Solar cells in your clothing?

Solar technology embedded in our sidewalks, driveways, siding, paint, rooftops, and windows, and just in the next five years! Solar energy will be an affordable option for you and your neighbors. Until now, the materials and the process of producing solar cells to convert into solar energy have been too costly for widespread adoption.

But now this is changing with the creation of flexible “thin-film” solar cells, a new type of cost-efficient solar cell that can be 100 times thinner than silicon-wafer cells and produced at a lower cost. These new thin-film solar cells can be “printed” and arranged on a flexible backing, suitable for not only the tops, but also the sides of buildings, tinted windows, cell phones, notebook computers, cars, and even clothing.

That is part of IBM’s 5-point technology revolution in the coming half-decade based on some technologies emerging from its labs. The Web will talk back to you, and you will not forget things!! Click on link above to know details but coming to solar tech, some basic doubts.

We have been hearing of efficiencies of PVs improving even as new thin film materials make it possible to blend into any kind of material, from buildings to clothes, as IBM sees it.

Can someone tell us what kind of research is happening in India, on renewable technologies?

They do it with mirrors!

To paraphrase from one of Agatha Christie's books, 'they do it with mirrors'. Not murder foul, but power clean!

Much of the argument against solar energy is about its costs and storage. But emerging from the shadow of PVs is a technology that avoids the common problems.

In the Andalucian desert of southern Spain, more than 1,000 mirrors, each about half the size of a tennis court, and with a collecting area of 120 sq km, are being carefully positioned. In January, when switched on the plant will start generating 20 MW of electricity. The power will be enough for 11,000 Spanish homes.

Part of the world's biggest solar tower plant, this uses the simple technology of reflecting sunlight to superheat water at a 160 metre high central tower. Here the concentrated light heats water to more than 260C, producing steam that can turn a turbine and generate electricity.

When switched on, the new plant will be the world's largest commercial CSP plant feeding electricity into a national grid.

This solar tower is part of a 300 MW solar farm which will supply power for 700,000 homes by 2013. It will include solar trough collectors and PVs.

The costs are high, double that of conventional power generation but as the project becomes larger, costs are expected to come down. In Spain, the feed-in tariff assures investors of a return for the power generated and fed into the grid.

Regarding the storage, solar thermal has an advantage over PVs as the excess heat can be stored in the form of molten salt from which the heat can be obtained when required. Almost 8 hours of solar energy can be stored by 28,000 tonnes of salt heated to 220 deg C.

In a country like India which recieves plentiful sunlight, CSP is a good option. But besides the parabolic trough system used to cook food, not much has been done. Why for instance can’t be vast expenses of Rajasthan’s deserts be used? Of course, water availability is a criteria but new technologies use air to cool the system. Maintenance is a bit intensive but labour should be no problem here.

Is there a clause for tax exemptions, subsidies only for proven technologies as in the US? Why haven’t entrepreneurs taken CSP here? Why can’t we adopt the feed-in tariff system?

Any answers?

Under siege

Vandalised! Decapitated! Choice words for a planet under siege. In this case, we are the hostages and we are the terrorists too.

Climate models have repeatedly underestimated the speed and scale of major climate change impacts. One of the highest glaciers in the Himalayas is losing mass at an alarming rate, according to a new study. ‘Decapitated like a west Virginia coal mountain’, says the Energy Collective site. If Naimona’nyi is characteristic of other glaciers in the region, alpine glacier meltwater surpluses are likely to shrink much faster than currently predicted with substantial consequences for approximately half a billion people.

New report by the Public Interest Research Centre (Pirc) shows, climate scientists are now predicting the end of late-summer Arctic sea ice within three to seven years. This means more warming of the waters and permafrost begins to be exposed. Already is. Releasing huge quantities of carbon.

In a typical hard-hitting article, Monbiot says: As the Pirc report suggests, the years of sabotage and procrastination have left us with only one remaining shot: a crash programme of total energy replacement.

A paper by the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research shows that if we are to give ourselves a roughly even chance of preventing more than two degrees of warming, global emissions from energy must peak by 2015 and decline by between 6% and 8% per year from 2020 to 2040, leading to a complete decarbonisation of the global economy soon after 2050.

The 80% cut by 2050 which Brown and Obama suggest means reducing emissions by an average of 2% a year, which would still mean an average rse of 4-5 degrees, Monbiot calculates and concludes as a ‘collapse of human civilisation’.

Total energy replacement alone will do, he says. The costs are high but he notes how a similar amount has been deployed in response to the financial crisis, amounting to more than that spent in the second world war!

For the change to renewables, enormous new infrastructure is required which calls for a huge front-load of fossil fuels. So, can we afford that or is it a better option to ask people to ‘sacrifice’ comforts by cutting 50 percent of energy consumption, as advocated by American thinker Sharon Astyk?

Monbiot believes such a cut would lead to further depression of the economy leading to collapse. Besides the fact that it is a highly idealistic proposal.

Hear Sharon on that: I do not believe is that the self-indulgence has driven out the capacity for sacrifice -instead, they are sides of the same coin. We indulged because our collective definition of goodness was defined by consumer culture. But the vast void and emptiness of this has left people literally longing for something richer and deeper. Service to community, nation and family is likely to be bread and meat to many who have been starving for something other than the empty calories consumer culture has served them.

There are people like Sharon and Arnold Schwarzenegger who belive that despite the economic downturn, the shift must happen. If we cannot address climate change while managing a massive economic decline, there is a good chance that we cannot manage it at all.

The question to ponder over is: Will voluntary cuts work? Anywhere? Can poor nations afford a total energy replacement?

Creative flows

Terrorists now unleashed on streets, gunning down people at random. New evidence of glaciers in the Himalayas melting even faster than predicted. Lot of doomsday scenarios closing in!

