Tuesday, July 31, 2012

India top in sustainable behaviour!

Surprise! A survey has ranked India top in sustainable behavior. The survey was conducted by the National Geographic Society and research consultancy GlobalScan. The results of the survey were presented in The Annual Greendex report 2012. It was conducted on 17,000 consumers in 17 countries to quantitatively measure the number of environmentally friendly people all around the world. The survey was a measure of consumer behaviour in 65 areas relating to housing, transportation, food and consumer goods.
The results of the survey are shocking, that the people who had the highest footprint (the US) were found to be least bothered about the result of their impacts on the environment. The ‘Greendex’ found that Indians had the most sustainable behaviour, followed by Chinese and Brazilians. Americans ranked last in the survey and France ranked last in
the Europe.

According to the survey, India was on the top with a Greendex score of 58.9, followed by China at 57.8, and then Brazil at 55.5. USA scored 44.7. Despite the highest sustainable behaviour, 45% of the consumers from India and China were found to exhibit guilt over the consequences of their actions.

It would be interesting to get more details on how the survey was analysed for its findings. For instance, is this sustainable behavior a result of inability to consume/buy given low funds? Or was it borne of conscious choices? Probably, the former. Perhaps, a comparison of survey findings with some period n the past would have given a clearer picture whether there is progress. At least, the guilt factor is something that gives hope!

Plunging crisis

A 10 percent of the global population was plunged into a powerless state with the collapse of the northern grid that affected 670 million in northern parts of India. As trains and traffic signals ground to a halt, it was chaos everywhere. Hospitals and crematoria faced problems most unprepared for. Miners trapped below ground were rescued using generators. As the power corporation rushed to address the crisis, and a ‘power shuffle’ in the ministry sent ripples, big questions remained.
Why did it happen? Was it due to poor infrastructure? Or due to over drawing of power by states? Power consumption in India vastly exceeded available supply, due in part to high temperatures and drought. Many see the root of India’s electricity problem as due to a wobbly infrastructure combined with too little generation. Some blame it on “the non-availability of coal.” However, the quality of India’s domestic coal is largely too poor for recent-generation coal plants. More than half of India’s power-generation capacity of 205 gigawatts is coal-based, and Coal India Ltd., the world’s biggest coal producer, is unable to produce enough.
Free electricity to farmers who have been overdrawing owing to sinking water table and a reluctance among politicians to raise power tariffs have drained cash reserves of the utilities, leaving them incapable to address the infrastructure needs. The Central Electricity Authority has reported power deficits of more than 8% in recent months. As the demand surges, it remains doubtful if supply can catch up.
Meanwhile, solar capacity in the country has crossed 1000 MW mark, though mostly in Gujarat. There is also an additional 85 MW of off-grid PV solar. Gujarat Solar Park currently has scores of solar installations totaling about 600 MW, and it is planned to soon expand that capacity to about 1,000 MW. For the current fiscal year, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has set goals of adding another 800 MW of solar and 2,500 of wind. Off-grid solar might swell to 1,000 MW installed per year by 2016. From big to small, from centralised to localised, from one (energy source) to many -- only such a combined move will help ease the situation which is sure to get worser every day.

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Hunger in the offing

The drought-stricken area spreading across more and more of the US has engulfed virtually the entire corn belt. World carryover stocks of grain will fall further at the end of this crop year, making the food situation even more precarious, warns Lester Brown. Food prices, already elevated, will follow the price of corn upward, quite possibly to record highs. As we have seen in India, the weak monsoon has sent farmers into a panic. It has upset sowing plans across the nation.

The world may be much closer to an unmanageable food shortage – soaring food prices, spreading food unrest, and riots. Why is there no political vision? Why are there no proactive steps taken by governments in the farm sector? Besides announcing drought relief! Why are our water resources so badly managed – polluted and wasted. It belies common sense that our policy makers fail to realise how the belly needs to be full before one goes to buy cars or phones and television sets. Why are more people leaving farming like never before? Simply because it just does not pay to grow food!


Share your thoughts on what you think is the need of the hour.

