A
solar-powered ferry boat, charging station and water generator. Three companies
providing renewable alternatives that go beyond household electricity
With
great power comes… pesky electricity bills. But if you are opting to go
renewable, especially solar, you are in luck. With start-ups like PuREnergy,
8minutenergy, and Oorjan bringing you rooftop solutions for both the home and
commercial establishments, the solar power market has been on a rise over the
last couple of years. In June this year, Anheuser-Busch InBev, one of the
world’s biggest breweries, went fully solar-powered in partnership with energy
provider Amp at its Mysore brewery. Even the government’s gotten into the act —
Diu became India’s first and only union territory to go 100% solar in April.
But the usage of solar power doesn’t end at home. Entrepreneurs are making the
sunshine last, giving you several options to go green even after you step out of
your house. A look at three companies that give us solar solutions that go
beyond just household electricity.
Oh
buoy!
When
the Kerala government wanted a cost-effective renewable solution for their
ferry boats in 2013, MBA-graduate Sandith Thandasherry pitched for a
solar-powered option. Thandasherry had been working on the technology for boats
and ships since 2009, and knew that with a little bit of work, this could be
the answer they were looking for. And so NavAlt was born.
After
two years of designing and another year to get the technology right, NavAlt
gave the country its first fully solar-powered commercial ferry. The ferry
completed one year in January 2018 and in that time “it transported 5,00,000
people across the backwaters of Kerala, travelled 20, 000 km without a single
drop of fuel and saved 35,000 litres of diesel.” This roughly translates to 94
tonnes of CO2 and 8 tonnes of harmful emissions.
And
now, the Kochi-based start up, which bagged the Global Cleantech Innovation
Programme award in the renewable energy category in January 2018, is looking to
widen their kitty further with houseboats and pleasure yachts. “A good
solar-powered houseboat, with all the necessary safety approvals, would last
about 20 years,” says Thandasherry, the CEO, adding, “You will break even in
the first three years and then continue to make money.”
But
if you already own a boat, can it be converted into a into a solar-powered one?
He says it is possible, but there are caveats. “If the boat is already
efficiently fitted out, we can add a parallel connection. But if it is old and
made with traditional materials like wood and steel, it will cost more because
you will have to compensate for the weight or compromise on the speed,” says
the 40-year-old who uses fibreglass and other composite materials when
designing a boat from scratch.
A
small boat, with a capacity of 10-20 passengers (which is the smallest type of
boat they offer) can cost up to ₹75 lakh.
But for a ‘pleasure application’ as Thandasherry puts it, where the boat is
taken out once in a while, can cost anywhere between ₹35 and ₹40
lakh. A typical houseboat, with quality bells and whistles put in, he insists,
can cost up to ₹2 crore.
NavAlt
offers two options, where either you can add a solar option as a backup to the
main power system or go entirely 100% renewable. “But it depends on what you
want,” says Thandasherry, giving me a quick math lesson on speed versus power.
“The faster you go, the more power the boat needs, so a 100% solar option will
not be feasible. So for something like a speedboat, or if you need to run an
AC, you might need a hybrid solution.”
Details:
navaltboats.com
Charging
ahead
Lack
of good support systems is often cited as a reason for not being able to fully
commit to going green. Even eco-friendly vehicles like electric vehicles (EVs)
require charging, often for several hours. But here’s the catch — the
electricity that feeds the EVs is not so green, with a large majority of
India’s power still coming from traditional sources.
Here
is where renewable energy company Magenta EV Solutions, through its parent
company Magenta Power, hopes to cash in with its solar-powered charging
stations. The company launched the country’s first ever solar charger for
electric vehicles in May at Turbhe, Navi Mumbai. “I believe going electric is
just transferring the pollution from the car’s tailpipe to the chimney of the
power plant. It is not actually solving the pollution problem,” says Maxson
Lewis, CEO of Magenta Power.
The
fully solar-powered charger is manned 24x7, with security provided by a partner
who also provides the location. “The charger is also connected to the local
electricity grid as opposed to storing it via a battery,” says Lewis. He
explains how Investing in a battery would have driven up costs so this way,
whatever power is leftover after consumption, would be fed to the grid. Later,
when power is required, one can simply tap into the grid.
Lewis
says the charging station is currently aimed at commercial establishments, but
it can can also be customised for housing societies, where it can be used by
more people. The company also provides two types of chargers — AC and DC. The
former is slow charger, requiring several hours of charging, while the latter
can charge vehicles in an hour or two. Two wheelers use only AC charging, says
Lewis. An AC charger that takes 8-10 hours to charge a vehicle will cost you
between ₹20000 and ₹25000. A
faster charging system can go up to a lakh.
DC
chargers can cost around ₹4.5 lakh and are best suited for
commercial establishments. “So if you are planning to get one for your home, an
AC charger would be cheaper,” says Lewis. You can also choose a system where
the charging station provides a 100% solar power, or just a part of it, he
says. There
are two more charging stations lined up, with the company aiming to set up
around 100 stations this financial year. Details:
magentaevsolutions.com
Warm
up to vapour
The
idea of extracting water from water vapour has been around for a while, but can
it be powered by the sun? It is this idea that is propelling Hyderabad-based
Uravu Labs towards a $1.75M prize. This young team’s start-up is one of the
five finalists in the XPrize Foundation’s ‘Water Abundance XPrize’ competition
(results to be announced in November).
Most
conventional water generators use refrigeration technology, says Swapnil Shrivastav,
Product Architect, CEO and co-founder of Uravu Labs. “These are basically, AC’s
on steroids,” he says seriously. “They cool the air, after which the water
vapour will condense into water. They do not work very well in low humidity
conditions and require constant electricity.”
Uravu
Labs’ EVA, on the other hand, harvests water from ‘aqua panels’ that absorb
water vapour through the night. During the day, the solar collectors attached
will heat them up, releasing the water vapour. “This is passed through a
condenser tube and it condenses into liquid water,” explains the NIT-Calicut
graduate. “Most of the solar power is used as thermal energy, but some of it is
converted into electricity for a small fan and other electronics.”
EVA
began as a simple condensation-based water generator in 2015, when Shrivastav
and Uravu Labs’ other co-founders Venkatesh RY and Sandeep Nutaki were still
studying at NIT-Calicut. “The deeper we looked at the product, we realised it
would be difficult to sustain it economically, because it needed a lot of
power. That’s when we decided on going solar,” says Shrivastav.
While
EVA is mostly meant for rural households in especially water-starved areas, he
says the device can be customised for houses and apartments in urban areas as
well. “Each aqua panel is capable of providing enough water for drinking and
cooking purposes for a family of four,” claims Shrivastav, adding that it can
be installed on the terrace.
Currently,
the team is heading into the Round 2 Testing phase, where they are required to
harvest 2,000 litres of fresh water from thin air per day, at a cost of two
cents per litre —less than a rupee and a half — with 100% renewable energy.
They still have a way to go before they have a final price for the project, but
if they win, Shrivastav sees a six to nine- month deadline to enter production.
Details:
uravulabs.com
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