Let’s take a break from serious stuff and see what creative innovation is doing in the world of sustainable architecture.

It looks like a huge bubble or a big blob of mercury perched on the alpine slope but is a retreat for nature lovers who want to feel the environment and still enjoy safe comforts! Powered by solar panels and a vertical axis wind turbine, the off-grid alpine retreat features a shimmering glass skin with a reflective coating that allows individuals to sleep under the stars while admiring a 360-degree panorama of the beautiful landscape.

The capsule is designed by Ross Lovegrove, a Welsh architect. The Alpine Capsule is an 8-meter wide structure with a double-glass skin that is covered with a special reflective coating. The coating meant to reflect the structure’s surroundings and blend in with the environment. Focussing on sustainability and self-sufficiency, it will be off-grid and powered by a “power plant,” which integrates a vertical axis wind turbine and solar panels.

Lovegrove’s has come up with unique ideas for travel and lighting. Like a four passenger vehicle, another transparent bubble in which the four passengers sit in a circular fashion. There is no driver, as the vehicles are controlled by satellite and GPS navigation. The vehicles are powered by solar panels installed in the roof. The innovation comes in his proposal to stick each vehicle at night on top of a pole in order to both save space at the ground level, and to illuminate! It looks like a UFO as you can see from the picture.

Some call it neat, others call it impractical with no front or back to the cars posing dangers, besides the problem of space for many of these on the lamppost!

Solar plant like trees for illumination designed by Ross were inaugurated at Vienna recently.
Are these meant for the drawing board? Are they really sustainable? Or mere hype? While they use natural lighting and renewable sources, what about the materials used? How much of embodied energy do they carry?

Climate friendly gadgets

Wonder how many consumers in the country realize there are products coming out with energy labeling? Even if they are only a few handful! Like some CFLs, refrigerators, etc. Wonder how many realise what it means... Wonder how stringent the conditions are for obtaining a label…

In the US, recently, a big company found the price high for misleading consumers. It has been asked to compensate owners, modify its inventory and remove the five models mistakenly labeled under the Energy Star program.

The DOE announced that the immediate removal of the Energy Star label was required for LG fridges. According to both parties, LG rated the refrigerators on the basis of a standard test procedure that has been widely used for nearly 30 years. LG said it didn’t take into account different applications of the testing rules for newer technologies used in the latest energy-efficient products.

In what is seen as efforts to meet energy efficiency standards, the US will soon see some models of televisions and computers come out with the energy label showing the lesser consumptions.

Going by a recent MGI study, through a variety of measures ranging from better building efficiency and low-energy lighting to more fuel-efficient vehicles, there is potential to cut world energy-demand growth by more than 64 million barrels of oil a day (equivalent to one and a half times current annual U.S. energy consumption).

Increasing energy efficiency ‘dramatically’ would require annual investments of $170 billion over the next 13 years. But these investments would generate a return of well over $900 billion annually by 2020 through lower energy costs, it says.

Unlike misconceptions that equate such efficiency measures to abstinence and denial of comforts, the study goes on to say that as carbon productivity increases, GDP goes up while emissions go down.

But such changes do require education. There has to be a whole new way of thinking which focuses on maximizing output from devices and structures rather than indulge in largesse and waste. This won’t happen on its own and will have to be driven by incentives. Like reduction tax credit for using technologies that lower power consumption and curb peak power.

Can we hope our government can think new? Think bold?

Nuclear ambitions

India inked a deal with Russia wherein the latter will help build four new reactors in addition to the two already under construction at Kudankulam in TN. Two of the reactors will be 1,000 MW and two additional units will be 1,200 MW.

When completed, the complex at Kudankulam will be the single largest nuclear power station in India with a combined generation capacity of 6,400 MW. The first 1,000 MW reactor is reportedly nearing completion. Russia has shipped the first fuel loading containing enriched uranium for the unit to India.

The deal is the first major nuclear reactor trade deal with India since the NSG cleared the country to receive nuclear fuel from member countries. French nuclear giant Areva, Canada's AECL, and U.S. firms including Westinghouse and General Electric all have representatives working on similar deals with India.

While India has an installed base of 4 GW, none of its plants are bigger than 500 MW, and are less efficient in design thanks to the nuclear isolation. Fuel shortage has been another problem.

Nuclear fuel costs have risen even more rapidly, as environment expert Lester Brown noted. At the beginning of this decade uranium cost roughly $10 per pound. Today it costs more than $60 per pound. The higher uranium price reflects the need to move to ever deeper mines, which increases the energy needed to extract the ore, and the shift to lower-grade ore.

In the United States in the late 1950s, for example, uranium ore contained roughly 0.28 percent uranium oxide. By the 1990s, it had dropped to 0.09 percent. This means, of course, that the cost of mining larger quantities of ore, and that of getting it from deeper mines, ensures even higher future costs of nuclear fuel.

But above the costs, safety and disposal problems, the immediate ones are that of manufacturing bottlenecks in engineering, construction and management skills. Not here in India, but in the US believed to be the leader in the area! World over a lack of expertise has seen long delays in new plant launches.

How equipped are we in India? And how are we planning the cost economics of nuclear?

When we begin building on a large scale, and relying on external fuel supplies, what does that do to our security?

There are a growing number of people who believe that nuclear has to be part of the clean, renewable energy adoption. Nuclear can provide the base load power, solar can provide the peaking power, and we can begin to retire the fossil fuels, they say. But bringing the two groups together is often a problem. Because, the nuclear people all think the solars are a bunch of hippies and the solars think the nuclears are a bunch of Nazis.!!!

Can the two be made to sit at the same table?

Rising dragon, sleeping giant!

