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Amazon Web Services pledges to reach water positivity by 2030

Posted on December 1, 2022December 1, 2022 by dishanth

The cloud provider has also announced its 2021 global water use efficiency (WUE) metric of 0.25 litres of water per kilowatt-hour.

As part of the new commitment, AWS will report annually on its WUE metric, as well as its new water reuse and recycling efforts. It will also report on new activities to reduce water consumption in its facilities and advancements in new and existing replenishment projects.

AWS chief executive Adam Selipsky said: “Water scarcity is a major issue around the world and with today’s water-positive announcement we are committing to do our part to help solve this rapidly growing challenge.

“In just a few years, half of the world’s population is projected to live in water-stressed areas, so to ensure all people have access to water, we all need to innovate new ways to help conserve and reuse this precious resource.

“While we are proud of the progress we have made, we know there is more we can do. We are committed to leading on water stewardship in our cloud operations and returning more water than we use in the communities where we operate. We know this is the right thing to do for the environment and our customers.”

The announcement today adds to Amazon’s commitment of $10m to Water.org to support the launch of the Water & Climate Fund, which will deliver climate-resilient water and sanitation solutions to 100 million people across Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

This donation will directly empower one million people with water access by 2025, providing three billion litres of water each year to people in water-scarce areas.

Water.org chief executive and co-founder Gary White said, “Our collaboration with Amazon and AWS already brings over 805 million litres of safe water to communities around the world every year, and we are excited to continue to work with Amazon to bring even more safe water to families in need.”

AWS has four key strategies to help it achieve its objective: improving water efficiency, using sustainable water sources, returning water for community reuse, and supporting water replenishment projects.

Water efficiency

AWS said it is “constantly” innovating across its infrastructure to reduce water consumption. It achieves its industry-leading water efficiency by using advanced cloud services, such as Internet of Things (IoT) technologies, to analyse real-time water use and identify and fix leaks.

The firm further improves operational efficiency by eliminating cooling water use in many of its facilities for most of the year, instead relying on outside air.

For example, in Ireland and Sweden, AWS uses no water to cool its data centres for 95% of the year.

It also invests in on-site water-treatment systems that allow it to reuse water multiple times, minimising water consumed for cooling.

Sustainable sources

AWS uses sustainable water sources, such as recycled water and rainwater harvesting, wherever possible.

Using recycled water – which is only suitable for a limited set of applications such as irrigation and industrial use – preserves valuable drinking water for communities.

In Northern Virginia, the provider worked with Loudoun Water to become the first data centre operator in the state approved to use recycled water in direct evaporative cooling systems.

AWS already uses recycled water for cooling in 20 data centres around the world and has plans to expand recycled water use in more facilities as it works toward becoming water positive.

Community water reuse

After maximising the use of water in its data centres, the spent liquid is still safe for many other uses, and AWS is exploring more ways to return it to communities.

In Oregon, for example, AWS provides up to 96% of the cooling water from its data centres to local farmers at no charge for use in irrigating crops like corn, soybeans and wheat.

Water replenishment

To meet its water-positive commitment, AWS is investing in water replenishment projects in the communities where it operates. Replenishment projects expand water access, availability, and quality by restoring watersheds and bringing clean water, sanitation, and hygiene services to water-stressed communities.

To date, AWS has completed replenishment projects in Brazil, India, Indonesia, and South Africa, providing 1.6 billion litres of freshwater each year to people in those communities.

For example, in regions like Maharashtra and Hyderabad, India, and West Java, Indonesia, AWS is partnering with global clean water non-profit Water.org to provide 250,000 people with access to safe water and sanitation.

Building on its existing portfolio of water replenishment programs, AWS this week announced several new projects, which, once completed, will provide more than 823 million litres of water to communities each year.

Source edie

Cigarette butts are turned into mosquito repellent and stuffing for soft toys at this Indian factory

Posted on October 13, 2022October 17, 2022 by dishanth

An Indian factory is recycling cigarette butts into stuffing for soft toys.

An estimated 4.5 trillion cigarette butts are littered worldwide each year, 90 per cent of which contain non-biodegradable plastic filters.

Reprocessing them into a range of products, including toys and pillows, is the brainchild of businessman Naman Gupta.

“We started with 10 grams (of fibre per day) and now we are doing 1,000 kilograms… Annually we are able to recycle millions of cigarette butts,” he says.

At his factory on the on the outskirts of New Delhi, an all-woman team manually separates the butts into fiber, paper and leftovers.

Women workers make soft toys using recycled fibre separated from cigarette filter tips at a cigarette butts recycling factory in Noida, India.

The paper is converted into a pulp, mixed with an organic binder and turned into burnable mosquito repellant.

The fibre is cleaned and bleached with organic chemicals that neutralise its toxins. The resulting white stuffing is used in soft toys and pillows.

At Gupta’sfactory on the outskirts of the Indian capital, workers also separate out the butts’ tobacco, which is turned into compost powder.

His company – Code Effort – has recycled over 300 million cigarette butts from the city streets so far.

Recycled fibre made from cigarette filter tips is seen in a cotton gin machine at a cigarette butt recycling factory in Noida, India.

The World Health Organization estimates that nearly 267 million people, nearly 30 per cent of India’s adult population, are tobacco users, and butts litter urban streets where general cleanliness standards are poor.
“(So) working here also helps keep our environment clean,” says Poonam, an employee in Gupta’s factory.

Cigarette butts are the most discarded waste item worldwide according to the UN Environment Programme.

Many of these end up in our oceans and on our beaches with disastrous consequences for marine environments.

Cigarette filters are made out of non-biodegradable cellulose acetate fibres, which break down into microplastics and end up being consumed by marine life and birds.

In 2019, 5.9 per cent of the EU population aged 15 years and over consumed at least 20 cigarettes per day, and 12.6 per cent consumed less than 20, according to Eurostat.

In Europe, companies like France’s MéGo! have also found inventive ways to reuse cigarette butts, recycling them into furniture like tables and benches.

Source euronews.green

Solar power opens the door to banking for rural Indians

Posted on August 5, 2022 by dishanth

Going to the bank in his home village in western India used to be a slow, frustrating process for Kiran Patil, as frequent power cuts – sometimes lasting for days – turned what should have been a quick errand into a lengthy ordeal.

