Human beings living on planet Earth know that the climate change is real as they're living it literally everyday with extreme weather, frequent storms and unpredictable weather conditions. So, while United States' President Donald Trump is walking around telling everyone that climate change is a money-making hoax, the Indian startup industry is standing up for planet Earth and isn't ready to go down without a fierce fight. Over the past few years, the industry has given birth to several new startups that have welfare of the environment and human beings at heart. Here, in this article, we discuss some of these heroes of change.
With human beings having already overexploited the resources made available to them, the search for finding alternate sources of energy began long ago. And now it seems, India is finally making progress in this department. According to recent data made available by India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), India's total renewable capacity including solar, wind, bio-mass and small hydro has grown by a good 11.2 GW, where the subcontinent's thermal capacity addition, electricity generation via coal, has seen a whopping 50 per cent decline this year.
Some of the Indian startups working in this direction include:
SELCO Solar Pvt. Ltd: Founded in 1995, Selco provides sustainable energy solutions and services to under-served households and businesses. It was conceived in an effort to dispel myths associated with sustainable technology and the rural sector as a target customer base. The firm believes with the right tools and training, everyone in India can be made capable of maintaining subsidies technologies irrespective of being poor or rich.
The startup, which has sold, serviced and financed over 2,00,000 solar systems since starting and is currently spread across 45 energy service centers, aims to empower its customer by providing a complete package of product, service and consumer financing through grameena banks, cooperative societies, commercial banks and micro-finance institutions.
Avant Garde Innovations: The startup, which was announced amongst the Top 100 Global Startups of the world at the NEWENERGY Global Startup Fest in Kazhakstan, aim is to introduce innovative, affordable and sustainable solutions that take renewable energy self sufficiency and energy empowerment to the next level through a distributed and decentralised approach using pioneering strategies the world has not witnessed yet. Its first offering is a highly affordable Small Wind Turbine suitable for residential, commercial, agricultural, rural electrification etc, which is aimed for a market launch after the new national tax named 'GST' is introduced by the India government by mid 2017. The startup, which has offices in India and Australia, was one of the Top 20 Cleantech Innovations in India for the 'GLOBAL CLEANTECH INNOVATION PROGRAMME (GCIP) 2015'.
Ecolibrium Energy: With an aim of creating a world where every watt counts, the startup's big data energy analytics platform, SmartSense provides Energy Intelligence to Commercial and Industrial consumers, and Utilities. The insights leads to increased operational efficiency by optimizing energy usage and improves asset utilisation. The startup also helps Power Distribution companies in meeting their demand side management goals by connecting with their high power consuming consumers and helping them the way they consume power.
With a majority of Indian population still living in rural areas and relying on diesel to function their tractors and rice mills, India's contributions to harmful emissions in the form of smoke etc. is increasing day-by-day. But, as they say, if there's a problem, there's a solution to deal with the problem as well. And Indians have found a number of solutions for the aforementioned problem.
Some of the famous startup's working in the field include:
Greenway Appliances: Traditional stoves are infamous for consuming copious amounts of fuel and emitting dangerous smoke on account of their incomplete and inefficient combustion. But unfortunately, it has been predicted by the International Energy Agency that even in 2040, 1 out of every 3 Indians would continue using biomass for cooking for the lack of alternate options. In order to do their bit to solve the problem, the startup has manufactured a special biomass cooking stove called Greenway Stoves that reduces the overall fuel consumption by up to 65% and smoke emission by 70%. In addition to this, its air-regulator technology further reduces noxious gases such as CO and PM significantly.
Carnot Technologies: The Mumbai-based startup has developed a device that fits easily into an automobile to measure its emissions. Automobiles are considered as one of the most important sources of pollution in cities and urban areas in India. The startup aspires to raise awareness in Indians about how toxic gases released by their cars can be reduced by one-third if one drives efficiently.
If you live in India, you would know that one of the most important environmental issues plaguing the country is waste disposal and its management. Not only rural areas, but even urban areas are producing large quantities of waste and using the ages-old practice of burning entire landfills to get rid of the waste. It is a no brainer that burning an entire landfill day after day isn't good for the environment. Hence, it is high time that Indians learn to make segregating and recycling waste a part of their daily/weekly routine.
Banyan Nation: The Hyderabad-based startup, which was recently chosen for Intel & DST Innovate for Digital India Challenge 2.0 award 2017, is a technology-driven recycling business that is rooting out inefficiencies in the waste value chain in India. The startup's IoT (Internet Of Things) based solution helps city officials track collection efficiencies, and waste that is occupying free land in the city. The startup aims to take cities online and create effective and efficient data around waste.
