Indian Railways : The LED shift

ALLAHABAD, September 5, 2009: In another step towards energy conservation, Indian Railways has decided to install special types of eco-friendly LED (Light Emitting Diode) based lights in the coaches of trains. Presently, small bulbs, CFLs (Compact Fluorescent Lights) are used for lighting purpose in the coaches of trains. Though these lights provide efficient lighting but they consume comparatively more energy than the LED lights. Further, they are also burden on the alternator and the batteries of the coaches. Pointedly, a Light Emitting Diode (LED) is a semiconductor device which converts electricity into light. Each diode is about 1/4 inch in diameter and uses about ten milliamperes to operate at about one-tenth of a watt. LEDs are small in size, but can be grouped together for higher intensity applications. LED lights are more rugged and damage-resistant than compact fluorescent and incandescent bulbs. LED lights don't flicker.
LED based Luminaire are more efficient, compact, quick light up in micro-seconds, ideal for use in applications that are subject to frequent on and off cycle, dimming feature, cool long life, more than 50 thousand hours, shock resistant, maintenance free and having no toxicity. There will be reduction of power consumption by 30-35 per cent on account of implementation of LED based coach lighting scheme. It would also reduce the burden on alternator and batteries of the coach which are being fitted in the lower part of the coach.
Source: The Times of India

stupid idea on stilts: Compulsary voting

The state of the polity requires some comment. I see a lot of nonsense about compulsory voting in the media (with the traditional honourable exception of The Hindu). I would ignore this but for the fact that this is clearly propaganda from the religious right that always benefits from the same. Bit of sociology, but we will not get into it now. Forgetting ideology, any policy that cannot be enforced is stupid. How will the 'government' enforce this when the census is half baked and we have a billion folks around. Do all urban voters (who are not so difficult to enumerate) enfranchised ? If so why do i see pictures of disenfranchised voters holding their EPIC's in my morning paper ? How can every eligible voter be made to turn out ? Clearly this is a red herring. There is no scope for any compulsory anything in a human society. Of course this is to appeal to the Taliban & Rama Sene ! Want Some ?

We beat moore's law 5 x !

Obviously roti, kapada our makan is more important.
From wikipedia

" states that every decade, the price of LEDs have fallen by 10x while the performance (measured in flux per unit) has increased by 20x, for a given wavelength (color) of light. It is considered the LED counterpart to Moore's Law, which states that the number of transistors in a given integrated circuit doubles every 18 to 24 months.

Haitz's Law is named after Dr. Roland Haitz, a now-retired scientist at Agilent Technologies."

heads up - 5 most ridiculous ELUA's

Did you know that when you download Google's new Chrome browser, you agree that any "content" you "submit, post or display" using the service — whether you own its copyright or not — gives Google a "perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute" it? Google's ambitions for Chrome are even larger than we thought; by the letter of this license, Google will own all information that flows through its browser. But Chrome's terms of service are just the latest in a long line of ludicrous legalese.

Read more here.

K-T boundary, ticks killed the dinos

Interesting theory, that seems kinda right.

Asteroid impacts or massive volcanic flows might have occurred around the time dinosaurs became extinct, but a new argument is that the mightiest creatures the world has ever known may have been brought down by a tiny, much less dramatic force -- biting, disease-carrying insects.

Read more here.

4 exciting new LED lighting products from Alternate

Alternate Lighting has announced the commercial debut of 4 new led lighting products in various verticals.
The indoor segment saw the introduction of 2 variants of 'ColdSpark' a 2.5 W GU5.3 MR16 compatible warm and cool white lamp. This is a direct drop in replacement for indoor halogen fixtures rated at 20W. There is also a 5 W range that is targeted at the 50W halogen replacement market.
The company has entered the industrial segment with 'Solitaire' a 1 W neutral white high CRI industrial sewing machine task lamp. This product is expected to have high penetration as it allows up to 50 % reduction in lighting costs for the price sensitive garment export industry.

OE shipments of 'Rhodium' a hybrid grid - solar capable street lighting solution with output range from 20W right upto 75W have also commenced.
The rural lighting segment was addressed using the 'Aadhi' community lighting solution. Aadhi is highly rated as it produces about 9 hours of constant lumen light from a single day's charge.