Growing waste

Growing prosperity and urbanization could double the volume of municipal solid waste annually by 2025, according to new research conducted by the Worldwatch Institute (www.worldwatch.org) for its Vital Signs Online service. Although some of this waste is eventually recycled, the doubling of waste that current projections indicate would bring the volume of municipal solid waste—or MSW—from today’s 1.3 billion tons per year to 2.6 billion tons.
MSW consists of organic material, paper, plastic, glass, metals, and other refuse collected by municipal authorities, largely from homes, offices, institutions, and commercial establishments. MSW is a subset of the larger universe of waste and typically does not include waste collected outside of formal municipal programs. Nor does it include the sewage, industrial waste, or construction and demolition waste generated by cities. And of course MSW does not include rural wastes. MSW is measured before disposal, and data on it often include collected material that is later diverted for recycling.
MSW tends to be generated in much higher quantities in wealthier regions of the world. Members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), a group of 34 industrialized nations, lead the world in MSW generation, at nearly 1.6 million tons per day.
The list of top 10 MSW-generating countries however includes four developing nations (Brazil, China, India, and Mexico) in part because of the size of their urban populations and in part because their city dwellers are prospering and adopting high-consumption lifestyles. Although the United States leads the world in MSW output at some 621,000 tons per day, China is a relatively close second, at some 521,000 tons. Even among the top 10, however, there is a wide range of output: the United States generates nearly seven times more urban refuse than France, in tenth position, does.
The global market for scrap metal and paper is at least $30 billion per year, according to the World Bank. The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) estimates the market for waste management, from collection through recycling, to be some $400 billion worldwide. Yet UNEP also estimates that to “green” the waste sector would require, among other things, a 3.5-fold increase in MSW recycling at the global level, including nearly complete recovery of all organic material through composting or conversion to energy. Big job there!

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Purposeful chat!

It came as no surprise to read about a survey showing that a large section of India’s population, over 80 percent, are mobile-armed! Those familiar with the landscape will know that sanitation may take a rap, but not mobile phone coverage. Ironical as that seems, the same technology can be used effectively for more than idle chat.
A team from the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom, proposes installing in Kenya handpumps containing devices that automatically send text messages to local water engineers whenever pumps break down or dry up. The device is fitted into handpump handles, and automatically monitors the number of strokes made when a pump is operated.
This data, which provides estimates of daily and seasonal demand, including critical under- or over-usage information, is then transmitted to a central hub — thus informing engineers, cheaply and regularly, of the need for repairs, and helping to ensure a constant flow of water.
A prototype transmitter was successfully tried in Zambia in 2011.

The project comes as a response to the widespread failure of hand pumps [largely because of wear and tear, and mechanical faults] and associated health and economic failure impacts on the 276 million Africans who do not have improved water services.It is estimated that at any one time, one third of handpumps in rural Africa are not working. Unimproved water access is associated with 1.5 million unnecessary deaths of children under five!
The initiative would particularly benefit arid and semi-arid areas, which require a constant water supply.
For the project to be effective, it needed to work closely with mobile communication providers to ensure good signal coverage. Technology-enabled empowerment at its best.

Monday, July 16, 2012

Renewable lies?

Is renewable energy the answer to our energy demand? This is a question we have asked many times, and often the answer is mixed. Like everything else in life, it has its shades of black and white and grey! The latest study just released by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (an organization that exists to study and promote the viability of renewable energy) suggests that it may be possible to get 80% or so of North America’s electric power from renewable sources by 2050. But is that significant? Not really when you focus on the word power, as against energy! An interesting interpretation of the study goes to show how the same study indirectly proves that renewable energy will be a minority player in humanity’s energy portfolio.
The blogger goes on to show how the study suggests that only 13% of our electric energy will come from solar. Distributed solar enthusiasts (who favor photovoltaic solar panels on rooftops) will be further disappointed because half of that 13% will come from water-sucking centralized concentrated solar thermal power plants, many located in desert ecosystems, leaving only about 6% for solar panels on rooftops, of which many will probably not be on rooftops but in centralized power plants, probably displacing ecosystems or crops.
As electricity represents only 40% of the US’ energy needs, if all renewable energy sources are used up for electricity, there won’t be any left for the other 60% of the energy needs. In other words, what the study tells is that only 32% of the total energy needs can be “potentially” renewable.
He goes on into the definition of renewable, where hydro and biofuels fail to qualify while biomass is shown to be more polluting than coal. Removing all these from the renewable bracket would mean lesser energy available for electricity. Read on for more on nuclear and more.
All this brings us back to – what do we do now? Opt for nuclear? Or put the brakes on energy consumption? Is that possible? Or simply wait for a replenishment of energy dense fossil fuels? This would of course mean another mass extinction that leaves behind organic matter to decay over millions of years to produce the fossil fuels for another race??! Write in.