The 59-year-old farmer often had to wait for hours in line at RBL Bank, his local branch in the village of Aitawade Budruk, or abandon his transaction and return the next day, wasting time he should have been spending cultivating his crops.

All that changed after the building was fitted with a set of solar panels and backup storage batteries in 2018, breaking the bank’s reliance on the power grid and giving it a steady supply of clean electricity.

“The transactions now are so smooth and fast,” Patil told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “These days we even find time for a quick chat with the branch manager over a cup of tea, to learn of the latest services and facilities.”

A more reliable banking experience is also bringing in new customers who previously didn’t have the time for long waits or who worried about never knowing when they would be able to access their money.

Workers clean solar panels in Yamunanagar, Haryana state, India. Image: IWMI Flickr Photos, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Flickr.

Since the solar power system was installed at RBL in Aitawade Budruk, the bank has been opening 25 to 30 new accounts every month – 10 times more than before, said branch manager Sandeep Banne.

As India boosts its use of renewable energy in an effort to wean itself off climate-heating coal, the country is leaning heavily on solar energy to cut carbon emissions and help stabilise a grid squeezed by coal shortages and surging demand from a population trying to keep cool during hotter summers.

Citizens in rural areas were walking or spending their precious money to transport themselves from their villages to the nearest bank branch, then waiting there for hours. Simply because the bank did not have electricity all day and the computers could not work. – Raghuraman Chandrasekaran, founder, E-Hands Energy

But some communities have discovered another benefit to the solar power push: greater financial system access for millions of the country’s unbanked, including the estimated 20 per cent of Indian adults who have no access to a bank account or formal line of credit.

Raghuraman Chandrasekaran, founder and CEO of E-Hands Energy, the Chennai-based firm that set up the solar unit in Aitawade Budruk, said his company has installed such systems at more than 920 rural banks across India, helping bring more than 6 million people into the formal banking system.

The company plans to install units at up to 100 more rural branches before the end of the year, he said.

“Citizens in rural areas were walking or spending their precious money to transport themselves from their villages to the nearest bank branch, then waiting (there) for hours … simply because the bank did not have electricity all day and the computers could not work,” said Chandrasekaran.

“It was all misery.”

Modern banking

The three-kilowatt solar power system at the Aitawade Budruk branch – which runs everything from the fans and lights to computers and alarm systems – means the bank now has reliable power about 95 per cent of the time, said Banne, the branch manager.

On cloudy days, backup storage batteries take over, he said.

Firms like E-Hands Energy, Tata Power Solar and Husk Power Systems have so far outfitted more than 2,000 banks in rural India with solar power, estimates Shyam Kumar Garg, who retired as deputy general manager at the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development last October.

The systems feed into India’s efforts to install 500 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy capacity by 2030, up from about 115 GW now, more than half of which is solar.

E-Hands Energy’s manager of operations Kakumanu Prathap Sagar said the solar systems the company has installed at banks around India is helping cut about 3,000 tons of carbon emissions every year.

Going solar can cut costs, too, said Banne at RBL in Aitawade Budruk, noting that the branch now spends a fraction of what it used to for grid electricity and diesel for its backup generators.

The solar systems cost between 130,000 and 150,000 Indian rupees ($1,650 to $1,900) for installation and maintenance for four years, and pay for themselves in about four years, he added.

For villagers, the biggest benefit is finally being able to use government services they never had access to before, said Pratibha Budruk, head of the Aitawade Budruk’s village council.

When the bank suffered power cuts and frequent loss of internet connectivity, payments of pensions, students’ scholarships, loans and insurance were often delayed, putting a strain on people who relied on the money, Budruk said.

“The changeover of rural banks to solar power … has opened the doors of modern banking facilities for our local villagers,” she said.

Solar power challenges

In a country where 65 per cent of the population lives in rural areas, according to the World Bank, switching rural banks to solar power might even slow the migration of young people from villages to cities as more economic opportunities at home arise, said energy management expert Binoy Krishna Choudhury.

“Solarising banks is a good step to developing the rural economy,” said Choudhury, who teaches at the Indian Institute of Social Welfare and Business Management in Kolkata.

But projects to bring solar panels to rural banks face a raft of obstacles, said Russell deLucia, director and founder of the Small-Scale Sustainable Infrastructure Development Fund, a U.S.-based nonprofit.

Potential hurdles include finding ways to transport and install the equipment in far flung, often off-road locations, said deLucia, whose company helps E-Hands raise funding for its solar power projects.

Once the systems are up and running, finding skilled technicians nearby to fix anything that goes wrong is another issue, he said.

Despite those challenges, Budruk, the village council head, wants to see more banks tap into solar power as a way to both improve the lives of rural communities and limit worsening climate change impacts such as extreme heat.

“Installing solar systems in the banks is like planting trees throughout the year for purifying the air we breathe,” she said.

“When the whole world is trying hard to slow global warming and the impacts of climate change, this is a small contribution from our village.”

This story was published with permission from Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, climate change, resilience, women’s rights, trafficking and property rights. Visit http://news.trust.org/climate.

Source Eco Business

Asian tycoons lead push to make world’s cheapest green hydrogen in India

Posted on June 27, 2022June 26, 2022 by dishanth

When Indian transport minister Nitin Gadkari arrived in parliament in a car fuelled by green hydrogen in March this year, he signalled the country’s big ambition for fuel billed as crucial for the energy transition and the fight against climate change.

“India will soon become a green hydrogen exporting country,” he said.

The government’s vision has captured the imagination of industry players in India, where two of Asia’s richest tycoons, Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani, are now racing to produce the world’s cheapest green hydrogen.

If they achieve their goal, the sector could potentially transform the world’s third-largest energy consumer and carbon emitter. But it will likely take at least a decade for India to realise its green hydrogen hopes, analysts say.

On 15 June, Adani announced that it had sold a quarter of the equity in group company Adani New Industries to France’s TotalEnergies and planned to invest $50 billion over the next decade in green hydrogen.

“Our confidence in our ability to produce the world’s least expensive electron is what will drive our ability to produce the world’s least expensive green hydrogen,” Gautam Adani, chairman of Adani Group, said in a statement.