Disclosure : I work at Alternate.

அபூர்வமான மொழிபெயர்ப்பு கருவி

அங்கில தட்டச்சில் எழுதப்பட்டு சொயமாக கூகுளின் மென்பொருளால் மொழிபெயரபடுகிறது. இதன் பொருட்டு இன்ச்ச்ரிப்ட் தட்டச்சு மறையுமா ? பியன்படுட மிக சுலபமாக உள்லதூ. தொகபது சுலபம் அல்ல.

End of an era

George Carlin, the funniest man in the world, finally gave up and succumbed to a heart attack. The master has brightened many a day for me and provided shrewd insight into people and culture on the vehicle of his comedy. The world is a poorer place, but hey what the hell no one has escaped this planet alive. Read more about the masters life.
Good bye george. May the sun (or Joe pesci) protect you...

Why the left is wrong on energy taxation

There has been a significant jump is auto fuel costs across india. Petrol in Bangalore (highest in the country) is about Rs 58.60 /Lit (USD 5.15 / Gallon) to Delhi (lowest) which is about Rs 50.60 /lit (USD 4.45 / gallon). Diesel has shown a similar jump in costs though it is still heavily subsidized. This consumer hike is also accompanied by a huge hit in taxation as both customs duty and excise have been cut. The state governments (who typically levy between 20 - 26 % VAT) may cut the rates slightly, however the rise is not likely to fall below 8 % or so. This is still fine if you look at the background.

The public debate has been on how ´fair´ the hike is and the left front (along with the ever opportunistic right wing hindu parties) have been talking of cutting taxes to the bone etc. While i generally am sympathetic to the leftś agenda, this time around yechury is very wrong. And he is also being stupid in calling the losses incurred bythe oil majors ńotional´. Notional does not mean imaginary. The private majors (reliance, shell et al) have already scaled down local sale (reliance exports bulk of its production), shut down bunks and generally used the rise in crude to improve their margins. The left talks of windfall profit tax, but there is no jurisprudence to back that. The left always loves revolution :)

So instead of beating around the bush, lets seize the bull by the horns and let the cat out of the bag (thanks jim hacker). The real problem is rise in consumption, aspirational life styles that are unsustainable and the usual thick headed human need to elevate the standard of oneś living. In a way Georgie Podgie Bush is right in that costs are rising due to higher consumption by india and china. People who were taking the bus to work a generation ago are worrying about parking for the second car. What the US did with its post WW 2 loot, india is trying to emulate in the 21st century. Well, wake up, the party is over.

The future is renewable power and a lot less of it than now. Distributed generation and consumption is the order of the day. While i will not comment on the use the state puts its oil taxes to, i for one am firmly for higher taxation on fuels to *curb consumption*. As a acid test i will track automotive sales for the next 2 quarters. I am betting that the fuel price hike will have no effect on auto sales and will serve to weed out the more inefficient models. Lets see...

Ahoy !

It has been a while since i wrote anything here. Mostly laziness and a lot of bandwidth consumed by my startup. Anyway the world has been busy and while i was away, managed to push up energy costs 100 %. In a way this is good as the only language we understand is force. Watch this space.

Some more

Lewis's Law of Travel: The first piece of luggage out of the chute doesn't belong to anyone, ever.

Humour

A consultant is a person who borrows your watch, tells you what time it is, pockets the watch, and sends you a bill for it.

IBM turns chip industry trash to solar industry treasure

IBM Corp. is scheduled to announce today that is has developed a way to easily refurbish scrap material left over from the creation of microchips so it can be used in solar energy panels, a process that could save money and help feed the solar industry's growing appetite for silicon.

Big Blue said it plans to share the technique with the semiconductor industry. Analysts say it could be widely adopted.
http://www.statesman.com/business/content/business/stories/technology/10/30/1030silicon.html

Energy Self-sufficiency in the 21st Century

Wisdom

All his life he has looked away... to the horizon, to the sky, to the future. Never his mind on where he was, on what he was doing. -- Yoda

JouleSort: A Balanced Energy-Efficiency Benchmark

Abstract:
The energy efficiency of computer systems is an important
concern in a variety of contexts. In data centers, reducing
energy use improves operating cost, scalability, reliability,
and other factors. For mobile devices, energy consumption
directly affects functionality and usability. We propose and
motivate JouleSort, an external sort benchmark, for evaluating
the energy efficiency of a wide range of computer systems
from clusters to handhelds. We list the criteria, challenges,
and pitfalls from our experience in creating a fair energyefficiency
benchmark. Using a commercial sort, we demonstrate
a JouleSort system that is over 3.5x as energy-efficient
as last year’s estimated winner. This system is quite different
from those currently used in data centers. It consists of
a commodity mobile CPU and 13 laptop drives, connected
by server-style I/O interfaces.