Catch the wind

Wind energy opponents who say that producing electricity using the power of the wind is not efficient would do well to take a look at a new graphic using UK Government data which shows that thermal sources of electricity – gas, coal, nuclear, waste/biomass, oil and other – lose massive amounts of energy as waste heat, compared to almost 0% for renewables.
Gas accounts for 48% of the UK’s electricity supply and, of the 372 Terra-Watt hours of electricity it produces per year, 54% of this is lost as heat. Coal, meanwhile, accounts for 28% producing 297 TWh, loses an even higher proportion – 66%. Nuclear – accounting for 16% of the energy supply with 162 TWh, loses 65% and oil – 3% of the supply with 51 TWh – loses 77%.
Renewable energy – which all together accounts for 4% of the UK’s electricity supply producing 14 TWh – loses less than one percent. So, under this measure, renewable energy is 100% efficient.
Wind energy opponents centre their arguments on the ‘capacity factor’ of a wind farm. Wind farms do not operate at wind speeds of less than 4 metres per second, and they are shut down to prevent damage during gale force winds of 25 metres/second or more, or for maintenance. But conventional power stations also do not operate all the time – they stop generating electricity during maintenance or breakdowns.
Comparing the outputs of both sources does show that conventional power stations produce power at a level compared to their theoretical maximum that is currently higher than the level for wind energy. Wind power’s capacity factor is around 30% onshore and 40% offshore, increasing year on year as more wind turbines come online and technology improves. Meanwhile, data from the German Association of Energy and Water Industries (Bundesverband der Energie und Wasserwirtschaft) shows that fossil fuels are often below 50%, even in winter.
A pat there for wind, but wait to see more in our next post.

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Powered by heat

How about a low-cost and efficient solid-state engine that coverts heat to electricity? Wouldn’t that be lapped up in an energy hungry world? Not only would these engines have no moving parts, they will not wear out, and would be infinitely reliable. They can enable electronic devices that recycle some of their own waste heat into electricity. In a computer, it could enable heat-powered computation, or, inversely, it could provide cooling.
We are not yet there but research is heading there.
Researchers who are studying a new magnetic effect that converts heat to electricity have discovered how to amplify it a thousand times over. Called the spin Seebeck effect, the spin of electrons creates a current in magnetic materials, which is detected as a voltage in an adjacent metal. Ohio State University researchers have figured out how to create a similar effect in a non-magnetic semiconductor while producing more electrical power.
The resulting voltages are admittedly tiny, but in this week's issue of the journal Nature, the researchers report boosting the amount of voltage produced per degree of temperature change inside the semiconductor from a few microvolts to a few millivolts -- a 1,000-fold increase in voltage, producing a 1-million-fold increase in power.
Just as light is made of particles called photons, heat, too, can be thought of the same way, and scientists have a similar-sounding name for heat particles: phonons. The researchers think that they were able to induce a powerful stream of phonons inside the semiconductor. The phonons then smashed into the electrons and knocked them forward, while the atoms in the semiconductor made the electrons spin as they streamed through the material.

There are drawbacks like requiring a low temperature and a high magnetic field as they worked on a non-magnetic material and had to cool surroundings to polarize the electrons. But newer materials may take the discovery further is the hope.

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Blow hot and cold

Ever thought how much your air-conditioning costs the climate? A rough estimate by an expert puts residential, commercial, and industrial air conditioning worldwide as consuming at least one trillion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually. With global consumption for cooling projected to grow to 10 trillion kilowatt-hours per year — equal to half of the world’s entire electricity supply today — the climate forecast will be grim indeed.
The Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency predicts that in a warming world, the increase in emissions from air conditioning will be faster than the decline in emissions from heating; as a result, the combined greenhouse impact of heating and cooling will begin rising soon after 2020 and then shoot up fast through the end of the century. Refrigerants that accumulate in the atmosphere between now and 2050 (increasingly HFCs, mostly from refrigeration and air conditioning) will add another 14 to 27 percent to the increased warming caused by all human-generated carbon dioxide emissions.
The United States has long consumed more energy each year for air conditioning than the rest of the world combined. In fact, it uses more electricity for cooling than the entire continent of Africa, home to a billion people, consumes for all purposes. The climate impact of air conditioning buildings and vehicles in the US is now that of almost half a billion metric tons of carbon dioxide per year. But by 2020 China is poised to take over this lead, thanks to the population lead. India too will predominate — already, about 40 percent of all electricity consumption in the city of Mumbai goes for air conditioning. The Middle East is already heavily climate-controlled, but growth is expected to continue there as well.
Vehicle air conditioners in the United States alone use 7 to 10 billion gallons of gasoline annually. And thanks largely to demand in warmer regions, it is possible that world consumption of energy for cooling could explode tenfold by 2050, giving climate change extra momentum.