India’s green hydrogen ecosystem could be a 1-2 trillion dollar industry over the next 20-25 years. – Rajat Seksaria, CEO, ACME Group

Reliance Industries’ chief executive, Mukesh Ambani, too, has pledged to produce green hydrogen at $1 per kg — which is about 60 per cent cheaper than today’s price — and plans to invest $75 billion in renewable energy production and equipment.

The plans of the two business groups alone can clean up thousands of tonnes of emissions, because Adani Group owns a chain of coal mines and coal-based power plants, while Reliance boasts of the world’s biggest petrochemical refinery as well as some of the country’s largest oil and natural gas assets.

Analysts expect both Ambani and Adani to not only replace their industrial use and production of fossil fuels at home, but to also target exports of green hydrogen.

Green hydrogen, which is produced by splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen using renewable energy, could replace fossil fuels for a variety of uses including the manufacture of commodities like steel and fertiliser as well as transport fuel.

A lot will depend on government policy support as well as improved technology to cut the high cost of fuel (around $6 per kg) that puts it beyond the reach of the majority of consumers, analysts say.

Pipe dream?

“I think we are quite far away from what the big majors are announcing and where we are at this point of time,” says Vinay Rustagi, managing director of Bridge to India, a renewable energ consultancy firm.

“Everybody is hoping that green hydrogen will be almost like a silver bullet. But it’s a technology in the nascent stages and there is lack of clarity on the manufacturing plans,” Rustagi said.

There are several key challenges that are looming for the sector.

India will need to build manufacturing capacity for electrolysers, the equipment that splits water into hydrogen and oxygen, which is still a niche market worldwide, notes Thirumalai NC, sector head, strategic studies at Center for Study of Science, Technology & Policy (CSTEP), a Bengalaru-based thinktank.

The capacity to make electrolysers as well as better technology will be crucial to slash production costs by a third to below $2 per kg – a price level at which large-scale industrial demand is likely to kick in, say analysts.

India would also need to set up infrastructure for storage as well as pipelines that are mostly absent except for some ageing equipment, analysts added.

New Delhi would also need to source materials such as iridium, scandium, yttrium, and platinum, which are not easily available in the country and would be needed in abundance.

The federal government has started taking steps and in February announced a National Hydrogen Mission, outlining a program to incentivise the production of green hydrogen such as by offering cheaper land and fee waivers for electricity transmission across provinces.

The government is expected to flesh out the initial announcement with a more detailed program in about a month with specific mandates for sectors such as chemicals, fertiliser and steel to use the fuel.

India plans to produce five million tons of green hydrogen by 2030, which is nearly the same amount as it produces now using natural gas to mainly make fertilisers.

Global ambitions

The bold ambitions made by Indian policymakers have convinced several Indian companies besides Reliance and the Adani to make moves to develop green hydrogen.

Renewables energy company ACME Group has already set up an integrated green hydrogen and ammonia plant in Bikaner in the north-western state of Rajasthan, investing about $20 million to produce up to 1,800 tons of green fuel and five tonnes per day of green ammonia that is used to make fertiliser.

The group is also developing one of the world’s largest green ammonia projects in Oman with an annual production capacity of 0.9 million tonnes, which will likely be operational by 2024. The $3.3 billion-facility will cater to European and Asian demand.

A host of state-run oil companies such as Oil India Ltd, the nation’s second-largest oil and gas explorer, Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Indian Oil Corporation, have also announced plans to make green hydrogen as well as develop equipment like electrolysers, which could make the country a large producer over the long term.

The decarbonisation ambitions of other Asian countries such as Japan and South Korea are likely to play into India’s hands, as the country emerges as a low-cost green hydrogen producer, analysts say.

Although Indian companies’ production plans are at an early stage, the country can become a large supplier as it is one of the cheapest producers of renewable electricity, which accounts for up to 80 per cent of green hydrogen’s production cost, says CSTEP’s Thirumalai.

India plans to raise its renewable energy capacity to 500 gigawatts by 2030, up from 110 gigawatts now, could drive down output costs further.

“India will have its own green hydrogen demand as well be a major exporter … This would make the green hydrogen ecosystem in India a 1-2 trillion dollar industry over the next 20-25 years,” according to ACME chief executive, Rajat Seksaria.

Globally, the green hydrogen industry could be worth $12-13 trillion by 2050, according to industry estimates.

Subhalakshmi Naskar, partner at law firm Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, says that the government’s National Hydrogen Mission is a positive step to incentivise output and encourage investments, but a lot more will be needed.

“The implementation of policy…(including production linked incentives and tax holidays) will need to be put in place without any regulatory or other policy delays,” says Naskar.

Source Eco Business

Floating solar: a small but vital role for India’s sunrise sector

Posted on May 17, 2022 by dishanth

India’s G20 presidency next year offers a “golden opportunity” to accelerate the deployment of renewable energies, environment minister Bhupender Yadav told reporters on April 26 in a meeting with the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). This year is a litmus test for progress, representing a deadline for India’s renewable energy target of 175 gigawatts.

While floating solar photovoltaic (FSPV) was not originally envisaged as part of the mix, which only included terrestrial and rooftop solar, it has emerged as a small but not insignificant catalyst for the figures.

Despite later including large hydropower in the renewable category to help meet the target of 175 GW, which originally included only small hydropower, India is still set to miss the goal, with 156.6 GW of utility-scale renewables as of March 2022, plus an estimated 11 GW of rooftop solar.

The shortfall, due mostly to the slow development of rooftop solar, highlights the need to further diversify India’s portfolio of green energy sources.

Solar cookers designed by engineers of Barefoot College in Tilonia, Ajmer, Rajasthan, India tower over a woman. Image: Knut-Erik Helle, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Flickr.

An alternative to terrestrial solar

India’s journey with floating solar began in 2014 when it was approved by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), in Kolkata. S P Gon Chaudhuri, a veteran of the country’s renewable energy sector, told The Third Pole: “The organisation tasked with implementing this project was NBIRT [the NB Institute for Rural Technology], of which I was chairman at the time.”

When we start looking for a piece of land, it isn’t easy. In places with a lot of land, there are too many projects and hence, transmission is a challenge. Floating solar addresses so many problems

Manu Srivastava, commissioner for new and renewable energy, Madhya Pradesh

Once the project was completed, “officials from organisations such as the World Bank visited the site and examined how a floating solar plant is set up, how it works”, Chaudhuri recalls. “Basically, it was a study centre.”