An increase of 1.5 billion in population, which will see increased competition for resources, a shift in power from west to east and a rising China are some of the main projections of Global Trends 2025, a report from the US National Intelligence Council. China will be a leading military power, largest importer of natural resources and biggest polluter.

Amidst its obsessive worries of conflict in the Middle East spurred by a nuclear arms race in the region, the report offers a positive hope that economic growth will become ‘rooted and sustained’.

In 2025, the world will be in the midst of a fundamental energy transition—in terms of both fuel types and sources. The number and geographic distribution of oil producers will decrease concurrent with another energy transition: the move to cleaner fuels. The prized fuel in the shorter term likely will be natural gas. By 2025, consumption of natural gas is expected to grow by about 60 percent, according to DoE/Energy Information Agency projections.

India will ‘scramble to ensure access to energy by making overtures to Burma, Iran, and Central Asia. Pipelines to India transiting restive regions may connect New Delhi to local instabilities.’

Beijing will want to offset its growing reliance on Riyadh by strengthening ties to other producers. Iran will see this as an opportunity to solidify China’s support for Tehran, which probably would strain Beijing’s ties to Riyadh. Tehran may also be able to forge even closer ties with Russia.

These as the report says are not determinative but based on trends and hence can be proven wrong if policies change substantially. Nothing like self-reliance in the long run!

Solar-powered plane

From housetops to deserts to mausoleums in cemeteries, solar panels are coming up in nooks and corners. Perhaps the ultimate would be as fuel for air flight, something known to contribute increasingly to global warming.

The first solar-powered plane trip around the world is now one step closer to reality. A 1500 kilogram solar plane will complete its first test flight next April. The plane, which has a 61-meter wingspan, will attempt to travel around the world in May 2011. It will go into commercial production the same year.

Solar is raring to go, with efficiencies picking up, even as innovations in cheaper materials keep pouring in. It would be tempting to go for a ‘solar-wash’.

But, as one of our blog visitors Gopal notes, most of the demand from rural areas is not so much for electricity as it is for heat for cooking. Solar still has the problem of storage and it is prudent to go for requirement-based resources.

There is no one-size-fits-all in the energy area as anywhere else. No one source can be touted as better than the other, unless seen in context. The requirement and availability of sources have to be mapped to get the best mix. Rushing into implementing new ideas without proper research has bogged down many excellent projects.

Let us know if you come across innovative use of energy. It is time to spread the word, wouldn’t you agree?

Mercury pollution

Not only do they spew carbon dioxide, but most of our thermal plants are giving out mercury which is highly toxic and has a negative effect on children’s growth.

A study has found that coal-fired plants in the US have put out more mercury into the environment now than in 2006. Twenty tons of mercury, a neurotoxin that affects brain development in fetuses, were released into the air by these top fifty offenders. Coal-fired plants account for 40% of all mercury emissions, the largest single source of mercury in air.

The 600 plus coal-fired power plants in the United States, which produce over half of the country’s electricity, burn 1 billion tons of coal and release 98,000 pounds (44 metric tons) of mercury into the air each year. Power plants yield an additional 81,000 pounds of mercury pollution in the form of solid waste, including fly ash and scrubber sludge, and 20,000 pounds of mercury from “cleaning” coal before it is burned. In the US alone, coal-fired power plants pollute the environment with some 200,000 pounds of mercury annually.

Low-level mercury poisoning is so prevalent, it is estimated that six percent of woman have enough mercury in their bodies to cause neurological damage to their unborn fetuses. The more coal gets burned, the more mercury is released into the environment.

The mercury given out is deposited on land and water. Biological processes change much of the deposited mercury into methylmercury, a potent neurotoxin that humans and other organisms readily absorb. Methylmercury easily travels up the aquatic food chain, accumulating at higher concentrations at each level.

According to the EIP report, mercury removal at coal-fired plants is possible with current technologies. Activated carbon injection, a sort of mercury-hungry sponge placed in the smokestack, can reduce mercury pollution by ninety percent in some instances. Combined with other technologies—sulfur dioxide scrubbers, selective catalytic reduction, fabric filters—the mercury output can be even further reduced.

(But the inescapable fact is that even if pollution scrubbers in modern smokestacks do reduce air pollution, they do nothing to help the coal miners who die each year in mine accidents or from diseases brought on by breathing hazardous coal dust.)

The scary part is that mercury pollution is not bound by regions and can travel as far as from China to Oregon. Airborne mercury emitted by these facilities is deposited anywhere from within a few hundred kilometers of the smokestacks to across continents, far from its source.

Wouldn’t it make more sense for nations to go for safe and abundant renewable sources?

'Swades' in real life

For members of the Jharkhand Alternative Development Forum, it was Swades come alive!

Under the guidance of Dr. Mithilesh Dangi of Azadi Bachao Andolan, the forum has recently installed and put in operation a micro-thermal power plant in a remote village inside the jungle in Jharkhand, 68 kilometres from Hazaribagh. The plant runs on coal and water and has a steam engine coupled with an alternator. It produces 4 KW power which is enough to light up the village and its streets.

The village, Kekoria Tand in Keradari Block of Hazaribagh district, is an example of community participation. The tribal population is being trained by the forum to run the plant after the trial period when they will jointly own the plant.

The other such well-known example, now gaining even more widespread recognition, is Bunker Roy's Barefoot College in Tilonia, Rajasthan. A perfect example of how the community can truly be self-reliant whether it be in energy or water sufficiency or building efficient structures, one cannot find better inspiration. It even exports its home made solar panels to Ladakh! The village now trains people from outside the country.

Decentralised generation has been advocated for remote regions to save the huge losses in transmission as well as costs in taking power across tough terrains and distances. The problem has been that of operation and maintenance. Community ownership like the above instance is one way. Many times it has not been exactly successful.

