Commercial solar power

OAKLAND: Google parent Alphabet Inc is shutting down its internet balloon business, Loon, which aimed to provide a less expensive alternative to cell towers, saying that "the road to commercial viability has proven much longer and riskier than hoped." Founded in 2011, Loon aimed to bring connectivity to areas of the world where building cell towers is too expensive or treacherous by using balloons the length of tennis courts to float solar-powered networking gear high above the Earth. But the wireless carriers that Loon saw as buyers of its technology have questioned its technical and political viability. "While we’ve found a number of willing partners along the way, we haven’t found a way to get the costs low enough to build a long-term, sustainable business," Loon chief executive Alastair Westgarth said in a blog post. Alphabet executive Astro Teller said in a separate blog post that despite Loon's "groundbreaking technical achievements" over the past nine years, "the … [Read more...] about Google parent Alphabet is shutting down its ‘balloon internet company’

US-based energy storage technology giant Fluence is bullish on the India growth story. The company, a joint venture between AES and Siemens, wants to be a part of this story, as it unfolds in the rapidly expanding energy storage market, from battery deployment to building local supply chain over the next 2-4 years, Marek Wolek, Vice President, Strategy & Partnerships, tells ETEnergyworld in an exclusive interview. Edited excerpts..What is the larger growth philosophy that Fluence follows and what have been the key highlights of its journey so far?Fluence’s mission, which keeps our team members excited every day, is "transform the way we power our world." We’re a customer-centric energy storage technology company, focused on designing the best technology packages to serve key segments of the market – utilities, network companies, independent power producers and commercial and industrial energy users.Energy storage is unlike most clean energy technologies: … [Read more...] about Fluence wants to be a part of the India energy storage story: Marek Wolek, VP, Strategy & Partnerships

Google’s parent company Alphabet is shutting down Loon, a high-profile subsidiary spun out from its research labs that used hot-air balloons to deliver cellular connectivity from the stratosphere.Nearly a decade after it began the project, Alphabet said Thursday that it pulled the plug on Loon because it did not see a way to reduce costs to create a sustainable business. Along with the self-driving car unit Waymo, Loon was one of the most hyped “moonshot” technology projects to emerge from Alphabet’s research lab, X.“The road to commercial viability has proven much longer and riskier than hoped. So we’ve made the difficult decision to close down Loon,” Astro Teller, who heads X, wrote in a blog post. Alphabet said it expected to wind down operations in “the coming months” with the hope of finding other positions for Loon employees at Alphabet.The idea behind Loon was to bring cellular connectivity to remote parts of the world where … [Read more...] about Google’s hot-air balloon project, providing cell service, is closing down

New Delhi: The Union Budget 2021-22 is going to be presented at a critical time in India’s history where the country, along with the rest of the world, is reeling under the economic and healthcare crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. As Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman aptly described a few days ago, this Budget is expected to be a never-seen-before one.The power sector is a critical facilitator of all economic activities and business operations. As the countdown for the Union Budget 2021-22 begins, the sector will be expecting increased financial and policy support to enhance access to reliable, clean, and sustainable energy for the last mile. Rural India has availed increased socio-economic opportunities because of the access to reliable electricity. This can be further strengthened if India, building on its past achievements, focusses strategically on mitigating energy poverty to create a resilient and sustainable socio-economic model.In the absence of reliable … [Read more...] about Budget 2021-22: Decentralized Renewable Energy sector is the key for clean energy

The Sustainable City is also introducing electric car-sharing for all residents and it's exploring prototype projects to harvest humidity and make water out of the air. El-Jisr says cities are full of spaces, such as rooftops and basements, that can be repurposed to play a role to play in the circular economy. … [Read more...] about For one year, this man is eating only what’s grown at Dubai’s Sustainable City