Plants in Punjab, Kerala, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu followed, among others. India’s reservoirs cover 18,000 square kilometres with the potential to support 280 GW of floating solar, according to a report by think tank The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI).

High costs and design challenges are still holding back the deployment of the new technology, which as of November 2021 had an estimated cumulative installed capacity of just 2.7 megawatts, making it little more than a pilot project.

However, according to the think tank Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), India now has about 170 MW of operational floating solar capacity and another 1.8 GW under different stages of development. The steep increase, a CEEW spokesperson explained, is due to the fact that the first plants deployed were small, and India has only started implementing large-scale floating solar in recent years.

Terrestrial solar PV is land-intensive, and the TERI report recommends exploring alternatives such as floating solar to keep pace with India’s national target of 100 GW of additional solar capacity by the end of 2030. The state of Maharashtra, the authors say, has the most potential and could generate 57.9 GW on 3,173 sq km of its reservoirs’ surfaces.

“The FSPV addition is small in relation to the entire market for solar energy, but it could be a viable alternative for speeding up solar power deployment in India,” a 2021 study by researchers at Effat University in Saudi Arabia stated.

Floating solar milestones

Recent developments in the floating solar space hint at the sector’s promise. In August last year, government-owned NTPC, India’s largest integrated energy company, commissioned a 25 MW project on the reservoir of its Simhadri thermal power station, in the state of Andhra Pradesh.

The plant has the potential to generate electricity from over 100,000 solar PV modules, which could light around 7,000 households and avoid the emission of at least 46,000 tons of carbon dioxide every year over its lifespan.

In January 2022, the state-owned hydropower corporation NHPC signed a deal with a developer in the eastern state of Odisha to build a 500 MW floating solar plant. It will initially invest over INR 20 billion (USD 261 million) in 300 MW-worth of floating solar projects. The project will help the state to meet its renewable energy generation targets, besides creating investment and employment opportunities.

On March 10, 2022, Tamil Nadu’s chief minister MK Stalin inaugurated India’s largest floating solar power plant, which was constructed at a cost of INR 1.5 billion (USD 19.6 million).

Scarce land, more water

Most Indian states lack land, but have enough water for FSPV. Installing solar on water can increase the panels’ efficiency due to lower temperatures that prevent overheating, Chaudhuri explained.

Manu Srivastava, commissioner for new and renewable energy with the government of Madhya Pradesh, said: “When we start looking for a piece of land, it isn’t easy. In places with a lot of land, there are too many projects and hence, transmission is a challenge… Floating solar addresses so many problems.”

Avnish Shukla is executive engineer at Rewa Ultra Mega Solar Ltd, a joint venture that has commissioned solar projects in Madhya Pradesh. Shukla told The Third Pole that a 600 MW floating solar plant in the state of Madhya Pradesh will be commissioned by August 2023, likely to be one of the largest in the world.

Shukla said that solar projects often occupy barren land, not used by agriculture, industry or people. “Since there is scarcity of such a type of land, we face trouble… In such a scenario, water bodies are perfect. Moreover, water will evaporate if we do not use it to install solar panels [to reflect the sun’s rays].”

Vinay Rustagi, the managing director of Bridge to India, a renewable energy consultancy, pointed out that some floating solar sites that are located near hydropower projects or in thermal plant reservoirs already have ready access to their transmission infrastructure.

Falling costs

Ground-based installations still form 93.1 per cent of India’s grid-connected solar PV, according to a 2020 report by TERI. Utility-scale solar costs fell 84 per cent between 2010 and 2018, making large-scale solar cheaper in India than anywhere else.

According to Chaudhuri, the cost of setting up a floating solar plant is currently INR 50-60 million (USD650,000-780,000) per MW, while conventional land-based solar projects cost the equivalent of USD 520,000 per MW, a difference that explains the slow take-off of the technology. However, he said, floaters and maintenance are becoming more cost-effective.

“India needs to meet certain targets it has committed to by 2030, which means states need to adopt more such [floating solar] plants, as they do not have so much land to spare,” he said.

According to Srivastava, transporting the lightweight but big floaters the panels sit on can be a challenge. However, these are low-tech components, so manufacturing plants installed near the development site could bring costs down further.

Floating solar projects do require longer due to the need for more detailed assessments of sites’ hydrography and water-bed topography. Furthermore, both the capital and operating costs are slightly higher due to the more complex design and risks of working in water, Srivastava added.

Rustagi, however, said the local governments and municipal agencies in charge of most inland water bodies must push for them.

Binit Das, deputy renewable energy programme manager at New Delhi think tank the Centre for Science and Environment, agreed but said there are other, more technical hurdles to overcome: “The solar floating system needs to hold solar panels on the water for over 25 years, so the racking system needs to be highly resistant to corrosion, must have a long lifespan and high load capacity.”

He added: “Since this is a relatively new solar power technology, it requires specialised solar power equipment and more niche solar panel installation knowledge.”

This story was published with permission from The Third Pole.

Source Eco Business

An Indigenous community in India’s Meghalaya state offers lessons in climate resilience

Posted on December 13, 2021December 16, 2021 by dishanth

The Indigenous food system of the Khasi community in Nongtraw village in Meghalaya offers lessons in climate resilience and sustainable food systems, says a United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation report.
The traditional food production system is supported by jhum (shifting cultivation), home gardens, forest and water bodies and shies away from the use of synthetic chemicals. It is based on community-led landscape management practices, regulated by local governance.
Factors such as the emergence of cash crop production (broom grass), the impact of India’s public distribution system on the local subsistence system and over-reliance on market-based products are weakening the food system’s resilience.
Research priorities on Indigenous food systems should include systematic documentation of a wide variety of Indigenous foods known to the Indigenous communities, their contribution to food security and dietary diversity.

In the village of Nongtraw in India’s northeastern state of Meghalaya, one of the world’s wettest regions, honey is a sought after resource by the Khasi Indigenous community. They go into the forests to collect it. Once they reach a beehive, they introduce themselves to the bees, “informing the bees” that they will only take what is required. This legacy of respect for local agrobiodiversity by not disrupting the ecological balance has stood the Khasi community of Nongtraw in good stead when it comes to climate change-linked food stress, underscores a United Nations report.

