Four Reasons Why Solar Can Unseat Coal in India This Decade
→ View From a New Vrindaban Ridge

by Renewable Energy World Editors

New Hampshire, USA — Coal contributes 60 percent to India’s power mix today; solar is less than 1 percent. But what was a factor-of-seven difference between the cost of coal and solar two years ago shrank this summer to just a 1.8x gap. Can solar catch up within the next ten years?

In 2011 big coal plants were signing PPAs with tariffs for INR 2.8/kWh while solar was as high as 18/kWh. Now large grid-connected solar can be had at INR 7/kWh, while imported coal, on the rise to help offset a ~10 percent power deficit (baseload) exacerbated by rapidly rising power demand, is pushing INR 4/kWh without taking into account subsidies or cost of externalities. And that doesn’t begin to address the challenges of grid-connecting villages, much less the hundreds of millions of citizens who remain off-grid.

The answer to this lies in domestic solar power, both centralized and distributed, built relatively fast at any size and requiring less than 1 percent of the nation’s land. Four factors have to come into play, though, for solar to truly supplant coal in India in the next decade, according to Tobias Engelmeier, managing director at Bridge to India:

- Looking at longer-term costs. Getting solar costs down to INR 5/kWh in the next couple of years, and lower beyond that, will require improved materials, production, and efficiencies, but long-term solar costs are heading downward. Costs of non-replenishing fossil fuels including coal, meanwhile, will increasingly depend on foreign supply and demand markets.

- Costs of infrastructure and grid management. As an infirm power source, solar’s higher incorporation will require extra investments in a number of areas from storage to demand response. On the other hand, adding more coal plants and imports will mean more infrastructures in mining and a supply chain for imports. It’s still unclear how those all will compare.

- Measuring externalities. Beyond simple end market pricing, coal has several arguable cost-adders that should be factored in, most notably pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, water usage, soil degradation, etc. Factoring in all costs will increasingly be important.

- Valuing energy security. Notice how U.S. foreign policy decisions, including wars, made in the past few decades have been linked to dependence on imported oil? Don’t expect India to follow that lead, given global politics and current supply situations.

Have an Idea for Renewable Energy In India? In May 2014 the 5th annual Renewable Energy World India exhibition and conference returns to New Delhi in 2014, now alongside DistribuTECH India and co-located events POWER-GEN India & Central Asia and HydroVision India. The call-for-papers deadline is this Friday, October 25; topics can range from solar to wind to biomass to geothermal and heat pumps, waste-to-energy, hybrid plants, energy storage, resource forecasting, and numerous related issues.

DEEPER LOOK

Inside India’s Latest Solar Policy Guidelines: India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has approved guidelines for the next phase of the country’s National Solar Mission (NSM), which called for bids for 750 MW of solar plants, offering about 18.75 billion rupees ($303 million) in grants. Here’s a summary of the latest draft proposal‘s high points and key changes, from a sizable domestic content provision to a tweak to viability gap funding (VGF) and some reassurances for both developers and state manager SECI.

India’s Plan to Harness Biomass: The New York Times takes a closer look at India’s goals for biomass as a growing renewable energy source and economic enabler for its agriculture sector which supports more than half the nation’s population. Taking its cues from Europe’s embrace of biomass, India sees the potential to generate at least 18 GW of electricity, part of overall plans to more than double its renewable energy supply to 55 GW by 2017. That runs somewhat contrary, though, to another report that a dozen biomass power plants have scaled back their output since demand for the costlier power source has plummeted in the past year.


Filed under: Cows and Environment

New Vrindaban’s Transcendental “Throwback Thursday” – 12/26/13
→ New Vrindaban Brijabasi Spirit

NV TBT 12-26-13

It’s time yet again for New Vrindaban’s Transcendental Throwback Thursday!

Each week we highlight an earlier era in the history of ISKCON New Vrindaban and ask readers to identify devotees in the photo.

This week there are five devotees who can be named in the photo.

Extra credit if you can correctly determine the words painted on the oval sign at the far right side.

Share your best guesses on the “who, what, when & where” in the comment section at the New Vrindaban Facebook Page.