Read the paper here.

Google's paper on power provisioning for data centers

Abstract:
Large-scale Internet services require a computing infrastructure that
can be appropriately described as a warehouse-sized computing
system. The cost of building datacenter facilities capable of delivering
a given power capacity to such a computer can rival the recurring
energy consumption costs themselves. Therefore, there are
strong economic incentives to operate facilities as close as possible
to maximum capacity, so that the non-recurring facility costs can be
best amortized. That is difficult to achieve in practice because of
uncertainties in equipment power ratings and because power consumption
tends to vary significantly with the actual computing activity.
Effective power provisioning strategies are needed to determine
how much computing equipment can be safely and efficiently
hosted within a given power budget.

Read the paper here here.

Silicon nanoparticles enhance performance of solar cells

Placing a film of silicon nanoparticles onto a silicon solar cell can boost power, reduce heat and prolong the cell’s life, researchers now report.

“Integrating a high-quality film of silicon nanoparticles 1 nanometer in size directly onto silicon solar cells improves power performance by 60 percent in the ultraviolet range of the spectrum,” said Munir Nayfeh, a physicist at the University of Illinois and corresponding author of a paper accepted for publication in Applied Physics Letters.

A 10 percent improvement in the visible range of the spectrum can be achieved by using nanoparticles 2.85 nanometers in size, said Nayfeh, who also is a researcher at the university’s Beckman Institute.

In conventional solar cells, ultraviolet light is either filtered out or absorbed by the silicon and converted into potentially damaging heat, not electricity. In previous work, however, Nayfeh showed that ultraviolet light could efficiently couple to correctly sized nanoparticles and produce electricity. That work was reported in the August 2004 issue of the journal Photonics Technology Letters.

To make their improved solar cells, the researchers began by first converting bulk silicon into discrete, nano-sized particles using a patented process they developed. Depending on their size, the nanoparticles will fluoresce in distinct colors.

Nanoparticles of the desired size were then dispersed in isopropyl alcohol and dispensed onto the face of the solar cell. As the alcohol evaporated, a film of closely packed nanoparticles was left firmly fastened to the solar cell.

Solar cells coated with a film of 1 nanometer, blue luminescent particles showed a power enhancement of about 60 percent in the ultraviolet range of the spectrum, but less than 3 percent in the visible range, the researchers report.

Solar cells coated with 2.85 nanometer, red particles showed an enhancement of about 67 percent in the ultraviolet range, and about 10 percent in the visible.

The improved performance is a result of enhanced voltage rather than current, Nayfeh said. “Our results point to a significant role for charge transport across the film and rectification at the nanoparticle interface.”

The process of coating solar cells with silicon nanoparticles could be easily incorporated into the manufacturing process with little additional cost, Nayfeh said.

Atanu Dey on ICT

Atanu is a development economist and a very perceptive individual. He also has a lot of common sense that's becoming increasingly rare in this information overloaded world. Atanu on the digital divide.

Supergyre identified by the Aussies

The aussies have broken new "ground" in identifying an undersea current that links the three southern hemisphere oceans. It would have been easier if they could ask a whale :)
From Science Daily
Australian scientists have identified the missing deep ocean pathway – or ‘supergyre’ – linking the three Southern Hemisphere ocean basins in research that will help them explain more accurately how the ocean governs global climate.The new research confirms the current sweeping out of the Tasman Sea past Tasmania and towards the South Atlantic is a previously undetected component of the world climate system’s engine-room – the thermohaline circulation or ‘global conveyor belt’.

Wealth from Oceans Flagship* scientist Ken Ridgway says the current, called the Tasman Outflow, occurs at an average depth of 800-1,000 metres and may play an important role in the response of the conveyor belt to climate change.