The UN’s Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) report on Indigenous People’s Food Systems co-published by FAO and the Alliance of Bioversity International, and CIAT includes the profiles of eight Indigenous Peoples food systems from around the world, including Uttarakhand and Meghalaya in India.

In Nongtraw, a village solely inhabited by the Khasi, diverse traditional food systems supported by jhum (shifting cultivation), home gardens, forest and water bodies, shying away from synthetic chemicals in food production and community-led landscape management underpin this Indigenous food system’s resilience to climate change and sustainability.

Nongtraw lies along the mid-slope of a deep gorge in the Cherrapunji region, a highly dissected plateau along the southern margins of the Meghalaya Plateau. Satellite images of the Cherrapunji watershed, which receives record rainfall, reveal rocky outcrops on what appears to be a barren tableland with thin soil cover. But pan more, and there is a sudden green plunge: secondary forests of shifting cultivation hugging the steep slopes of the canyons and winding gorges. Jhum is the primary food production system in the community, involving two distinct land uses — agriculture and fallow forestry — that alternate in sequence and time on the same plot of land.

“I thought the canyons were very green because it is challenging for the people to do anything out there, so they remained untouched. But when I did my research (on shifting cultivation), I found that the practice of shifting cultivation is still strong in these watersheds,” notes Bhogtoram Mawroh, one of the authors of the report and a member of the Khasi community.

The Khasis repose confidence in the resilience of their food system sustained by the robust self-governance of their community. However, factors such as the shift to cash crops (broom grass and oil palm), the impact of India’s public distribution system on the local subsistence system, and over-reliance on market-based products dent their resilience.

“When the dependence on the local landscape becomes limited, and food items are now sourced from outside the community supported by government policies, agrobiodiversity goes down, and the ecological knowledge system which gives resilience to the food system is also lost. Then monoculture of cash crops becomes more dominant, which further brings down resilience,” says Mawroh, senior associate, at the Meghalaya-based North East Slow Food and Agrobiodiversity Society (NESFAS).

Based on factors such as socio-economic, demographic status and health, the sensitivity of agricultural production, forest-dependent livelihoods and access to information services and infrastructure, a recent government study of 12 states in the Indian Himalayan Region and their vulnerability to climate change, found that other Indian states — Assam and Mizoram, followed by Jammu and Kashmir, Manipur, Meghalaya and West Bengal, Nagaland, Himachal Pradesh and Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand — had high vulnerabilities.

Community nutrition researcher Suparna Ghosh-Jerath who studies links between agro-biodiversity, hidden hunger, and rural Indigenous communities such as the Sauria Paharias, a particularly vulnerable tribal group (PVTG) of Jharkhand, adds that what was learned in historical times — what grows where — that knowledge may be helpful and lead to climate-friendly agricultural practices.

“What we have to examine now is how climate-resilient they are,” said Ghosh-Jerath, a professor at the Indian Institute of Public Health, New Delhi. She is not associated with the FAO report.

Research priorities on Indigenous food systems should include systematic documentation of a wide variety of Indigenous foods known to the Indigenous communities (their taxonomic classification, seasonal availability, their nutritive value, their current use within the communities), their contribution to food security and dietary diversity.

“Studies should explore what dictates food habits, what are the factors that facilitate or are barriers to consumption of Indigenous foods, what should be the behavior change communication strategies to ensure the community places faith in their food systems and values it. We should, however, be cognizant that this traditional knowledge is co-produced with the Indigenous communities so that they get due recognition, acknowledgment and ownership over their traditional knowledge,” Ghosh-Jerath told Mongabay-India.

More than 7,500 km away at Glasgow, Indigenous practices were under the spotlight at the COP 26 this November, the United Nations climate summit, where indigenous leaders worldwide highlighted a bouquet of climate mitigation and adaptation practices informed by indigenous and local knowledge. According to the IPCC’s latest Global Assessment, these practices “can accelerate wide-scale behavior changes consistent with adapting to and limiting global warming to 1.5°C.”

How Nongtraw’s local landscape sustains the community

Nongtraw sits in an important center of crop origin and diversity, and the domestication of local plants is ongoing. The report emphasizes that wild fruits of yesterday are the domesticated fruits of today, referring to edibles such as the Mandarin orange. Some crops grown in the community were introduced centuries ago and are considered traditional because of their long histories in the region, such as millet, rice bean, maize, cassava, sweet potato, and potato.

As many as 63 species of plants, including cereals, legumes, roots and tubers, vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds and other edible species, are grown in the jhum fields or the kitchen gardens. Many of the crops grown by the community have multiple varieties.

For example, jhum agriculture yields a bounty of 12 potato varieties, seven cocoyam varieties and seven sweet potato varieties. “We get our medicines from the food we grow. During COVID-19 lockdown, which saw market chain disruptions, we were able to access quality food because we traditionally rely on our local agrobiodiversity for food production,” Didiana Ranee from Nongtraw told Mongabay-India.

The community uses no external inputs, especially synthetic chemicals, for food production, notes Mawroh quoting the report. “Under the jhum system, the only input used is the ash which comes from burning the biomass which has been felled when clearing the land for cultivation.”

The local governance oversees the food production system, ensuring that the landscape is healthy and strengthening the food system’s resilience. The Durbar Shnong (village council) is the most critical institution in the community governing natural resources making rules and regulations for protecting and preserving the forest and other natural areas within the local landscape.

“For instance, soil and aspect of the land determine farming. The higher reaches are not disturbed since they hold the source of water for the community,” Mawroh adds. Aiding the work of the village council is the village development committee (VDC). Its most important function is to obtain land for cultivation. The rules and regulations it sets for harvesting natural products from the community land are intended to prevent a future shortage of land for growing food.

Including knowledge on local agrobiodiversity in policies

Until the mid-90s, the community in Nongtraw relied on locally produced grains, vegetables and tuber crops, including staples sweet potato, millet and cocoyams for consumption supplemented by plants and animals from the forest. “Millet is our rice,” points out Pascal Ranee of Nongtraw.

However, with the introduction of the Public Distribution System in the 1980s coupled with increasing incomes and market access, rice became ubiquitous in the diet and is now the most important food of the community, substituting millet and other grain crops like Job’s tears.