Technical stuff: We post the photo Thursday and confirm known details Sunday.

Good luck!

True Femininity
→ The Enquirer

The soul is an entity between two worlds.

One world is an entirely masculine object. If the soul is attracted to it, it becomes an entirely feminine subject in essence. The other world is an entirely feminine object. If the soul is attracted to it, it becomes an entirely masculine subject in essence.

The object of the masculine world is, fundamentally, Kṛṣṇa. All entities who perceive that world do so from a feminine vantage point. Not every subject takes an externally feminine form, but the essence of all subjects perceiving the masculine object is feminine.

The object of the feminine world is Māyādevī. All entities who perceive her do so from a masculine vantage point. Some of them may appear to have no gender, some may overtly appear male, and some may externally appear female, but all subject observing the feminine object are masculine in essence.

Masculine energy dominates, controls, masters, conquers, and enjoys. Feminine energy supports, gives, nourishes, and amplifies input. Now, as we look around this world at so-called females, do we see any real, pure femininity? It is difficult to find even a predominance of femininity in this world, where everyone’s attitude is mostly to exploit and enjoy. It seems to be womanly to put on makeup and skirts and heels, but actually this is masculine behaviour in a feminine mold because the essence is the effort to control the world. Our entire world is a feminine object, and we are all masculine subjects. But the world of bhakti, the Kṛṣṇa-world, is an entirely masculine object, and we are all feminine subjects there.

This quest for femininity leads to Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī. Ultimately, it cannot lead  anywhere else. The world in which she is the chief subject (and Kṛṣṇa the chief object) is the only world in which we can truly experience femininity.

white-abstract-flowers-feminine-in-pinks-butterfly-flora-floral-453278


How spiritual happiness is unlimited
→ The Spiritual Scientist

Spiritual happiness is unlimited. Here it is said that even the Lord cannot measure such happiness. This does not mean that the Lord cannot measure it and is therefore imperfect in that sense. The actual position is that the Lord can measure it, but the happiness in the Lord is also identical with the Lord on account of absolute knowledge. So the happiness derived from the Lord may be measured by the Lord, but the happiness increases again, and the Lord measures it again, and then again the happiness increases more and more, and the Lord measures it more and more, and as such there is eternally a competition between increment and measurement, so much so that the competition is never stopped, but goes on unlimitedly ad infinitum.

 

 

To remember Krsna
→ KKSBlog

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 21 November 2012, Cape Town, South Africa, Evening Talk)

Philosophy helps us to remember how everything is connected to Krsna, even when we forget him all the time. I mean, I’ve given these examples of how good we are in forgetting Krsna. I mean, we can chant sixteen rounds and not think of Krsna even once (laughter). Chant sixteen rounds, never thought of Krsna once. You know what I’m talking about? You know, not even once, right!!

krishna-flute-balarama

We are amazingly good in forgetting Krsna even in the middle of the Hare Krsna temple where everything is Krsna, Krsna, Krsna, Krsna - we forget Krsna. Maybe in the temple you remember Krsna a bit but as soon as you step out the gate, Krsna is gone. As soon as there is a movie playing…

I was sitting in the dentist’s waiting room yesterday and then this thing started with some mummies, drooling mummies on the screen. It is really hard, you know… terrible monsters… and then the fight. Again and again, it sucks you in. It is just amazing, the power of the video screen. It is stupid and you know it’s stupid. You are watching it and you say, “This is totally stupid,” but still you are watching it. God, oh, God.

So the power of the material energy to help us forget Krsna is very strong. Therefore, philosophy helps us to see that everything is connected to Krsna, so we need it. We need all these crutches of karma and jnana (knowledge) at this stage.

 

30+ Years To Finish New Vrindaban Beads
→ View From a New Vrindaban Ridge

Thirty some years ago my wife made me a set of japa beads out of some tulasis who had appeared and left their bodies in New Vrindaban. At the time we had ideal circumstances for growing tulasis in the Northern Temperate zone with the winters and all. We had a greenhouse that was attached to a heated building so she had maximum natural light and a warm space to grow in. The benches were made on top 55 gallon steel drums laid on their sides and filled with water.

