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State-run firm Energy Efficiency Service Ltd (EESL) has floated a tender for procuring 10,000 electric cars and 4,000 chargers for coal, mines, power and new and renewable energy ministries as well as for providing them on rent to other departments.

EESL has floated a tender for procurement of 10,000 electric cars including complete system warranty under the faster adoption and manufacturing of electric vehicles in India (FAME) scheme of the ministry of new and renewable energy.

According to the tender, 3,000 AC (alternate current) or slow charger’s and 1,000 DC (Direct Current) fast charger’s compatible with Bharat AC-001 and DC-001 charger specification would be procured.

The tender is part of the government’s plan to promote electric vehicles in the country in a big way. In April, Power, Coal, Mine, New & Renewable Energy Minister Piyush Goyal had said that India would sell only electric vehicles by 2030.

Earlier this month he had admitted however that it may take a little longer to replace existing petrol and diesel vehicles in the country.

 “Only electric cars by 2030...existing cars may take a little longer to replace. But the government is working on a framework to see what we can do on promoting electric vehicle. Niti Aayog is currently tasked with preparing futuristic vision for electric vehicles,” Goyal had said.

On hybrid cars, he had said, “It reduced fuel consumption a little bit but the future is all electric cars. I had also recommended to the finance minister that it is not advisable for an intermediate technology which reduces the fuel consumption by a little bit but otherwise that is not the future, the future is all electric cars.”

Talking about lobbying for hybrid cars he said, “It is a campaign being run by those companies who don’t have electric vehicles. These companies have come to me also to convince not to oppose hybrid cars. The world is moving towards electric vehicles and the country would promote electric vehicles.”

TAIPEI -- The Taiwanese government is planning to approach Tesla to discuss the feasibility of setting up lithium ion battery facilities for storing renewable energy on the island, in line with a project the U.S. technology company recently launched in Australia, a top official said on Thursday following a mass power blackout earlier in the week.

The move would also chime with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen's ongoing efforts to replace nuclear power with green energy. Tsai has pledged to make Taiwan nuclear energy free by 2025.

"Tesla is using its lithium ion battery technology to help Australia and California to implement smart grid and grid storage, and we can learn from them in the future," Taiwan's Minister of Science and Technology Chen Liang-gee told reporters at his office in Taipei.

"We will try to check out whether there is a suitable solution...we will get in touch with them," Chen said.

Chen added that the government would send a team of officials to the U.S. to talk with Tesla soon, although he would not be heading the delegation.

He said that the government had not prepared a budget for such a project, although he suggested that a Taiwanese company could potentially form a joint venture with the U.S. tech company for the project.

Tesla, which is also known for its electric cars, declined to comment.

Taiwan was hit by a mass power outage on Tuesday, the largest by number of households affected since a massive earthquake struck in 1999.

The blackout came after government-run petroleum company CPC Corporation ran into difficulties while replacing the power supply for a control system responsible for sending natural gas to a power plant.

A number of tech companies in Taiwan have suffered some minor disruption to production following the outage.

In early July, the state of South Australia picked Tesla to build the world's largest lithium ion battery to store renewable energy, in partnership with French energy company Neoen.

The deal came about after the state suffered a massive blackout last September after a storm destroyed infrastructure, leaving 1.7 million residents without electricity. Intense summer heat in early 2017 led to further blackouts in the area.

Source: Nikkei Asian Review

India’s first attempt to include battery-based storage with utility-scale solar power projects has failed.

Solar Energy Corporation of India recently announced that it had to cancel two solar+storage auctions. SECI believed that tariff bids for these projects could not have matched the bids for normal utility-scale solar power projects.

SECI had announced two tenders for implementing battery storage with solar power projects — the 200-megawatt project at Pavagada solar power park in Karnataka and the 100-megawatt project at Kadapa solar power park in Andhra Pradesh.

Project developers were asked to provide 2.5 megawatt-hours of storage for every 50 megawatts of capacity installed. Both the tenders involved the viability gap funding mode. Participants had to bid for the lowest capital cost support required to set up the projects. SECI was willing to provide a maximum of ₹1 crore per megawatt as support.

In May of this year, project developers placed the lowest-ever bid for a utility-scale power project at ₹2.44/kWh. Power utilities would prefer these new projects rather than slightly older ones whose tariffs are higher than thermal power plants. This was perhaps the reason SECI shelved the tenders as higher tariffs would not have found any takers in the market thus jeopardizing the projects’ future.

Storage-equipped solar power plants are only a part of the overall strategy of the Indian government to integrate large-scale solar and wind energy projects. To safeguard the existing transmission network, a dedicated transmission grid for renewable energy projects is being implemented. Additionally, several states have implemented regulations that require project developers to forecast their power generation to help grid operators schedule power while maintaining supply demand and frequency.

Source: CleanTechnica

Electricity from sunlight makes economic sense in Australia, in part because the cost of electricity in that sun-splashed country is sky high. Tesla’s overall plan is to include displays for its rooftop solar products in its stores. The problem is, at the present time, it has an official sales presence only in Sydney and Melbourne. How to get the message out to the country’s 24 million residents, most of whom live hundreds if not thousands of miles away from the nearest Tesla store?

Tesla has created a Tiny House on a trailer that will be towed behind a Model X. The 4,400 lb display showcases Tesla solar panels and its Powerwall residential storage battery. Tesla solar panels are not yet available in the Land Down Under, but will be in the near future.

The Tesla Tiny House has a 6 panel rooftop solar system providing 2 kW of electricity to the Powerwall. As befits Tesla’s image as a company concerned with sustainability, the exterior of the mobile display unit is made from lumber sourced from sustainably grown timber and finished using environmentally friendly preservatives. Inside is a Tesla residential solar power design studio meant to educate consumers about the benefits of making and storing their own electricity.

Tesla plans to take the mobile display to every major city in Australia, but people can contact Tesla and request it make a detour to their town if they live outside a major population center. There’s no guarantee it will visit every sheep station in the Outback — although, Ayers Rock may be a possibility.

Tesla steadfastly refuses to advertise its products the way other enterprises do. It prefers to rely on word of mouth and the tsunami of press coverage that occurs every time Elon Musk takes to Twitter. Last year it outfitted two ultra-modern Airstream travel trailers as Design Studios for its automobiles and let them loose across America. People can also request the company send one of the Airstreams to their home town. Getting the word out and building excitement is something Tesla does better than any other company in the world.

Source: Clean Technica