“Food from the market has indeed become more important for the community’s diet as is the case in many parts of the world. Now, almost half of the diet comes from the market. It has benefits, especially during the lean season when crops are yet to be harvested, and there is a high dependence on forest food. The community has accepted the convenience of the market. The important point to remember, though, is that there are local substitutes available for the market-sourced food, but this is something which is not well recognized,” said Mawroh.

Parallelly, the cultivation of cash crops such as broom, allowed farmers to improve their economic status, the sign of which is the replacement of the thatched roof with that of tin. But farming broom led to the depletion of water resources and degradation of soil. The report also mentions that since 2016, the government has intervened in the Khasi community of Nongtraw, restricting jhum and requiring a written document from the government for land transactions within the community.

Much like the Khasis in Nongtraw, the Sauria Paharias of Jharkhand, a particularly vulnerable tribal group (PVTG), who practice Kurwa farming (a form of shifting agriculture in forests, along with farming in agricultural lands) have switched to growing rice in place of drought-resistant millets due to agricultural interventions which mainly focused on yields.

“Under the traditional system, they accessed natural food sources such as forests and waterbodies. Through their Indigenous knowledge that was acquired from experiential learning from ancestors, they understood these foods are edible and had certain properties and promoted them within their culture. They knew what to grow and where to grow them in accordance with the local climate,” Suparna Ghosh-Jerath explained.

The tribal group copes with climate variabilities, such as long dry spells and erratic rains, by using climate-resilient Indigenous crop varieties for farming, seed conservation and access to Indigenous forest foods and weeds for consumption during adverse situations and lean periods. The community recognizes that the local climate variability has affected farm productivity and diversity (due to a water-stressed environment).

These changes have also influenced the availability of Indigenous foods from natural vegetation, forests, and water bodies in the region. Flavorsome indigenous rice varieties (such as Bismunia and Dumarkani), which were consumed by the older generations, have now become almost non-existent or extinct. Millets like (Gundli or little millet), which were widespread earlier, have presently become virtually extinct, notes Ghosh-Jerath in a research that is supported by DBT/Wellcome Trust India Alliance Fellowship.

In Meghalaya, Mawroh and colleagues strive to include local agrobiodiversity in policies, particularly Neglected and Underutilised Species (NUS) in jhum cultivation that do not receive the deserved attention. “Inclusion of the agrobiodiversity in local government programs like Mid-Day Meal Scheme (a school meal program) can be another way to encourage the continued practice of the local food system,” he said. For example, NESFAS encourages the establishment of school gardens from which vegetables are harvested and included in the meal for children.

Another way is to support the establishment and functioning of community seed banks. An affordable certification system could help the community realize the value of its ecologically sustainable food production system, which is organic. Further, the National Education Policy 2020 has tremendous scope to mainstream traditional knowledge systems in formal education, Mawroh adds.

He says it is vital to steer the debate away from jhum destroying forests to jhum providing valuable ecosystem services due to its landscape management approach. “Gradually, as the body of research grows, we will be able to unravel more aspects of such traditional systems.”

This article was first published here on the Mongabay-India website on Nov. 4, 2021.

Source Mongabay

Usage of wastewater and sustainable agriculture can ensure water security in India

Posted on June 24, 2021 by dishanth

Wastewater usage, water-efficient agriculture, knowledge of soil moisture and convergence in agriculture could be possible methods to deal with the twin scourges of climate change and the novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19), according to experts at a recent conference on water.

The conference provided an opportunity to policymakers, academicians, researchers and students to gain expertise from technical experts on matters of water resource engineering and management for water source sustainability by including a combination of theory, conceptual and applied science.

The e-conference on water source sustainability was jointly organised by the Indian Water Resources Society and the department of water resources development and management June 18-20, 2021. The main agenda was the demand and supply of water.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) has shown that water bodies in India are shrinking in size. “Encroachment is leading to the shrinking of water bodies, which is evident from as many as 87 lakes in Bengaluru that have been encroached upon and have consequently shrunk. How to ensure water supply, its sustainable usage and treatment is the need of the hour,” Chandra Shekhar Jha, scientist and chief general manager, National Remote Sensing Centre, Isro, said.

The conference focussed on various facets of water like management of supply and demand, sustaining water sources in the era of climate change, technological upgradation of traditional methods for water conservation, technological developments for ensuring the sustainability of water sources, treatment technologies and water quality management, people’s active participation in water management and water governance.

Deepankar Saha, former member, Central Ground Water Board explained:

“People’s dependency on groundwater has led to the unplanned and reckless exploitation of ground water sources. There is a need to implement technologies that conserve water and practice sustainable agriculture. Sustainable models should be made on water budgeting, its allocation and management of competitive demand of water in all sectors.”

The conference focused on the analytical and computational aspects of water as well. It was suggested that protocols should be made on the usage and supply of water. India should also have a buffer stock that can be used during emergencies in the future. In a diverse country like India, different models should be made for different regions.

From drip irrigation to sprinkler irrigation, convergence is needed in agriculture. Energy and agriculture should be emphasised in any policy or model of water supply and management.

Neelam Patel, senior advisor on agriculture, NITI Aayog

“Substitution of water should be taken into account along with technology, pricing and reuse options. Wastewater should be treated as a resource and not as waste. Once treated and purified, this treated water can be substituted for fresh water. Cohesive decision-making is needed at the central and state level to manage water resources,” Jagdish Prasad Gupta, chief commissioner of state tax, Gujarat explained.

How can we ensure linear water security? Vijay P Singh, a professor at the department of bio and agriculture engineering, A&M University, Texas explained:

“Emphasis should be given to conservation of water and development of alternate sources of water. One can reuse waste water post treatment. An integrated approach is needed to ensure water security by adopting sustainable technologies in mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and chemical engineering.”

India is the country with the highest usage of water in agriculture — 13 per cent — followed by China, US and Russia. Singh also emphasised on making agriculture more water-efficient in India.

How can we ensure water security at a time of climate change? A study undertaken by Stacy L Hucthinson from Kansas State University, US, spoke about the geospatial science of water. It noted:

Countries should shift their focus from global and climate change models to regional models. Climate change has impacted rainfall patterns, thereby leading to variations in soil moisture content. Understanding of soil moisture in varied regions will help in understanding water runoff. The precipitation is usually high in summers and one should focus on acts of downscaling.