But look at it, this is a vicious circle. The hotter it gets, the more need for air conditioning and that in turn makes things hotter. Add to it the loss of green cover in cities, and you have heat islands cooled inside and spewing heat into the surroundings. A pertinent question here is: why do these reports invariably focus on China and India, while glossing over the Middle East that sees habitual waste of energy that comes cheap? Why for instance does this report for instance make a big issue of how heating takes much less energy (direct process) than cooling which uses fossil fuels? A matter of convenience as the developed world needs more of heating??  How can a populace that has lived lavishly, almost opulently, on ‘abundant’ energy tell the rest of the world to go slow on ‘air-conditioning’??
Of course, as responsible citizens of the planet, it must make everyone think and change ways which aggravate climate change.

Monday, July 9, 2012

And, some good news

Renewable power generation around the world will grow by more than 40% over the next five years, according to a report from the International Energy Agency (IEA). Not only that, renewable generation will shift from OECD countries to new markets like India and Brazil.

Power generation from on- and offshore wind, solar photovoltaics, concentrating solar power, bioenergy, geothermal, hydropower, wave and tidal power generation will reach almost 6400 TWh by 2017, according to the Medium-Term Renewable Energy Market Report 2012.

According to the IEA’s analysis renewable electricity will expand almost 60% more between 2011 and 2017 than it did between 2005 and 2011 to reach 1840 TWh.


China is projected to account for almost 40% or new renewable electricity capacity, but significant deployment is also expected in the US and Germany. The study is the IEA’s first medium-term report on renewable power.


“Renewable energy is expanding rapidly as technologies mature, with deployment transitioning from support-driven markets to new and potentially more competitive segments in many countries,” says IEA executive director Maria van der Hoeven. “This report forecasts global renewable development and, in so doing, provides a key benchmark for both public and private decision makers.”

Prevention or extinction?

Energy efficiency can plug a lot of wastage and release as much as 40-50 percent of the demand. Of course, this is when done across the board, in every sector. But it is often worth the while to stop and think on human behavior before talking grandiose tech stuff. While simple tinkering is all is needed most times, what precedes is intention. Do we really think it worth the tinkering?
For instance, entrepreneurs have suggested simple innovations with water coolers at public places to save energy (and water!). Almost everyone uses chilled water for rinsing the glasses and most often water remaining in the glass is simply flushed! Isn’t energy wasted – in using cold water to rinse? What if the incoming water can be pre-cooled to reduce the load on the system? It was found that when water at 35 degrees is being cooled to 20 degrees, then simply reducing incoming water temperature by five degrees will reduce energy consumption by one third. Pilot projects with these provisions could register average recovery of 40%.

Now the big question – from pilot to commercial is the big leap. How many of us will think it necessary to install a simple evaporative cooling unit with coolers? Why invest the money for some energy saved? Especially, when energy is still so cheap, and ‘abundant’. Right?

How many of us take the trouble to drive at uniform speed to save fuel?? Will we learn to go slow on a commodity believed to be unlimited? Or scramble in panic when it is too late, to save the dregs?

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Graphene bridges

Graphene may be able to substantially boost the efficiency of the next generation of solar panels, according to new research from Michigan Technological University.


Graphene is a two-dimensional, one-atom-thick honeycomb of carbon atoms. One of its most interesting properties is its electrical conductivity, which could make it an important part of the next generation of photovoltaic (PV) solar cells.


Dye-sensitized solar cells use common and relatively inexpensive materials, making them cheaper than solar cells based on silicon and thin-film technologies. But they do not work as well as silicon-based cells at converting light into electricity. In dye-sensitized solar cells, photons knock electrons from the dye into a thin layer of titanium dioxide, which relays them to the anode. The researchers found that adding graphene to the titanium dioxide increased its conductivity, bringing 52.4 percent more current into the circuit!


The excellent electrical conductivity of graphene sheets thus allows them to act as bridges. However, if one uses too much graphene, it will absorb the light in the solar cell and reduce its efficiency.