All the aforementioned startups including many others are working together in doing their bit for mother Earth as well as help India in meeting the obligations of last year’s Paris agreement.
Alternate Sources Of Energy
With human beings having already overexploited the resources made available to them, the search for finding alternate sources of energy began long ago. And now it seems, India is finally making progress in this department. According to recent data made available by India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), India's total renewable capacity including solar, wind, bio-mass and small hydro has grown by a good 11.2 GW, where the subcontinent's thermal capacity addition, electricity generation via coal, has seen a whopping 50 per cent decline this year.
Some of the Indian startups working in this direction include:
SELCO Solar Pvt. Ltd: Founded in 1995, Selco provides sustainable energy solutions and services to under-served households and businesses. It was conceived in an effort to dispel myths associated with sustainable technology and the rural sector as a target customer base. The firm believes with the right tools and training, everyone in India can be made capable of maintaining subsidies technologies irrespective of being poor or rich.
The startup, which has sold, serviced and financed over 2,00,000 solar systems since starting and is currently spread across 45 energy service centers, aims to empower its customer by providing a complete package of product, service and consumer financing through grameena banks, cooperative societies, commercial banks and micro-finance institutions.
Avant Garde Innovations: The startup, which was announced amongst the Top 100 Global Startups of the world at the NEWENERGY Global Startup Fest in Kazhakstan, aim is to introduce innovative, affordable and sustainable solutions that take renewable energy self sufficiency and energy empowerment to the next level through a distributed and decentralised approach using pioneering strategies the world has not witnessed yet. Its first offering is a highly affordable Small Wind Turbine suitable for residential, commercial, agricultural, rural electrification etc, which is aimed for a market launch after the new national tax named 'GST' is introduced by the India government by mid 2017. The startup, which has offices in India and Australia, was one of the Top 20 Cleantech Innovations in India for the 'GLOBAL CLEANTECH INNOVATION PROGRAMME (GCIP) 2015'.
Ecolibrium Energy: With an aim of creating a world where every watt counts, the startup's big data energy analytics platform, SmartSense provides Energy Intelligence to Commercial and Industrial consumers, and Utilities. The insights leads to increased operational efficiency by optimizing energy usage and improves asset utilisation. The startup also helps Power Distribution companies in meeting their demand side management goals by connecting with their high power consuming consumers and helping them the way they consume power.
Emissions Reductions
With a majority of Indian population still living in rural areas and relying on diesel to function their tractors and rice mills, India's contributions to harmful emissions in the form of smoke etc. is increasing day-by-day. But, as they say, if there's a problem, there's a solution to deal with the problem as well. And Indians have found a number of solutions for the aforementioned problem.
Some of the famous startup's working in the field include:
Greenway Appliances: Traditional stoves are infamous for consuming copious amounts of fuel and emitting dangerous smoke on account of their incomplete and inefficient combustion. But unfortunately, it has been predicted by the International Energy Agency that even in 2040, 1 out of every 3 Indians would continue using biomass for cooking for the lack of alternate options. In order to do their bit to solve the problem, the startup has manufactured a special biomass cooking stove called Greenway Stoves that reduces the overall fuel consumption by up to 65% and smoke emission by 70%. In addition to this, its air-regulator technology further reduces noxious gases such as CO and PM significantly.
Carnot Technologies: The Mumbai-based startup has developed a device that fits easily into an automobile to measure its emissions. Automobiles are considered as one of the most important sources of pollution in cities and urban areas in India. The startup aspires to raise awareness in Indians about how toxic gases released by their cars can be reduced by one-third if one drives efficiently.
Waste Management
If you live in India, you would know that one of the most important environmental issues plaguing the country is waste disposal and its management. Not only rural areas, but even urban areas are producing large quantities of waste and using the ages-old practice of burning entire landfills to get rid of the waste. It is a no brainer that burning an entire landfill day after day isn't good for the environment. Hence, it is high time that Indians learn to make segregating and recycling waste a part of their daily/weekly routine.
Banyan Nation: The Hyderabad-based startup, which was recently chosen for Intel & DST Innovate for Digital India Challenge 2.0 award 2017, is a technology-driven recycling business that is rooting out inefficiencies in the waste value chain in India. The startup's IoT (Internet Of Things) based solution helps city officials track collection efficiencies, and waste that is occupying free land in the city. The startup aims to take cities online and create effective and efficient data around waste.
All the aforementioned startups including many others are working together in doing their bit for mother Earth as well as help India in meeting the obligations of last year’s Paris agreement.
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