I painted the south end of the drum flat black so during the day the drums would soak up heat with their thermal mass and at night give bottom heat to the tulasi plants.  They got over a meter high (4 foot) and quite bushy so the stems got big enough to make beads.  As a matter of fact, while the beads were regular japa size, the head bead  is 7/8″ (17 mm) in diameter. Which may be normal in more moderate climates but big for here.

I treasured that she made them for me but put them away and never used them out of fear of losing them  I have lost several sets of beads over my lifetime, including the ones that Srila Prabhupada handed me when I was initiated. I used to travel a lot and would leave them in places I couldn’t get back to so I held these in reserve.

A few years ago I realized i wasn’t traveling anymore  and as my life expectancy diminished I figured I better use them now or never. I never take them out of the house and on the rare occasion I do want to take some beads i have a second pair I use so there is no risk of losing them.

After using them for a couple of years I noticed that they tangle more than regular beads. The inner dynamics of bead movement in a bag while chanting sometimes causes the beads to get snarled which usually just needs a couple of shakes and they flow again but I realized it was happening a lot.

I took them out and thad a close look  at them and could see that while Vidya had  done a few passes with the file after cutting the individual beads to approximate roundness there was still a flat edge on the bottom so I got a file and started to roundthem off some more. This took several hours in a few different sessions.  The large head bead itself was quite square and was the main culprit for tangles to I really rounded off the ends of that as well as all of the beads

Tulasi’s stem is square so that had made some sharp corners but I round them as well as at the edges. Some of the beads were a little misshapen and I had noticed when I came to them that they distracted me so I smoothed them up so they glide unnoticed through my fingers now.

So although it took decades to complete I now have a set of New Vrindaban tulasi beads that are top notch to chant on and it adds a dimension to my chanting  I believe.


Filed under: News, Ramblings or Whatever

Spiritual Embassies of the World – Sri Vrindavan Dhama, India (51 min beautiful video)
→ Dandavats.com

“Spiritual Embassies” is an ambitious project which aims to create documentary films about at least 108 temples around the world established by ISKCON founder Srila Prabhupada or his followers. Russian film student Shaktyavesha Avatar Das, who joined ISKCON around five years ago and now lives in London, was inspired to begin the series when he read a letter written by Srila Prabhupada to his disciple Bhagavan on December 18th, 1970: “The more we open branches, the more I feel encouraged. These branches are like the oasis in a vast desert. In the desert there is no water, but occasionally if one is fortunate he may come in contact with an oasis and he is saved. Similarly in this material world we are drying up due to lack of spiritual knowledge. Our ISKCON centers are meant to give relief to the dried up conditioned souls who are searching after the nectar of joyful life.” -- Read more ›

New Vrindaban daily Darsan @ December 25, 2013.
→ New Vrindaban Brijabasi Spirit

Link for more photos …
IMG_7347

To drink: the freely flowing streams are filled with clear sweet water as nectar. To eat: the dried leaves from the trees are foods as palatable as one could desire. The warm breezes are just as one would have them. To reside: there are clean mountain caves and other suitable residences. Alas! Alas! How unfortunate I would be if I wished to leave Vrindavana!

It was a good year – Welcome 2014!
→ KKSBlog

2014 greetings kksblog

I wish you a happy Hare Krishnamas. 2013 has been a wonderful year and things are getting even better.  However we had our fair share of problems – bad hosting, being offline for a week, uploading not working… but we pulled through! And, we did amazing things – new Facebook profile, new newsletter, new media page, new hosting, improved speed. Some other new features include the author displayed on each post and a refreshed layout. There is more good stuff in the planning!