The other would be to hire people for the job. Creating ‘green jobs’!!

PS: The Jharkhand Alternative Development Forum invites your participation.
By donating Rs. 1,25,000/- (US $2,500/-), you can become the patron of the village whose uplift you take up. You will be invited to inaugurate the plant and a timeless relationship will be established between you and the village. Not to discount the immense satisfaction of having done something worthwhile.
For details, contact the convenor P P Verma at premverma42@yahoo.com

National grid, a good idea?

With the severe power shortages being faced in southern India, owing to poor monsoons, the question begging an answer is: will a national grid solve the problem? Or will it compound it?

The problem is that of matching frequencies. As of now, the North-Eastern, Eastern, Northern and Western Regional grids have already been synchronised to form an integrated grid of more than 90,000 MW capacity. In the 11th Five Year Plan, when the Southern Regional grid is also expected to be synchronised with the rest of the system, the entire country’s power system will be operating as one large interconnected grid.

Is that a good idea? Or will it mean that sabotage/glitches will have wide undesired effects?
Yes it allows exchange of power and open access.

Going further, is it a good idea to build the national grid with a view to integrating renewable energy into the grid? With renewable energy the problem is that of daily variation. Will feeding it across long distance HVDC lines reduce this variation?

What will the costs be like, to integrate all distributed generation systems, at village cluster levels, industry and residential levels?

Let us have some discussions.

Never say die!

Recent data show how the 39 nations which ratified the Kyoto Protocol are doing in reducing carbon emissions. The result is mixed. Sixteen nations are on track to meet their obligations, while 20 are not. Before jumping to conclusions, what the data show is that reductions are due to economic and political reasons and NOT due to any action taken by any governments.

On the bad-news side is Canada whose emissions between 1990 and 2006 rose by 21 percent and that of the US by 14 percent.

Meanwhile, the debate on climate change is not over as far as some people are concerned. New York will see a continued debate in January on ‘Major reductions in carbon emissions are not worth the money’.

While it is no more about the nature of climate change, it is all about technology and costs! Arguments range from those that claim alternative energy production is only for the wealthy, and that the poor (including a ‘depressed’ US!) can ill-afford this, to questions on whether it is about technology at all, or more about social or political?!

There are those who agree that the globe is warming but insist that there is no cause for alarm. More important is to address the poverty and food issues. One such was the late Michael Crichton, author of well known novels like Andromeda Strain, Congo, Jurassic Park, Prey, State of Fear, etc. (Crichton passed away last week.)

Crichton believed that alarmists have laid siege to the world since long… All my life I worried about the decay of the environment, the tragic loss of species, the collapse of ecosystems. I feared poisoning by pesticides, alar on apples, falling sperm counts from endocrine disrupters, cancer from power lines, cancer from saccharine, cancer from cell phones, cancer from computer screens, cancer from food coloring, hair spray, electric razors, electric blankets, coffee, chlorinated water…it never seemed to end.

There is a lot of misinformation out there for sure. One only needs to read contradicting reports from authentic sources.

What do you think? Should we address the immediate challenges facing humankind and forget the long-term one? Or can we do both? Do we forget climate change and focus on sustainable living instead?

Hybrid energy?

More on the coal carbon sequestration or carbon capture and storage (CCS).

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology say a shorter-term solution, with cheaper start-up costs, could help spread the use of carbon capture and storage at coal plants and still clean up a large amount of carbon dioxide. While not capturing the entire carbon, it does a partial job and reduces emissions to that from natural gas, said the study.

The technology took a big step forward in September when Sweden’s Vattenfall started operating a coal-fired power plant equipped with CCS technology in Germany. The 30-megawatt Schwarze Pumpe pilot plant can produce 10 tons of highly concentrated CO2 per hour. The CO2 is then loaded into tankers and shipped to a nearby gas field for sequestration.

What kinds of rock can store the carbon, how stable the process, the geodynamics, etc are still debated.

Meanwhile, California’s Electric Power Research Institute announced that it would study a potential system that could combine solar thermal with fossil fuel where the steam generated by the solar system could be fed to the other, reducing the need for coal.

An interesting option, we think would be to have an algae farm nearby so that the carbon dioxide recovered could be fed to the algae which then grow at a rapid scale and can be harvested as biofuel. We have covered experiments in this area, earlier in our blog.

It is a time for innovative thinking. To try out new ideas and to mix and match old ones. If you have any out-of-the-box ideas, let us know. We will feature them here and discuss it.

Dung power

Adversity is truly the mother of invention. Bogged by surging demand and inadequate supply, the human race is thinking out new ways to make energy. Like making energy out of zoo waste. Not exactly new because it has been tried out. The Rosamond Gifford Zoo in Syracuse, New York had investigated using waste from its Asian elephant breeding program a few years back. The economics didn’t quite work out.

But not giving up, it is now the Toronto Zoo that hopes to make a killing from its poo power! But for the money which is pegged at a high $10.5 million, the zoo estimates that its 5,000 animals produce enough manure to power a biogas-to-electricity plant which not only would be able to supply all of the zoo’s needs, but sell enough power back to the grid that the entire project would pay for itself within five years.

Animal dung and manure has been known to have excellent calorific value. So what prevents our zoos and poultry farms from experimenting on the same lines? All that waste put to good use.

With 750 cows, Laurie Stanton's farm has a lot of manure to harvest. At Ontario's largest farm-biogas installation, the tonnes of "biomass", as it is politely called, is fermented in a big tank, and the methane is collected and piped to a diesel generator. The leftover liquids make a good fertilizer and the solids become bedding for cows.

