Germany has set a new record, with solar power providing 50.6% of its electricity in the middle of the day on Monday June 9th. Solar production peaked that day at 23.1GW. Three days earlier it was 24.2GW between 1 and 2pm, but on the 9th demand was down for a public holiday, allowing the breaking of the psychological 50% barrier. Reporting of the achievement has been quite inaccurate in some cases. Coverage has often confused electricity demand with total energy consumption, which properly includes heating and industrial uses of natural gas, although these would have been low on a warm public holiday. Headlines have often implied that the 50% threshold was exceeded for over a fortnight, rather than a single hour. Nevertheless, the ...

The Andhra Pradesh state assembly Tuesday, by a resolution, urged the Centre to complete Polavaram project in three years and replacing the ordinance with the act to merge with the state the villages which may be submerged by the project waters. Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, who moved the resolution that was unanimously passed later, said the irrigation project could be constructed only by merging with the state the 200 villages threatened with submergance. He demanded that the project be completed as per the design prepared by the Central Water Commission (CWC) and within three years. Noting the project would ensure irrigation and drinking water to five or six districts, he opined that the interests of Telangana would not be affected by ...

Shortage of farm labourers forced K. Ramachandraiah, a farmer from Tad-Danpally village in Pulkal mandal of Medak district to come up with an innovation that will strengthen the hands of farmers. R. Ramachandraiah has developed a solar powered rotovator that can be operated with ease by farmers. After this news broke out, the rotovator was exhibited at Collectorate on Monday. It was fixed with two wheels on either side for easy mobility and farmers can take it from house to farm without depending on any transport system. Solar panels were fixed on the upper side and the blades fixed in the bottom can cut weed. The switch to operate blades is fixed on the handle so that running of blades ...

The Telangana Government is working on allotting three acres of land to each of the Dalit farmers in the State. At a review meeting with the officials held here on Saturday, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhara Rao asked the officials to work on designing a scheme in this regard for the benefit of scheduled caste farmers. The first priority should be given to landless Dalits in the allotment process, he added. There is also a need for regular evaluation of various schemes and the officials should obtain a report on a regular basis to rectify the deficiencies, the Chief Minister said. For this, either mandal or municipality should be made a unit and should be headed by an officer from the ...

Telangana BJP President Kishan Reddy wrote to the Governor that the Telangana Govt. ‘banned’ the two channels TV9 and ABN because they didn’t support the ruling TRS party in the run-up to the elections. Kishan Reddy accused the Govt, of being with a ‘anarchic, feudal and fascist’ mindset which he said is reminiscent of the feudal Telangana that people fought against during Hyderabad liberation movement. Kishan Reddy asked for Governor’s intervention to rescue democracy in Telangana. He even said boycotting media like these in unheard of in the country! The letter can be seen below. This is BJP’s 2nd press release in recent days on the issue. Few days before, they released an equally hard-hitting statement accusing MSOs of being ‘fascist’. Related ...