“Climate change is not just the issue of greenhouse gas emissions anymore,” says Ed McBean, Canada research chair in water supply security, University of Guelph, Canada. He further explained that water bodies reflect huge amount of reflected radiations which leads to an increase in global temperature, thereby leading to the melting of glaciers and increase in sea levels.

Is the agriculture sector in India leading to water scarcity? Neelam Patel, senior advisor on agriculture, at NITI Aayog shared her views: “From drip irrigation to sprinkler irrigation, convergence is needed in agriculture. Energy and agriculture should be emphasised in any policy or model of water supply and management.”

Source Eco Business

India pushes back against strengthening climate pledge

Posted on December 16, 2020December 16, 2020 by dishanth

The easiest way to irritate a senior official in India’s Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change is to ask if the government is enhancing its Paris ambition. “Why should we?” everyone from the minister to the joint secretary snaps back. “We’re the only G20 country to have met our Paris commitments. We’ve gone well beyond. Why don’t you ask the countries lecturing us to mend their own ways instead?”

Five years after the landmark Paris Agreement, climate change is gathering pace despite the pandemic-forced hiatus in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Impacts of climate change are already here for all to suffer and pledges to control emissions are still inadequate.

Hope was to be rekindled in 2020, when 195 governments and the European Union were expected to strengthen their pledges at the annual UN climate summit. Covid-19 has forced a one-year delay to that summit scheduled in Glasgow.

Meanwhile, major economies such as China, Japan and South Korea are among 126 countries that have declared dates by which they will be carbon neutral. Add to that the expectation that Joe Biden will make some big-ticket climate announcements as soon as he takes over the US presidency.

Altogether, it has led to shriller demands from rich countries that India – the world’s fourth-highest GHG polluter after China, the US and the EU – should announce the strengthening of its Paris pledges.

This makes the Indian government bristle in private and reiterate in public what India has been doing on the climate front. Prime Minister Narendra Modi told the recent G20 virtual summit how India has the world’s most ambitious renewable energy programme.

“We will meet our goal of 175 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy (RE) well before the target of 2022. Now, we are taking a big step ahead by seeking to achieve 450 gigawatts by 2030,” he promised.

Installed RE capacity is now around 78 GW, with a similar amount under construction. Observers think installed capacity will reach the 175 GW mark on time, but building of transmission lines is lagging behind.

Environment minister Prakash Javadekar repeatedly points out that international climate analysts have calculated that India is the only major economy on track to stick to pledges made to keep global temperature rise within two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

India’s mitigation pledge to reduce intensity of emission per unit of production – rather than reducing the emission itself – has helped. Industrial efficiency improvements were moving the country in that direction anyway.

Javadekar also says often that India is the only big country to add to its green cover in recent years. Most of this addition is not in forests but plantations, which does not help biodiversity.

Ministers and officials point to two initiatives launched by Modi as a sign of new action: the International Solar Alliance (ISA) in 2015 and the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) in 2019. After initial hiccups, the ISA has started some work on the ground – especially in training people from other developing countries to set up and maintain solar installations. The CDRI has received backing from most countries, but is yet to make waves.

The Indian government’s position has been strengthened by the latest report card by global climate analysts from Germanwatch, New Climate Institute and Climate Action Network. They place India 10th among the 61 largest economies who were checked to see if they are on track to meet their Paris pledges. China is 33rd and the US last.

Implementing Paris pledges

India recently set up an Apex Committee for Implementation of Paris Agreement (AIPA). Steered by the environment ministry, it has representatives from 14 ministries, in an effort to coordinate climate policies, regulate carbon markets and see how private companies are doing. The ministries include finance, agriculture, science and technology, new and renewable energy, water, power, earth sciences, health, housing and urban affairs, rural development, external affairs, commerce and industry.

As the first implementation period of the pledges made under the Paris agreement starts in 2021, the main job of the committee will be to ensure India sticks to its three promises – a 33-35 per cent reduction in emissions intensity by 2030 from 2005 levels; 40 per cent of all electricity to be generated from non-fossil fuels by 2030; and tree plantation programmes that can remove 2.5-3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide-equivalent GHG from the atmosphere.

AIPA will be in charge of providing information to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) on India’s progress.

The coal affair

While these steps are unexceptionable, the government gets defensive when asked why India continues to push coal-fired power plants. Not only are they the biggest GHG emitters, they are now costlier than renewable energy for much of the day. Despite that, fresh coal mining figured prominently in the government’s pandemic-recovery economic package.

The only defence one hears is that the coal industry employs millions of people. There has been no move towards encouraging these millions to take up alternate jobs. Some coal-dependent economies – such as Poland – have been seeking a “just transition”.

As host and president of the next climate summit, the British government is going to launch an Energy Transition Council, which will bring together the global political, financial and technical leadership in the power sector, and help to ensure that every country considering the energy transition can access needed support.

But there is no discussion of transition among Indian policymakers. Environmental NGOs in the country have started talking about it, but only a few and only very recently.

Serious problems with wider governance

There is no climate scepticism in India. More frequent and more severe droughts, floods, storms, forest fires, locust attacks have taken care of that. The government’s own scientists have emphasised the need to control GHG emissions.

But that has not stopped the government from seriously weakening environmental protection laws. The prime minister told the G20 summit, “We are encouraging a circular economy.” But the government is now even allowing drilling for oil and mining for coal inside once-protected forests. In the haste for post-Covid economic recovery, green options have been ignored even more than before.

The adverse impacts of such poor governance are worsened by climate change. India may be on track to fulfil its Paris pledge as far as mitigating GHG emissions is concerned, but its misgovernance of natural resources is reducing the resilience of Indians to deal with climate change impacts. Costs of adaptation are going up, and so are the loss and damage the country is suffering.

The dangers of poor governance are known, and were reiterated last year by scientists in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, when they brought out a special report on the relationship between land degradation and climate change.

The launch of that report was followed by the summit of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, hosted and presided over by India. Its main conclusion was that land has to be saved to fight climate change. India is doing the opposite.

In lieu of a climate summit

While the actual UN climate summit has been postponed, a virtual “climate dialogue” was held recently, leading up to a Climate Ambition Summit on December 12 – the anniversary of the Paris Agreement.