At Navdarshanam, a successful experiment in sustainable living, here in the outskirts of Bangalore, cow dung from the 20 odd cattle not only helps with cooking but also provides manure. Through anaerobic process, dung mixed with water produces methane which burns to cook food. The waste from the process is excellent manure. Biomass collected from the land is burnt in a controlled manner to produce high-value charcoal which supplements the methane for cooking purposes.

The electricity needs of the place, which in effect mean the lighting and for running a small mill, come from solar and wind energy. All within a kilowatt and perfectly working!

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has just signed Executive Order S-14-08 (EO) to streamline California's renewable energy project approval process and increase the state's Renewable Energy Standard to 33 percent renewable power by 2020.

We cannot expect such commitments from our leaders for reasons political, mostly. In India, the focus is still not about clean energy as it is about quality power. When power comes in fits and bursts, it makes sense to look at alternate ways. Using a combination of ways. It is up to organizations and units to check out ways best suited for their energy requirements, according to the resources at hand.

Self help is the best help, right?

Blow for US coal plants

In a move that signals the start of the clean energy in the US, the Environmental Protection Agency’s Environmental Appeals Board (EAB) has ruled that EPA had no valid reason for refusing to limit from new coal-fired power plants the carbon dioxide emissions that cause global warming. The decision means that all new and proposed coal plants nationwide must go back and address their carbon dioxide emissions.

The Sierra Club went before the Environmental Appeals Board in May of 2008 to request that the air permit for Deseret Power Electric Cooperative’s proposed waste coal-fired power plant be overturned because it failed to require any controls on carbon dioxide pollution. Deseret Power’s 110 MW Bonanza plant would have emitted 3.37 million tons of carbon dioxide each year.

What this means is that 30 permits for new coal-fired power plants in the seven state directly regulated by the EPA's permitting process, plus projects on all Indian Reservations will immediately die because of this ruling.

The U.S. produces about 25 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels. Burning coal contributes 40 percent of U.S. CO2 emissions. Coal is the most carbon intensive fossil fuel. According to the United Nations Environment Program, coal emits around 1.7 times as much carbon per unit of energy when burned as does natural gas and 1.25 times as much as oil.

But for those still addicted to coal for various reasons, to the rescue has come the mantra of ‘clean coal’. But this is just commercial propaganda, going by an article in The Guardian. It says: Sure you can clean it up a bit – though the toxins you've taken out of the ground have to go somewhere. But clean coal? Just say no.

The most authoritative study, The Future of Coal, published last year by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), while advocating the technology as a way out of the imbroglio, concluded that the first commercial carbon capture and storage (CCS) plant wouldn't come on stream until 2030 at the earliest. The technology is still not perfected and also is expensive.

Coal will remain the dominant energy source in India in coming decades. Priority naturally is to extend electricity access to the 400 million without this power. This was cited by the World Bank when it sanctioned the $450 million loan for the Tata Mundra mega power project early this year. The Bank Group is working to balance these energy needs with concerns about climate change.

The IFC noted that it would support only highly efficient coal-fired projects with a relatively lower carbon footprint than existing coal plants.

When it comes to coal consumption, no one can beat China. World coal consumption reached a record 3,090 million tons of oil equivalent (Mtoe) in 2006, an increase of 4.5 percent over 2005. China led world coal use with 39 percent of the total. The United States followed with 18 percent. The European Union and India accounted for 10 percent and 8 percent, respectively.

According to data, five new coal-fired generators with a combined capacity of 600 megawatts came online in the United States in 2006, while India added 930 megawatts of capacity. In startling contrast, China brought online about as much coal power capacity each week as the United States and India together did over the entire year, adding an unprecedented 90 gigawatts in 2006.

So what is the solution to balance energy and climate?

Dark days!

If you happen to be one of the privileged to view your city’s skyline from your workplace or home, the smog at 10 am in the morning today must have puzzled you. It’s probably due to the ‘atmospheric brown cloud’.

Cities from Beijing to New Delhi are getting darker, glaciers in ranges like the Himalayas are melting faster and weather systems becoming more extreme, in part, due to the combined effects of man-made Atmospheric Brown Clouds (ABCs) and greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

These are among the conclusions of scientists studying a more than three km-thick layer of soot and other manmade particles that stretches from the Arabian Peninsula to China and the western Pacific Ocean.

The report says that 'dimming' of between 10-25 per cent is occurring over cities such as Karachi, Beijing, Shanghai and New Delhi. Around 13 megacities have so far been identified as ABC hotpots. Bangkok, Beijing, Cairo, Dhaka, Karachi, Kolkata, Lagos, Mumbai, New Delhi, Seoul, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Tehran where soot levels are 10 per cent of the total mass of all human-made particles.

ABCs are made of small fine particles of black carbon, soot, aerosols, etc arising from the burning of fossil fuels and biomass. These particles shield the surface from sunlight by reflecting solar radiation back to space and by absorbing heat in the atmosphere. Actually the ABCs act in an opposing direction from greenhouse gases and if removed from the atmosphere could lead to a 2 deg rise in global temperatures. But the two effects combined could be having a negative impact on health, agricultural productivity, monsoon precipitation and the climate, says the report.

The study was first done in 2002 when research experiment Indoex had noted the cloud across Asia. But there has been much debate on their origins and impact. The latest report seems to somewhat end the debate. The cloud has since been sighted over Africa and South America.
But how can one prevent the burning of biomass which still happens to be the only fuel available to a large section of the poor in these countries?

That is where, as the UNEP says, it is necessary for developed nations to transfer technology to the developing world so that healthier practices can be taken up. Considering the cloud can impact areas as far away as the Americas shows it is not a confined phenomena.

The question we like to ask is: how much of such technology has been transferred? What are these? Do let us know.

