THE POWER OF MANY

India’s National Action Plan, unveiled last week to deal with the challenge of climate change, is a roadmap for ensuring the country’s long-term energy security.

India’s National Action Plan, unveiled last week to deal with the challenge of climate change, is a roadmap for ensuring the country’s long-term energy security. As pointed out by Shyam Saran, the prime minister’s special envoy on climate change, in an interview to The Indian Express, unless climate change is linked with energy security there is not much hope for the country.
With India’s conventional energy sources like coal getting rapidly exhausted, the national action plan places urgent emphasis on the need to develop technologies to exploit renewable sources of energy. The focus is clearly on solar energy which is in abundance in the country. Here is a look at the potential of each of the major renewable sources that hold the key to India’s long-term energy security.

Solar
The average solar insolation in the country is 6KWh/sq m/day. This can be exploited in direct thermal applications like cooking or heating or in photovoltaic cells that convert sunlight to electricity. The present conversion efficiency of commercially available photovoltaic cells is less than 15 per cent. Even with this efficiency, covering just 5 million hectares of land with photovoltaic cells can potentially result in 1,200 million tonnes of oil-equivalent energy per year. However, the present photovoltaic technology is quite expensive, leading to the cost of electricity exceeding Rs 20 per KWh. Reduction of installation costs and increase in efficiency will make solar energy attractive.

Hydro
India’s hydel resources are estimated to be 84,000 MW at 60 per cent load factor. The current installed capacity is close to 3,100 MW. An accelerated hydro development plan aims to add another 50,000 MW, of which 25,690 MW would be added in Arunachal Pradesh alone. Hydro-electric power plants, especially those constructed over large storage dams, are often plagued by environmental, ecological and social problems. This has resulted in crucial delays in project schedules.

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WIND
The potential from wind energy is estimated at around 45,000 MW. Currently, Indian wind farms have a low efficiency level of 17 per cent. Technical innovations are likely to raise this to 20 per cent but even then the total contribution of India’s wind energy to the country’s energy mix is likely to be less than 10 million tonnes of oil equivalent. Still, wind energy is crucial because it is a clean source and doesn’t pollute the environment at all.

BIO-MASS
The by-products of agriculture and cattle yields, like dead wood and cowdung, form a major source of energy in India’s rural households. More than 80 per cent domestic energy needs are fulfilled by bio-mass. Improving efficiency and convenience in harnessing can make bio-mass even more attractive, providing rural households a clean and efficient source of energy.
In addition to these, India is also banking on non-conventional sources of energy like bio-diesel, liquefaction of coal and hydrogen. New sources like gas hydrates, of which India has considerable resources in its oceans, have not yet been harnessed because of lack of technology.

‘Grave insult to wounded people’: Cong lashes out at PM Modi amid his first Manipur visit

India15 hr ago

As Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits Manipur for the first time since ethnic violence hit the state in May 2023, the Congress on Saturday called it a “farce, tokenism, and a grave insult to a wounded people”.

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