The Water Pyramid

I was shocked to read the Newspaper Headline "Fill your water buckets today". The Bangalore water supply is shutting all valves to link the new water supply to provide 100 million liters of drinking water to the Bangalore city.

The Big Question is "How far can we survive like this?". It was then I stumbled into Acumen Fund's monthly report & the projects they support.

Aqua Aero Water Systems (AAWS) is project supported by Acumen, that has patented a technology the “Water Pyramid".

Aqua-Aero WaterSystems has developed the WaterPyramid concept for tropical, rural areas. The WaterPyramid combines state of the art technology, capacity building and local entrepreneurship in order to achieve a long lasting (financial) sustainable situation. The WaterPyramid makes use of simple technology to process clean drinking water out of salt, brackish or polluted water. Most of the energy needed to clean the water is obtained from the sun. The application is designed for tropical or subtropical regions around the world, where flat ground space is available together with abundant radiation from the sun.

Benefits:

• Drinking water made easily available
• For remote and local application
• Low operational/maintenance costs
• Can be used for income generation
• Workforce can be locally recruited and trained
• WaterPyramid can be locally produced
• Based on Appropriate Technology

Read the Aqua Areo Watersystem BV website for more information.

As Benjamin Franklin Quotes “When the Well's dry, we know the Worth of Water”

...Anand Varadaraja

Nanosolar - The Sun power at your Doorstep

Sun always has been the most energy provider source for Earth & Nanosolar is tapping the right source. Nanosolar is a developer of solar power technology. Based in Palo Alto, CA, Nanosolar is developing and commercializing an extremely low cost printable solar cell manufacturing process. Nanosolar coatings are as thin as a layer of paint and can transfer sunlight into power quite efficiently.

Nanosolar was started in 2001 by Martin Roscheisen and Brian Sager, who met through their friend Reid Gershbein, and is headquartered in Palo Alto, California. The company has received financing from a number of technology investors including Benchmark Capital, MDV, and Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the founders of Google. Nanosolar received the largest amount in a round of Venture Capital technology funding, amongst United States companies during Q2 2006, with 100 million USD of new funding secured.

Solar powered buildings and homes might just become standard in the future, thanks to this innovative technology by Nanosolar Inc. Nanosolar has developed proprietary process technology that makes it possible to produce 100x thinner solar cells 100x faster. The underlying technology for these solar cells is nothing new, having been around for decades, but Nanosolar has created the actual technology to manufacture and mass produce the solar sheets. The solar cells are produced by a solar printing press of sorts rolling out these aptly named PowerSheets rapidly and cheaply. The machines apply a layer of solar-absorbing nano-ink onto metal sheets as thin as aluminum foil reducing production costs to a mere tenth of current solar panels and at a rate of several hundred feet per minute. The first commercial cells for consumer use are scheduled to be released this year.

These solar cells successfully blend the needs for efficiency, low cost, and longevity and will be easy to install due to their flexibility and light weight. In order to compete with the energy produced from coal solar has been in need of finding a way to shrink its costs down from $3 per watt to $1 per watt. Nanosolar's cells use absolutely no silicon as is the standard for current solar production and the efficiency of the PowerSheet cells are competitive with the traditional systems as well. The golden kicker, the cost to produce these solar coatings is a mere 30 cents per watt!!

Nanosolar has built what is soon to be the largest solar plant in world in San Jose and once full production begins early next year the facility is capable of producing a whopping 430 megawatts per year, more than the combined total of every other solar manufacturer in the U.S. The biggest problem for Nanosolar is keeping up with the impending solar boom. California recently launched the Million Solar Roofs initiative providing tax breaks and rebates to encourage the installation of $100,000 solar roofs per year for a solid decade. Thanks to the innovative approach Nanosolar is poised to launch the solar revolution and we the consumer stand to benefit greatly as the result.

More Read on Nanosolar:
http://www.nanosolar.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanosolar
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4riNlqZHCTQ

As Ralph Nader quotes “The use of solar energy has not been opened up because the oil industry does not own the sun.”
It's time the Sun shines real bright!!!

...Anand Varadaraja

Saahas - The Waste Management People

As you drive around Bangalore you get to see lot of things – Beautiful Trees, Buildings under construction, heavy traffic & above all lots of garbage.

