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At MRO digest forums we are a group of MRO professionals who have come together to look at MRO aspects in particular, and technology in general. In our group, we have decades of experience amongst our members and we bring to you our views in a variety of manners like articles, videos and podcasts.
Welcome to Our Podcast, news and views, every week, we look at the news which we come across and we collect news items which are of interest to our group.
This week’s news collection we see a news on Atamnirbharbharat which says that India is now emerging as a key supplier to the world which is witnessed through the rise of exports as it has emerged in an article in the Reserve Bank of India’s may 2023 bulletin. It is also remarkable that another article says that the India has taken the lead towards the implementing clean energy and is going at a fast pace so much so, the article suggests, that developed countries can draw lessons from it. This is excellent for the planet because of the large population of India and because India is also seeing fast economic growth. These two aspects coming together means the creation of very effective solutions may emerge for clean energy implementation.
Another news highlights that the International Energy Agency has stated that global investment in solar power is expected to overtake investment in oil production for the first time ever.
Yet another news says that Spain which is also one of the countries which are leading the world towards renewable energy has recently reached a very interesting milestone where energy generated from wind sun and water managed to meet Spain’s needs for of electricity from 10am to 7pm on a particular word working day.
Yet another article related to Clean Energy says that unlike crude oil, there will be no one country which will have the leading position when it comes to clean hydrogen. Though the article says that hydrogen can also be transported in tankers, but there’s a likelihood that it will be produced more near at hand in the country which is consuming it. So as a result, the hydrogen trade will not really get dominated by any one country.
The difficulty of coming out with technology of developing engines which run on hydrogen is a challenge. An article says that the Big Four Japanese companies have come together to form a technological research association called HySE (Hydrogen Small mobility & Engine technology) to develop a hydrogen powered engine for motorcycles. This indicates that it is a tough task to come out with an engine of this nature. And these leading companies of Japan have decided to come together to do it.
Another interesting article which is related more to our core MRO area is that there is an emerging market for On Orbit Satellite Servicing. The article says that geo stationary orbit segment will be the leader initially and then it’ll extend to a maintenance of satellites in orbit and including upgrades of satellites and also for active debris removal.
On emerging technologies which are now available. There is an article which brings out that there’s an US based 3d printing service which has delivered the largest 3d printing order. Interestingly over here it comes out that though 3d printing is not cheaper than injection moulding which is more suitable for mass production however, there is a cost saving when we have to do a number of value add innovations. 3d printing makes it much easier to do these and in this particular case became the preferred option.
And finally, there is an article on ChatGPT. It is being talked about in the article as a black swan event. And the article says that it is catching the interest of very large number of US companies where 49 listed US companies have mentioned ChatGPT in quarterly earnings calls in May 2023.
This was a roundup of the various articles which are picked up by the members of our group. What we do is we consolidate all these and we put them into a newsletter. The links to these articles and even more are available in our newsletter the link to which is in the show notes below.
So that is the news roundup.
Now about our views.
These views are my personal views.
So as far as the change to green and clean energy is concerned, it is happening faster than expected. For example, 79% of the vehicles which are registered in Norway recently were EVs.
We heard that Spain has a one particular working day used only clean energy to power its complete grid.
So if you look at it, then really there is a big change afoot.
One of the things which strikes me is that the complexity of the internal combustion engine is a huge competitive barrier for new players to come in. However, with the coming of the electric vehicles, the technology for developing an electric motor is comparatively easier to develop. And notably though, the fuel of the IC engine which is working on fossil fuels is easy to fill in vehicle tank. But it is difficult to create because you have to transport crude over miles and then refine it in mega refineries then transport the usable fuel like petrol or diesel to the location where they can be pumped into our vehicles.
On the other hand, when we come to the battery technology, it keeps on improving and multiple types of batteries are developed like lithium ion and hydrogen cell. Once this technology gets created, then these become available at the point of sale. The combination of an electric battery and electric motor is a flexible technology. This new electric battery fuel can be created and it can reach vehicles either through initial fitment or through swapping of battery packs. It leads to more innovative areas also of use. This means that there’s a likelihood of the electric vehicles getting even greater impetus especially as the prices of these electric batteries keep reducing.
Hydrogen is another area which is coming in and once that starts happening the change will be even faster. Such a change is already happening clearly because the International Energy Agency has said the global investment in solar power is overtaking the investment in oil production for the first time ever.
This is a great opportunity for us in India as we have got a tremendous capacity to be able to get into this new technology in terms of our increasing industrial base and our ability to do research and development. It is indicated by the fact that very large number of MNCs are coming into India to set up their r&d facilities. Our top-notch HR and our excellent academic institutions are great assets. If all of this is put together, we can really be the one of the emerging nations which can be the source for a very large number of this technologies and we will benefit indigenously as well.
And here I may say that the MRO professionals who are there in our country can contribute because of their knowledge of the intricate details of the various types of technologies which they have been maintaining over the years.
New technologies like AI and ML can focus on creating LLMs for maintenance and these can then really help making us ready to maintain the new equipment as well.
With that we come to the end of this particular edition of news and views from MRO Digest Forums, and the link to our newsletter is below. In the newsletter, you will also find two of our videos, which were recently published. One of them is on MRO of Drones, which is a very extensive discussion by our panelists as to how MRO of drones can help us in taking the Indian MRO infrastructure forward. And there’s also an a very interesting panel discussion video on electric drives for armored fighting vehicles.
So do go to our newsletter in the link at the show notes below. Thank you for listening, and we look forward to seeing you again in our future podcasts from MRO Digest Forums.