Oil in the Arctic

Water AND energy will trigger the future wars on this planet.

Take oil. Recent IEA reports talk of declining production from existing oilfields. Peak oil, where extraction outstrips new discoveries, could be just a five years away. The hunt has been redoubled to find new oil wells. A massive find at Kurdistan could fuel tension between the Iraq government and the autonomous Kurdish regional government.

Equally tension fraught is the building up pitch for the Arctic ocean floor. Almost 30 percent of undiscovered oil is said to be buried there.

There is unexplored oil on the order of 90 billion barrels and 1.67 trillion cubic meters of natural gas, in the Arctic region, according to a U.S. Geological Survey report, but most of the natural gas lies in the Arctic Ocean closest to Russia.

Not only oil, but even gas hydrates, a mixture of ice and methane, another fuel source, have been discovered here. These are found only in high-pressure and cold temperatures.

Various nations have been staking claim and the deadline is 2009. Besides two small basins that are common, the rest is to be divided between Norway, Denmark, Russia, Canada and the US as per the 1982 UN Convention on Law of Sea (UNCLOS), which the US interestingly has not ratified.

According to this law, up to 230 miles of the ocean floor from the coast is exclusive economic zone of a nation.There is plenty scope for clashes as science, law and national ambitions lock horn. Meanwhile, the questions that come to mind are: can a region like the Arctic Ocean be claimed by nations? Is that fair? Also, what happens to the marine and polar wildlife as nations go drilling the ice?

Of course, exploiting this oil is not going to be easy. Superior technology will be required. The shifting ice pack will make the going rocky for rigs. Huge investments will be needed. Plus, any oil spill cannot be cleaned.

In yet another instance of energy related conflict of interest, is the focus on lithium. Lithium is an energy source that could help power the fuel efficient electric or petrol-electric hybrid vehicles of the future. The world's largest reserves lie in Bolivia at the Salar de Uyuni - in the remote southern Andean plane.

Naturally, Bolivia is not at all sure if opening the reserve to foreign industry will benefit it. We will not repeat the historical experience since the fifteenth century when raw materials exported for the industrialisation of the west that has left us poor, says Bolivia's minister for mining, Luis Alberto Echazu.

Why not make a common resource pool? Much as this goes against capitalistic free market notions, energy has become a life-essential today. Some amount of intervention is not surely bad.

Your comments and ideas are awaited. Help us make this blog a meaningful discussion forum.

Food or Energy?

The Indian biofuels sector is driven by ethanol and in case of biodiesel, the phase one consisting of pilot projects has been. Ethanol production of India is ranked 4th largest in the world. However, the production capacity of India is much more. The biodiesel production is in its initial phase and the commercial production is still to take off in a big way.

According to industry watchers, the densities of raw materials for biodiesel production in India are high but it is lacking in production and plantation of raw material (Jatropha) for biodiesel production.

States like Andhra Pradesh have offered 100 percent subsidy to farmers for growing oilseeds for biodiesel. While there is said to be 50 million hectares of wasteland which could be taken up for biofuel crops, it would be interesting to know how much is actually being grown on wastelands. Or how much is displacing food crops?

We have heard enough about Indonesia slashing and burning its forest to grow lucrative palm oil. Not only forests, but even cultivatable land is being used to grow biofuel crops. This means lesser acreage under food crops, with population growth showing no fatigue!

But with crop productivity improving, we are getting improved yields on half the land holding area as three decades ago. The other solution would be to do what Brazilian farmers do – rotate food and energy crop!

In the US where there is heated debate about the eco-friendly nature of biofuels, the question being asked is on indirect land use change.

U.S. farmers are selling one-fifth of their corn to ethanol production, so U.S. soybean farmers are switching to corn, so Brazilian soybean farmers are expanding into cattle pastures, so Brazilian cattlemen are displaced to the Amazon!!

Is it too early for such life cycle analysis of biofuel crops?

Regarding food security issues, experts feel there is no need to be worried. We conclude that energy crop production does not need to lead to increased food insecurity, for a couple of reasons.

What do you think? What has your experience been? Do you believe there is cause for worry?

Is it good to have legislation on what kind of land the crop is grown? Or to fix a quota on land under biofuel?

Biofuel for Air New Zealand

For those advocating biofuels as one way out of the energy crisis, here is some good news.
Air New Zealand will make the world's first commercial aviation test flight using fuel created from the seeds of the African jatropha plant next month.

Rolls Royce had certified the sustainable second-generation biofuel as suitable for use in the airline's Boeing 747-400 jumbo jets. The two-hour test flight on December 3 would use a 50-50 blend of standard jet fuel and synthetic paraffinic kerosene derived from jatropha oil in one of the plane's engines.

The jatropha oil refined for the test flight comes from seeds grown on environmentally sustainable farms in Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and India.

The jatropha plant as we know produces seeds that contain inedible lipid oil used to produce fuel. This can be grown on dry, wastelands, we have been told.

The recent furore has been over the prices of food grains being pushed up as biofuel crops (like corn) were harvested for fuel overlooking their food value. However unlike corn which is an edible crop, jatropha is not. Yet, there are mixed signals out there.

Proponents claim the yield can be as high as 2 ton per acre while those on the ground say it is less than 1 ton per hectare! The oil content too has been contested as lying anywhere between 40 to 20 percent.

Unlike what it is brandished as, jatropha is not a wasteland crop, say many. It needs water, warm climate, soil with good drainage, right pruning to increase yield.

Since only one crop can be harvested in a year, it may after all not be so economical for the farmer. Given rising labour costs and unavailability, picking seeds becomes a task.

Perhaps it is best to grow these biofuel crops as fence crops? Or is it better to go for local versions like Honge?

Let us hear from you, folks.