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

In the grip of energy

Wastewater treatment involves steps like separation, settling, filtration, biological digestion, and chemical treatment. This means a lot of equipment and energy consumption! One evaluation has estimated that wastewater treatment uses 2% of the United States’ overall energy consumption.
Scientists now have come up with a microbial fuel cell (MFC) that has a 13% energy recovery capacity which means wastewater treatment for free making it possible for poor nations to find clean water affordably from wastewater.
While traditional fuel cells convert fuel into electricity without igniting it (combining hydrogen and oxygen, as in the hydrogen fuel cell), an MFC uses organic matter as the fuel and microbes to break them down.  As the microbes break down the organic matter, electrons (the movement of which constitutes electricity) are produced.  The new MFC uses sewage from a bog standard sewage treatment plant. It’s made of a sealed container and an unsealed container, separated by a membrane.
The microbes grow in a film on an electrode in the sealed chamber, sending electrons to the electrode and protons to the unsealed container. Oxygen in that container plus microbes on a second electrode plus the electrons from the sealed chamber combine to produce things that are not sewage and generate some electricity in the process.
The device also removes the vast majority of organic matter and potentially disease-causing microbes, though not quite at the point of creating drinkable water along with electricity. But it is a step towards that. Today, every activity involves some energy expenditure. That is how comfort has been introduced into our lives – by using energy. That was fine at a time when energy was believed to be abundant. Today the move should be to release more and more of these processes from dependence on energy, at least energy from fossil fuels.

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Uk on track

In spite of cuts in its solar PV power feed-in tariff, renewable energy’s share of UK electricity output surged 39% higher to 11.1% in the first quarter last year, according to the Dept. of Energy and Climate Change (DECC). This is a good sign as the UK makes rapid headway in meeting a goal of 15% renewable energy by 2020. Low carbon generation was up by 2 percent to the previous year while end-user consumption also fell by 2.3 percent.

Onshore wind was the fastest growing source of electrical power for the UK overall in Q1, jumping 51% to 3.55 Terawatt-hours (TWh), while offshore wind total rated capacity increased 49.8% to 1.49 TWh. Hydro power production also registered impressive gains, rising 43.5% to 1.86 TWh.

The U.K. government has been taking the right steps in the direction and one of the latest was the decision to introduce mandatory carbon reporting rules requiring around 1,800 of the country's largest listed companies to report annually on their greenhouse gas emissions.

As the deputy prime minister noted, Pepsi depends on water, Unilever depends on fish stocks and agricultural land, and every firm relies on a stable fuel supply. But while nine out of 10 chief executives say sustainability is fundamental to their success, only two out of 10 record the resources they consume.

The U.K. will press from the start of next financial year that all firms listed on the London Stock Exchange will have to report the levels of greenhouse gases they emit. The rules are initially expected to be restricted to firms listed on the main London Stock Exchange; the regulations are slated for review in 2015, and ministers are scheduled to consider expanding the rules to all large companies beginning in 2016, according to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

 It is expected that the move will force businesses to track their carbon emissions and energy use, making it easier for them to identify areas where they can enhance efficiency.

More than smart!

As technology gets smarter and smarter, are we under danger of privacy invasion from the same? That is what a European watchdog in charge of protecting personal data feels about smart meters. The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) has warned that smart meters, which must be introduced into every home in the UK within the next seven years, will be used to track much more than energy consumption unless proper safeguards are introduced.
It says that "while the Europe-wide rollout of smart metering systems may bring significant benefits, it will also enable massive collection of personal data". The technology could be used to track what "households do within the privacy of their own homes, whether they are away on holiday or at work, if someone uses a specific medical device or a baby monitor, or how they spend their free time".

The potential for extensive data mining is very significant," said the EDPS, noting how profiles can be used for many other purposes, including marketing, advertising and price discrimination by third parties.


The European Commission is now under pressure to consider whether legislation should be introduced to ensure that smart meters do not breach data protection rules.


All homes are expected to have their old meters replaced with the new technology by the end of 2019. The installation of smart meters will cost an estimated £11bn in the UK. Surprisingly, despite a nationwide rollout from 2014, few consumers are aware of the new technology.

The watchdog does not rule out potential benefits such as accurate bills and opportunities to help consumers save money on energy bills, but feels they should be aware of the dangers too.

Research in Germany, for example, has found that consumers didn’t quite take to the eye within homes! The EDPS recommends that states issue guidance on the frequency of meter readings, how long data can be stored and the use of sophisticated algorithms that allow companies to create profiles of their customers.

As they say, you gain something, you lose something. We just need to balance the two and be clear about priorities.