition :)

I really don't want to talk about N96. I am posting this video just because I am big fan of Bruce Lee :)

Wave energy converter- providing clean energy

A buoy like device, searaser, that harness the the power of sea wave to pump water to 60 feet can help to generate clean electricity for more than 470 homes. Searaser first pup water to height of 60 feet and then same water travel downwards to hydroelectric generator. It uses 100 percent clean energy stored in sea wave. Not sure about the cost, but world need such innovation to fulfill ever increasing energy needs. Read more here.

Nuclear or Wind and Solar power

I have witnessed drama surrounding India-US nuclear agreement and always wondered whether electricity generated from nuclear reactors will satiate the ever increasing energy needs. One of the reason I didn't like this agreement because of radioactive generated waste, which will be generated by proposed nuclear power plant. Where we are going to dump those waste. India is not sparsely populated and for doing any such project government will have to relocate large chunk of population.  This article discuss something similar. Guess what problem is much bigger than I thought.

Few points  mentioned are:-

1>  The cost of electricity generated from nuclear power plant is twice that of renewable power plant(wind).

2> There are many hidden costs, which include waste disposal, massive insurance premiums and decommissioning of plants when they reach the end.

3> Cost of constructing a nuclear plant has doubled in last of couple of years. And uranium has been six time more expensive.

4> Cost of catastrophic accident is 70 times more than collective liability on nuclear plants.

Indian government will have to decide which way they want to go. They want to use faded and outdated nuclear technology or want to invest in renewable energy power plant, which is clean, create more jobs and generate more energy for same investment.

iPhone glitch :- Picture automatically attach to e-mail :)

God this is really hilarious. Please read this discussion on apple community. A lady was searching through her husband mobile phone when she found a raunchy picture of him in sent email folder. When she inquired about it to her husband, he said that he never sent it and it was an apple glitch and he got it confirmed from local apple store. He thought she would believe him :).