PS: We just heard someone has already flown on biofuel. Green Flight International President and CEO Douglas Rodante and Chief Pilot Carol Sugars became the first flight crew to successfully cross the U.S. this month in a jet powered predominantly on environmentally-friendly Biofuel.

Biofuel powers flying car

Caught in traffic jams, what do most of us wish for? Simply that we could fly over the gridlock, right? In an exercise that could possibly make that wish come true, an engineer designer team in Britain has come up with a Skycar that flies using technology already existing.

The buggy uses a motorcycle engine modified to run on ethanol. The car has a wing and a big fan attached to its back, besides a parachute for emergency landing.

The Skycar’s abilities will be tested to limit later this month when two explorers set off from London in the propeller-powered dune buggy heading for the Sahara.

While the fan gives the initial thrust for take-off, cables attached to the wing help steer the car once in the air where it cruises at altitudes of 2500 ft. Not costing more than a BMW saloon, this may not be the ideal solution for everyday transport. The jams will merely be lifted from ground level! But this could be ideal for ambulances, or rescue operations.

Using ethanol is an advantage as the emissions are not damaging. At least not as damaging as normal aviation fuel which emits nitrogen oxides that leads to the formation of another greenhouse gas, ozone. Condensation trails, which can develop into cirrus clouds, may also have a warming effect. International experts say aviation will account for 5% of total warming in 2050.

An alternative fuel that is eco friendly is hydrogen, but aircraft able to run on this fuel are still at a conceptual stage. Biofuels like the one our Skycar uses could save the day. Or do they?

While biofuels have been taken up aggressively, are they the best option? It is a solution to the transport fuel and nations pursuing biofuel research are spurred more by energy independence than clean fuel.

Last year, a study had found that emissions from the burning of biofuels derived from rapeseed and maize produce more greenhouse gas emissions than they save. Rapeseed and maize biodiesels were calculated to produce up to 70 per cent and 50 per cent more greenhouse gases respectively than fossil fuels. The concerns were raised over the levels of emissions of nitrous oxide, which is 296 times more powerful as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Scientists found that the use of biofuels released twice as much as nitrous oxide as previously realised.
The research is published in the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, where it has been placed for open review.

What has been your experience on biofuels? Let us know. We will be taking this up in our next few posts.

Roadblock for solar PV?

Checkmate! Checkmate! Checkmate!

In what could be viewed as one unending chess match between nature and Man, the latter keeps coming up with new solutions to challenges, only to be trapped in yet another new challenge.Just when green alternatives to energy are being taken up seriously, hidden problems associated with these, spring up.

Take solar energy. Just when news comes in of large scale solar plants being commissioned, research has thrown up a twist.Emissions of a greenhouse gas that has 17,000 times the planet-warming capacity of carbon dioxide are at least four times higher than had been previously estimated. Nitrogen trifluoride (NF3) is used mainly by the semiconductor industry to clean the chambers in which silicon chips are made. The industry had in the past estimated that most of the gas was expended during the cleaning process and only about 2 percent escaped into the air. But the first-ever measurements of nitrogen trifluoride levels in the atmosphere, published recently in the journal Geophysical Research Letters show that emissions could be as high as 16 percent.

Making integrated circuits involves depositing layers of materials such as semiconductors and metals on a silicon wafer. These materials also stick to chamber walls. So after each layer is deposited, nitrogen fluoride is pumped into the chamber and is split to release highly reactive fluorine atoms that clean the walls.

A less harmful (for the climate) method is to produce fluorine at the site, but calls for more costs by way of health safety (as fluorine is corrosive and can damage teeth and bones.)

As flat panel LCD television takes off, as also thin film solar cells, there is hurry in production which implies that safeguards may not be adequate. The hitherto unregulated gas will have to be monitored better, says the study.

Perhaps its time to look at new materials for solar cells, besides silica, like dye-sensitised cells. Made with a new type of ruthenium-based dye that helps boost the light-harvesting ability, the new cells showed efficiencies as high as 10 percent, a record for this type of solar cell. Most silicon-based solar cells have so-called efficiencies of around 12 percent. Manufacture of silicon is anyway costly.

Is solar thermal the best bet?

Waste again

The latest edition of Power Line has some interesting overviews of the national scene on biomass, cogeneration, captive plants, etc among which is one on big benefits from biomass and cogeneration. The case studies give details of projects. Among this is one on waste to energy (WTE) run by Shriram Energy Systems in Vijayawada and Guntur.

The plant processes municipal solid waste into refuse-derived fuel fluff. Put up at a cost of Rs 460 million, it generates 6 MW of power which it sells to AP Transco at Rs 3.70 per unit. Other renewable biomass fuels like rice husk are also used.

Around 505 tonnes of municipal solid waste (MSW) from the two cities is first treated for a reduction of moisture content from 45 to 25 percent. The dried combustible material has a calorific value of 1800-2400 K cal per kg.

The project was registered as a CDM one last year and enjoys a 10-year credit period.
Not only has the plant saved the cities the problem of finding landfills for its waste, it has turned the waste into wealth.

Experts often dismiss WTE in Indian scenario due to high moisture content and a low calorific value of waste generated. Costs as high as Rs 8 cr for 1 MW and a minimum requirement of 150 tonnes to generate 1 MW have been cited as unfavourable conditions. It is better to segregate waste and turn the organic part into composite, say some.

Some have even cast suspicions about the ‘actual’ fuel used to run the plants, claiming that many times these are the conventional fuels!

If you have authenticated information on successful WTE, do let us know.

Turbines on car tops? ..Yes, we can!

A school kid threw an interesting question to the adults around: why can’t we have small turbines fitted to the roof tops of cars and buses? As the vehicle is moving, you have wind all the time. Won’t that generate enough energy for the vehicle at least?

