sapgreen

Finally, Google Maps has Mysore in high resolution. This should be useful in a lot of different ways. The satellite images however are at least an year old. This I can tell from construction activities captured by the satellite images.
Example use: We can mark locations where we planted trees directly on the map. See below.
<a href=”http://wikimapia.org/9732680/Sapgreen-Park” mce_href=”http://wikimapia.org/9732680/Sapgreen-Park”>Sapgreen Park on Wikimapia</a>

SELCO: The company brought light to 75,000 homes since 1995 making profitable business at the same time. It is difficult to even imagine that a product worth Rs.18,000 could be sold to a household with less than Rs.50 per day income. Yet, the company did. Today, they have brought extra income into the households of so many people. They have done their bit in reducing the global warming problem. They won the Ashden awards twice, once in 2005 and again in 2007.

NEST: Another solar company which innovated in making a smaller version of CFL lantern making it more affordable. A lantern just Rs.1200 thereby making it much more affordable to the poorest of the poor. The company sold 50000 lamps and now plans to sell it in African countries as well. Won the Ashden award once.

Looking at these companies, I get hope. Business can co-exist with environment. Business can co-exist with people. No business model is not impossible.

Since a few weeks, the sapgreen page and blog looked inactive. The main reason was that there were no new stories to tell. The trees are being planted on a regular basis. The number is one short of 250 now. The rains which initially eluded us have come back. Looks like the Karnataka chief minister’s prayers have succeeded to some extent

I, personally however didn’t stop blogging and have been fairly regular at livejournal. Our work too had a different direction apart from trees and we were concentrating more on that. Being an electronics engineer, new technology never fails to interest me. Not the Ipod type of technology. Rather, its the advancement in basic technologies that is more interesting. The incandescant bulb was created in 1879 and the technology remained the same for more than a century. It is only recently that CFLs began replacing the bulb. Now, even CFL bulbs are on the verge of getting replaced by the semiconductor revolution. LED or Light emitting Diode is one of the most efficient types of light source. The LED delivers much greater brightness and consumes just a fraction of the power required by conventional light bulbs. Furthermore, LEDs last almost for a lifetime. Even under adverse conditions, you can expect LEDs to last for at least 6-10 years. Compare that with an incandescant bulb that lasts for a few months or a CFL which lasts for 2-3 years. The only drawback with LED as of now is the relatively higher cost. The payback time (as compared to CFL bulbs) in terms of reduced electricity bills is 2-3 years. However the payback in terms of reduced carbon emissions is immense.

Even more important are the benefits LEDs offer when combined with solar technology. LEDs consume less power and hence a smaller sized solar panel is sufficient to power it. The cost of the LED is more than offset by the savings in the solar panel. A solar enabled LED home lighting system would thus mean a light source with minimal maintenance and minimal recurring cost for a lifetime. We have been working on this technology for a while now and it looks ever more promising. I will keep this blog updated on the happenings.