Sunday, January 12, 2014

Net Metering Workshop

Yesterday, we held a day-long workshop on net metering, in the context of Solar Energy use. At Rabindra Tirtha. Dr AKTripathi, Director, MNRE, GoI , Mr Girija Shankar , Energy Economist BEE, Director WBREDA, MD NTESC and many others participated.
The idea is as follows:
To meet energy demands and for climate reasons, we must use Solar Energy as much as possible. Solar Panels in rooftops, canal-tops, ground--tops can act as virtual distributed and decentralised powerhouses to generate additional clean energy. Consumers may pay only the net electrical power consumed i.e. gross/actual consumption minus power injected into the electricity grid. The savings in power bill will encourage consumers to invest in rooftop solar plants.
I argued that this will be most attractive in new projects and towns like New Town and others since the cost of rooftop solar plants will be only marginal to the cost of construction of a new home. Dr Tripathy said that technological problems with inverters needed to inject solar power in grids have now been solved.
During lunch break, a demonstration of electric scooters was made. I drove one around the internal path of Rabindra Tirtha: it did well @ 25 kmph. It can go 50-70 km in one charge. Costs Rs 40,000+ we were told.
The electric scooter that I drove around Rabindra Tirtha pathway:
Useful for services in New Town, Salt Lake etc

L-R:
Gopal Ghose, A.K.Tripathy, me, Girija Shankar, Sutanu Kar, P P Datta
* * *
I also inspected other ongoing works in New Town. The test piles of the third Bagjola Bridge had started. A photo:

Third Bagjola Bridge started:
Connecting Action Area III and II

13 comments:

  1. Happy New Year .. nice to know about the solar energy initiatives .. talking about electric scooters, what happened to the proposal to run WEBREDA electric autos in new town ?

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  3. Dear Mr. Sen,
    We repeatedly requested you in your earlier blog also about the much awaited bridge connecting Sunrise Greens, P.S. Ixora to Newtown AA I. But no progress from either HIDCO or from local Panchayet is being taken. People are living there only with support of a bumboo bridge. Sunrise Greens itself accomodates population of around 500 flats and same number of cars. P.S Ixora is just nearing this project with a population of another 200 flats and same number of cars. Bridge must be built there. Please let us know your opinion and please let us know what steps can be taken from our side. We have talked to Panchayet and they have said that HIDCO will make bridge there and Panchayet is interested in making bridge in some other area, not nearing Sunrise Greens.

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  4. Dear Mr Sen
    Happy New Year !. I am also a resident of Sunrise green and its becoming extremely difficult to manage the day to day activities without the bridge mentioned above near SG, PS Ixoria, our wife and daughter are feeling very unsafe using the road where there are no street lights and we have to avail the bamboo bridge, please rethink this and request your kind co-operation to help this bridge constructed , thanks for your understanding .

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  5. Dear Mr. Sen,
    Appreciate the commendable work HIDCO is doing in New Town. I am a resident of the Sunrise Greens and We repeatedly requested you in your earlier blog also about the much awaited bridge connecting Sunrise Greens, P.S. Ixora to Newtown AA I. People are living there only with support of a bumboo bridge. Sunrise Greens itself accomodates population of around 500 flats and same number of cars. P.S Ixora is just nearing this project with a population of another 200 flats and same number of cars. We badly need a Bridge here as we can save almost 4 Km to go to NewTown AA-1. Even school buses (from DPS NewTown and Megacity) are not willing to come to our area – because there is no Bridge. Elderly people are not able to go to other side because there is no bridge. Please consider our request on this connectivity as this will help lots and lots of people leaving on the other side of Bagjola Canal.

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  6. Sir,please consider visiting the site near Sunrise Greens(near HIDCO water pumping station) .We need streetlight,and proper bridge for commuting daily.Even road along Bagjola canal is not suitable for travelling.Small shops on both sides of approach road have made the situation worse.

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  7. Respected Sir,

    This is to bring to your attention that Ghuni / Canal Bank road where some of the major complexes have been built in the recent years like Sunrise Greens, PX Ixora, Clubtown Courtyard are in real danger and pain. Though these communities have been built but basic infrastructure is yet to be available. Basic Infrastructure like street lights, connectivity to the New Town bustand, Police station, water and electricity. People have to cross the bamboo bridge which is dangerous to cross. For elderly it is an impossible task altogether.

    We need your attention and kind co-operation to improve the daily life of the people.

    Thanks
    Ujjal Bhattacharjee

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  8. Dear Mr. Sen,
    We repeatedly requested in your blog to consider our request to construct a bridge connecting Sunrise Greens, P.S. Ixora to New Town Rajarhat. We the residents of PS Ixora, Sunrise Greens and Club town Courtyard struggling for daily life activities in the absence of this connectivity. Please consider our request on this connectivity.

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  9. Dear Mr. Sen,

    We too vote for the Motorable (4wheeler) Concrete Bridge near to the Bamboo Pole on 1st priority. We too have joined hands with you and the Govt. to stay here at Newtown and it's neighbourhood to make it the best of the places to live on this Earth. We are all sure that we shall develop this place together and work towards upliftment of the socio-economic status of the locality.

    Request your support in doing the needful to get this Bridge built up at the earliest near Gouranganagar-Bamboo Bridge area. Please suggest us our course of action and initiative we need to take to make this happen.

    We appreciate your efforts and wish to create a better future for our next generation.

    Thank you - Dipankar Konar, F1504, Sunrise Greens, Gouranganagar, Newtown, Kolkata 700059. #98308 77897

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  10. Dear Mr Sen
    Congratulations to you & your team for the huge endeavor & initiatives for making New Town a world class Habitat.
    We, the residents of Sunrise Greens/PS Ixora/Clubtown Courtyard are confident that under your able leadership we'll surely get the long awaited motorable bridge near the existing bamboo bridge over Bagjola Canal.
    Regards

    Dr A Goswami

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  11. Dear sir,

    A bridge near P S Ixora and Sunrise Greens would be much appreciated. There have been thousands of requests from the residents on your blog on the same but we haven't recieved any reply from your side. Please consider this as a serious problem and do the needful sir. We would be very thankful to you.

    Devashish Jha
    P S Ixora

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  12. Sir, For ladies its a tough task and unthinkable during late night to use the bamboo bridge to cross the canal from New Town AA 1 to reach Sunrise Green. Even there is no good public transport to take the road route which is more than 4 Km. Its so close to New Town AA-1 and still deprieved of basic amenities... We are not sure what your silence means for us. Kindly help us or if not possible, guide us if we as residents and beneficiaries can put in our money and effort to build the same.

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  13. Hello Mr. Sen,

    Want to reiterate the concerns mentioned above by the residents of Ghuni area. The road crossing the Hidco Pumping Station to Sunrise Greens is extremely unsafe for commutation, but along with this, the surrounding environment has become even more filthy and unhygienic, as the canal is extremely unclean and there is no maintenance being done to keep it clean. Can we please at least start with the cleanliness activity of this area ASAP? The canal is filled with water hyacinth and mess and hence creates an acute unhealthy environment for all residents. I feel the first ground level work that we should at least maintain is the cleanliness of surroundings in this area.

    Also street lights are a major requirement specially for security and safety of women and children. Please let us try to avoid any unforeseen situations.

    And most important, please let us know if there are any road blocks in commencement of a permanent bridge connecting to New Town, which will make life pretty safer and easier for women.

    Please let us start to mitigate these problems simultaneously.

    Thanks in advance !

    Regards,
    - Sunayana ( @Sunrise Greens)

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