The aesthetics apart, of cars that sprout horns, can anyone tell us if this is a feasible idea. If not, why?

After all, similar thinking has already seen some amount of ground action in terms of fitting solar panels to car roofs, not only to generate electricity, but eventually also to store the same into the grid from the parking slot where a stack of such vehicles can generate substantial power. Paris and some other European cities are working on that.

Innovative, and yet simple design changes are constantly being fed into the wind energy technology. The Swift turbine is a new ultra-light, ultra-quiet wind turbine that has begun showing up on rooftops, mostly of commercial installations. Swift Turbine's patented design has several advantages over traditional turbines. The costs, says the site, are almost on par with grid power. The design too is such that the dual tail on either side of the turbine keeps it facing into the wind, and also greatly reduces noise and vibration. While many wind turbines can roar in high winds, the Swift Turbine is whisper quiet, making it ideal for in-city use.

Large wind farms involve substantial costs and other problems like noise and potential harm to birds. But small scale projects show the way out.

Wind power is key technology to prevent dangerous climate change, was the message at the recent Global Wind Power Conference at Beijing. Wind power could produce 12% of the world’s energy needs and save 10 billion tones of CO2 within 12 years, according to a new report, the ‘Global Wind Energy Outlook 2008’, published by the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) and Greenpeace International, recently. By 2020, wind power could save as much as 1.5 billion tonnes of CO2 every year, which would add up to over 10 billion tonnes in this timeframe. The report also explains how wind energy can provide up to 30% of the world’s electricity by the middle of the century.

Moreover, wind energy is becoming a substantial factor in economic development, providing more than 350,000 ‘green collar’ jobs today both in direct and indirect employment. By 2020, this figure is projected to increase to over 2 million.

With Obama taking over reins in the White House very soon, it is expected that he will power a Green Deal in the US. Looking at alternative energy sources to secure energy independence, and mitigating climate change, it will create a host of green jobs and spur research in alternatives.

Can we hope for our government and research institutions to go on a similar Mission Mode? Yes, we can.. ??

Coal thoughts

Andrew Revkin of the New York Times has some very interesting posts on his blog, very imaginatively called Dot Earth. From semi-philosophical thoughts on the interconnectedness of the human race, to the very earth-bound coal shopping that took the Indian coal minister to the US, the blog is worth adding to your daily read.

It’s not surprising that India, despite big domestic coal reserves, is shopping in the United States for new coal sources to feed its climb toward electrification, industrialization, and prosperity. The giant boilers at the planned fleets of “Ultra Mega” power plants will need millions of tons a year.

It also has interesting comments posted. As always it does become a tussle between lobbies, like the development vs environment ones, or the nuclear vs solar ones.

But one mention he makes in the blog talks of an NRI’s anguish over coal based thermal plants in his home town along the Konkan coast. This is an issue we have decided to take up for our debate as it is very relevant. Not a day passes without some news of opposition to power plants. Why? In this case, for instance, while his concerns about acid rain, and emissions, as also the damage to the habitat are serious, these can be contested. We invite your comments.

Send us facts to back what you say. There is no fun in having a slang match between those who believe poverty can only be eradicated through more thermal plants, or those who think family planning is the answer to India’s energy challenge.

Yes, the vast millions have to be empowered with basic energy, is there only one way to do it? For one, distributed generation based on locally available renewable resources can be harnessed. This has been done in a couple of places and needs to be scaled up. There will be problems but research and efforts can overcome these. If you have heard of any sustained case studies, do let us know.

Upholding the sanctity of a place like Western Ghats is not about aesthetics but a more deeper environment issue of biodiversity and the need to retain our fast shrinking forests. Most of our rivers originate in these forests. The ghats also play a crucial role in bringing rain to the plateau.

Are there other routes to empower the 40 percent with no access to electricity? We have some amount of coal reserves though there are contradicting claims to how long they will last. Many of the operators in generation have hardly ten days of stock on hand.

Coal is termed ‘dirty’ because of the greenhouse gases it emits on combustion. Yet, it is one of the fuels we still have, but also depleting. Do you think we should continue with fossil fuels simply because there is no other 'easy' alternative?

Let us have your thoughts.

Time to harvest nuke?

The Indian nuclear market is estimated to be about $100 billion with a rough generation capacity of 40,000 MW expected to come up by 2020. Going further, the government expects to increase the share of nuclear from the present 3 percent of the total installed capacity to 25 percent by 2050.

Big gameplan. Even as private players wait for the Atomic Energy Act to be revised to allow independent private players, there are many challenges too. The low capacities of existing nuclear power plants, the timescale of getting a plant operational, the costs, lack of technical skills, are serious problems. Then there is the big issue of fuel costs and waste disposal.

While the state-owned NPCIL plans to increase capacity from 4120 MW to 20,000 MW in five years, it plans to import ten light water reactors that can generate 1000 MW each and costing a total Rs 800 billion. Add to that the requirements of over 400 tonnes of uranium fuel annually for its reactors, and it becomes clear that this is no cakewalk.

The costs and timescales involved have been brought out in an article by Lester Brown of Earth Policy Institute. He speaks of ‘Over the last few years the nuclear industry has used concerns about climate change to argue for a nuclear revival. Although industry representatives may have convinced some political leaders that this is a good idea, there is little evidence of private capital investing in nuclear plants in competitive electricity markets. The reason is simple: nuclear power is uneconomical.’
The costs are not only for setting up plants but as much for decommissioning them after their lifetime, he explains.

China too is going nuclear in a big way, paving the way for more nuclear reactors. Should India lag behind?

But even if the arguments are proved wrong, do we have enough fuel to go nuclear in a big way?