At the dialogue, speakers made it clear that disastrous climate change is in the offing unless all governments take immediate steps. At a session convened by the UNFCCC, scientists also warned that emissions continue to be far higher than what governments pledged in the Paris Agreement, and there is an urgent need for countries to close this gap as well as strengthen their pledges.

Current pledges are leading the world to a temperature increase of anywhere between 2.7 and 3.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times. The world is already 1.2 degrees warmer.

By Joydeep Gupta, The Third Pole

Source Eco-Business

‘Astro-stays’ bring tourists and solar power to Himalayan villages

Posted on November 4, 2020 by dishanth

An Indian social business that leads Himalayan treks to set up solar micro-grids in remote mountain villages plans to expand its clean-energy work to other countries facing similar challenges, after winning a United Nations climate award.

Global Himalayan Expedition (GHE) has brought solar electricity to more than 130 Indian villages, benefiting about 60,000 people, while setting up home-stays for tourists that have generated more than $100,000 in income for villagers.

By providing clean energy and livelihoods, the company has helped preserve fragile eco-systems and bridged the gender gap by training local women to become entrepreneurs, said Jaideep Bansal, GHE’s chief operating officer.

“Without access to basic facilities and better income opportunities, the villagers are likely to migrate to towns in search of jobs, accelerating cultural and social erosion in these areas,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

“We are able to leverage tourism as a force for holistic development of remote mountain communities,” he said.

The Indian government deems all villages nationwide to be electrified because at least 10 per cent of households and public places have electricity. But power cuts are rampant, forcing residents to use diesel generators and kerosene lamps with noxious fumes.

Fast-dropping costs for solar power, combined with plenty of sun have made mini-grids and micro-grids an affordable option.

GHE identifies villages that lack access to reliable electric power, sometimes trekking up to six days to reach them.

More than 1,300 travellers have so far paid up to $3,500 each to join the hikes, with about a quarter of the charge going towards setting up the solar grid, Bansal said.

The tourists work alongside engineers to install the micro-grids and fixtures, including street lights and LED lights, fans and mobile charging points in homes, he added.

The project has provided solar capacity totalling 360 kilowatts, avoiding about 35,000 tonnes of carbon emissions, according to a UN estimate.

GHE trains local youths and women to become electricians, and helps women set up home-stays and “astro-stays” that offer stargazing at night on solar-powered telescopes.

“Empowering women entrepreneurs through astronomy has helped reduce the gap in gender equality. It has also engendered greater interest in STEM subjects in women and children,” Bansal said, referring to science, technology, engineering and maths.

GHE’s model of tourism with environmental and social benefits is “easily replicable because of the simplicity in approach”, said the UN climate secretariat, announcing the winners of its 2020 global climate action awards this week.

The model is particularly relevant as sales of off-grid solar products fell sharply in the first half of the year with incomes hit because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Covid-19 crisis has derailed GHE’s expeditions this year. But it plans to expand tours to Madagascar, Sumatra and Nepal next year, and is partnering on other community-based tourism initiatives in Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia and Kenya.

“We are looking at remote regions with similar development problems as the Indian Himalayas, where the concept of impact tourism and sustainable development can be applied,” Bansal said.

The idea, he added, is to create “low-carbon destinations” for travellers with clean technology and community participation.

This story was published with permission from Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, climate change, resilience, women’s rights, trafficking and property rights. Visit http://news.trust.org/climate.

Source: Eco Business

Vestas Introduces Low-Wind Variant Suited For India’s Wind Market

Posted on October 29, 2020 by dishanth

The global demand for sustainable energy solutions in low and ultra-low wind areas continues to grow as renewable technology improves in efficiency and cost. This trend is especially prominent in India, the world’s fourth largest wind energy market, where the energy demand is expected to double and the government intends to add around 100 GW wind power in the predominantly low-wind market by 2030.¹

While the new turbine is globally applicable, it initially targets low and ultra-low wind condition projects in India and USA. It increases the turbine swept area by 67 percent in comparison to V120-2.2 MW, and with a large rotor to rating ratio, it significantly improves the partial load production in low-wind conditions. The V155-3.3 MW improves the annual energy production (AEP) by more than three percent for a 300 MW wind park with 46 fewer turbines, creating an improved level of business case certainty.²

“With the introduction of the V155-3.3 MW wind turbine, Vestas is connecting our proven 4 MW platform technology with customized solutions to improve our customers’ business case in low and ultra-low wind conditions,” says Thomas Scarinci, Senior Vice President of Product Management Vestas. “With this product designed specifically to optimise energy production in low and ultra-low wind conditions, we are confident that we can bring enhanced value to our customers and partners in India and other suited markets.”

As the turbine will be predominantly locally manufactured and sourced in India, it reinforces Vestas’ existing commitment to the country’s growing renewable energy industry. Vestas will increase its already prominent manufacturing footprint in India by establishing a new converter factory in Chennai and expanding its current blade factory in Ahmedabad. These investments follow our previously announced new nacelle and hub factory in Chennai, which is currently under construction. The production ramp-up will add around 1,000 new jobs within the next year to the approximately 2,600 people currently working for Vestas in India. While the expanded production setup in India will serve the growing wind market in the region, it will also act as a strategic export hub.

“We have installed close to 4 GW of wind turbines in India over the last two decades and established a large production footprint, and we’re excited to leverage this as we support the government’s ambitions for renewable energy. With the introduction of the V155-3.3 MW turbine, we are able to offer improved energy production and business case certainty for our customers in India’s growing wind market,” says Clive Turton, President of Vestas Asia Pacific. “With the production ramp up in India, we anticipate increased employment across our existing hubs, underlining our commitment to better support our customers and drive the country’s renewable energy transition.”

With an optimized blade design and market specific towers up to 140m hub height, the turbine is designed to meet local transportation requirements. Built on the globally proven 4 MW platform, the V155-3.3 MW features a full-scale converter delivering excellent grid compliance, faster active and reactive power during dynamic frequency and voltage events.

With 35 GW of 4 MW platform turbines installed in 47 countries, the V155-3.3 MW has been developed within Vestas’ leading standards within design, testing and manufacturing, ensuring customer’s business case certainty.

Prototype installation is planned for the third quarter 2021, while serial production is expected by the first quarter of 2022.

¹GWEC, India wind outlook toward 2022
²Compared to V120-2.2 MW

Source: CleanTechnica