KKSBlog numbers for 2013

statistics countries 2013 kksblog

Click to zoom

  • received 8510 page views/month
  • most visitors came from South Africa, India and the UK
  • our best month was November 2013 in terms of number of views
  • had 400+ new articles posted
  • most read article was “Strong Medicine” with 848 views
  • was offline for one week
  • is using 35 GB of data
  • has 6780 photos and 486 mp3 files

Our Team

Who gives you the daily news? And who creates all these wonderful quotes and transcripts? This is not possible without the constant work & energy of our core team. We like to say an extra special thank you to:

Our team is much bigger. Check out our team page

Our Backers

KKSBlog is made up of our team and supported financially by our backers. All in all, it is a community effort and were are very happy that it works out beautifully. We like to thank our backers that supported us in 2013 and will hopefully support us in the future again. Special thanks to:

  • Aindavi dd, Australia
  • Anonymous
  • Astha Sakhi dd, Netherlands
  • Bahulasva das, Sweden
  • Csaba Szabo, Hungary
  • Csitraketu das, Csaba Szabó, Hungary
  • Doyal Govinda das, Germany
  • Gita Govinda devi dasi, The Netherlands
  • Govardhanesvari dd, Germany
  • Keshava Madhava das, Switzerland
  • Madhava das – Mica Pilsbury, Australia
  • Nadia mani dd, Netherlands
  • Nama rupa devi dasi, Sweden
  • Padmanabha, Australia
  • Ravindra Svarupa Das, The Netherlands
  • Shiva Nanda, Syama Chandra das, Australia
  • Stritama Shereitt, Hawai
  • Subash Velagapudi – Sudama das
  • Sveta Ganga dd, Nayanabhirama d, Australia
  • Vanessa Schutz, Switzerland
  • Yajneshvar Arumugam

Our backers supported us financially with almost 1800 euro. Visit our support page for all the details.

 

2014 – Things to come

2014 will be a year of “things to come”. We started in Nov 2013 by making all the albums of Kadamba Kanana Swami available for purchase & download. More media will be added in the coming months. Nama-rupa dd from Sweden is helping us to edit our mp3 media collection. Thanks to Saurabh Agrawal, we have corrected many problems with our website. This proves yet again that KKSBlog is a community effort, already running for 8 years. Lets continue it…!

2014 Already??! – What did i miss?

A lot.

We have also launched the new media page. Here you will find media and links from Kadamba Kanana Swami and Jayadvaita Swami. All audio albums by Kadamba Kanana Swami are easily available…

http://www.kksblog.com/media

Other updated pages
http://www.kksblog.com/support/
http://www.kksblog.com/servantfund/
http://www.kksblog.com/volunteer/
http://www.kksblog.com/sitemap/

Finally, thank you to you, OUR READER, for following KKSBlog and for liking & sharing our posts!

Narcissus Flowers for Krishna in New Vrindaban
→ New Vrindaban Brijabasi Spirit

Narcissus for Krsna

By Lilasuka dasi

Perhaps you’ve seen them.  If you’ve been up on the second floor of the Radha Vrindaban Chandra temple building, you’ve probably seen the beautiful “paper white narcissus” flowers growing in the front window.  Their brilliant white color thrives on all the direct sunlight there.  ECOV is growing these durable, fragrant flowers inside, during the cold winter months, for offering to the Deities.

Narcissus Flowers Bloom in the temple.

Narcissus Flowers Bloom in the temple.

Most of the mature narcissus have already been picked and offered, but see the new baby ones coming up!  By planting 125 a week, a steady supply is available for Their Lordships Radha Vrindaban Chandra.

Krsna says in the Bhagavad Gita, “If one offers Me with love and devotion a leaf, flower, fruit or water, I will accept it.” [BG 9.26]   Srila Prabhupada’s vision for New Vrindaban included self-sufficiency, along with four other aspects, all for the purpose of loving Krsna.  So, the growing of these lovely little, aromatic narcissus flowers is a small part of fulfilling that vision.

Baby Narcissus Plants Patiently Wait their Turn

Baby Narcissus Plants Patiently Wait their Turn

Bhadrinarayan Das on Strategic Planning
→ ISKCON News

Badrinarayan Dasa has been a member of ISKCON’s Governing Body Commission (GBC) since 1987.  He became a member of ISKCON in 1970, and was initiated by Srila Prabhupada the following year in Los Angeles.  An eloquent speaker, he is noted for his discourses which link current affairs with spiritual matters in a very relevant and practical way.