Talking about garbage we still see rag pickers segregating the waste to pick up the best of the scrap, however in this exercise they spread the garbage more. Some years ago many localities decided to adopt home garbage pickup model – where the garbage is collected from the doorstep instead of the person throwing it in the garbage bin. This works fine for a residential locality but the commercial or the areas where the pickup is not adapted still suffers. Bangalore generates 3,000 tonnes of waste everyday from households and commercial establishments. Around 50% of this waste is organic. The balance is accounted for by inorganic and hazardous waste.

Bangalore City Corporation has come up with a new scheme where they will pay plastic waste Rs.6 per kg directly to whoever gives it at their collection point. The plan is to set up around 120 collection points.

Saahas is a Bangalore based voluntary organisation are committed to finding solutions to problems related to solid waste management in the city. Saahas is ready to adopt one of the 120 collection points with the support of the Bangalore City corporation to make JP nagar 6th phase a plastic free zone. The initiative plan is being drafted & is being presented to the Bangalore City commissioner soon.

Saahas also work with Corporates on waste management. Project Satyam – they are composting their organic material in the same campus. They also work with Lalbagh Botonical garden on the same purpose.

Citizens E-Waste Recycling Initiative
Over the last two years, Saahas has worked closely with the Hazardous Waste Management, Programme Karnataka (HAWA), to study the various issues related to generation of e-waste as also its flow, recycling and final disposal.

Bangalore generates around 4,00,000 dry cell batteries from households and commercial establishments. Earlier there was no possibility of recycling this material safely. However, E-Parisaraa has come forward to ensure safe recycling and disposal by retrieving the metal and plastic components which in turn are recycled into secondary products. The hazardous content is then extracted and stored for disposal in the hazardous waste facility which is currently being set up close to Tumkur, near Bangalore.

Saahas is working in partnership with WeP Peripherals and E-Parisara. They have setup the first ever city wide collection programme for household e-waste like batteries, cds & floppies. One of the centers is in the State Bank of India branch. They have also setup these collections points in more than 20 schools around Bangalore. Hope this effort really pays of in making a bangalore a better place.
For more information check www.saahas.org

As Imelda Marcos Quotes “People say I'm extravagant because I want to be surrounded by beauty. But tell me, who wants to be surrounded by garbage?”

... Anand Varadaraja

The COMPOSTABLE Water Bottle.

At last my first post on this blog :-)

Water: A common chemical substance that is essential to all known forms of life. We all know the importance of it, I need not explain more.

I still remember 10 years ago people used to talk “who will buy water? When we get it for such a cheap price”, but life has changed today. Day in & out we buy water without a second thought. Quality is what we look at. The supposed to be corporation clean tap water is made to run through all kinds of Water purifiers before drinking at homes. But the point I am driving today is not about water it the way it is sold.

Packaged water in India is sold in Plastic bottles in all kinds of sizes starting from ½ liter, 1 liter & 2 liters.

Municipal solid waste in India contains 1-4 per cent by weight of plastic waste. India’s rate of recycling of plastic waste is the highest (60%) in the world as compared to other countries (China 10%, Europe 7%, Japan 12%, South Africa 16% and USA 10%) but is a much unorganized sector.

Today I want to talk about this wonderful organization called "Belu Water". This is a UK company providing mineral water in the UK. They are first company to provide UK's first COMPOSTABLE bottle made of corn and their profits go to clean Water projects in UK, Mali & India right now. They plan to take up projects similar to this around the world. They are also a Penguin Approved - They are anti-Global Warming.

To talk about their Bio-bottles - they are made from corn but could equally well be made from potatoes, rice, beetroot, bio-mass or pretty much any carbohydrate or sugar. The corn goes through a fermentation and distillation process similar to making corn whiskey and is reduced to a monomer called lactic acid (which you can also find in ice cream and pickles). This lactic acid is then spun, linked into polymer chains and molded into bottles.

Even though their bottle is compostable their cap is not. They request to reuse the same.

Read more about them on http://www.belu.org/

I wait for their launch in India & hope it makes a difference.

As Ed Rendell quotes “Bottled water was, at best, a temporary solution for this community,” but we have made it now a permanent solution.

...Anand Varadaraja