Comments
ANUMAKONDA JAGADEESH said
08 July 2015
Good article.
Why the Government is pushing Solar alone while there are better options like Wind,Bioenergy,Energy Conservation.
Here is a Blue print on INTEGRATED APPROACH ON HARNESSING RENEWABLES AND ENERGY CONSERVATION IN INDIA WITH PEOPLE’S PARTICIPATION:
Wind Vs Solar Energy in India
As of 31 March 2015 the installed capacity of wind power in India was 23,444 MW :
Tamil Nadu (7,253 MW),
Gujarat (3,093 MW),
Maharashtra (2,976 MW),
Karnataka (2,113 MW),
Rajasthan(2,355 MW),
Andhra Pradesh (916 MW),
Madhya Pradesh (386 MW),
Kerala (35.1 MW)
Solar Energy Grid Connected
MW
Rajasthan 1,147.01
Gujarat 1,000.05
Madhya Pradesh 563.58
Maharashtra 363.07
Andhra Pradesh 186.00
Tamilnadu 148.00
Karnataka 78.22
Uttar Pradesh 71.26
Telangana 63.00
Here is an action plan for the country on Renewables to bring in Rural Prosperity:
1. Promote Offshore Wind Farms.
2. Promote small wind generators as decentralised systems
3. Roof Top PV Solar
4. Creating Renewable Energy Fund. Investment by Income Tax Payers to be exempted under Section 80C(For Central Government).
5. Wind Farm Co-operatives on the lines of those in Germany,Denmark etc.
6. Solar Co-operatives on the lines of those in US.
7. Energy Conservation by replacing most of the inefficient 2.6 Crore irrigation electric pump sets(About 30% power can be saved). Agriculture consumes much power next only to Industry
8. Reading lights with reliable and quality dual powered(Solar/Electricity/USB) to save enormous energy.
9. Biofuel/Biogas for power generation and cooking from Agave/opuntia care-free growth,regenerative and CAM plants. In China Biogas for cooking is supplied trough pipes.
In the vast vacant land in India Agave and Opuntia can be grown and power generation established as decentralised locally.
10. Simple Box Type Solar Cooker with frying facility( 3D approach,Design,Demonstrate and Disseminate)
11.Cost effective vertical and cylindrical,mobile solar water heater design.
12. Low head Micro hydro device to generate power from the head of falling water from the delivery pipe of Electric/diesel pump
sets.
13. KW size Biogas power/cooking plant for villages.
14. Simple solar drier
15. Growing CAM Plants in Waste and Vacant lands which act as Carbon Sink.
Energy Conservation
https://www.scribd.com/doc/250077351/Energy-Conservation
Though Solar Energy has to be promoted on a big scale,it is nowhere compared to Wind Energy both in India(Particularly Andhra Pradesh) and abroad. The Efficiency of Wind Turbines is quite high compared to Solar PV. For a country with vast waste land,biofuel/biogaspower/biochar has great potential from regenerative,care-free growth CAM plants like Agave and Opuntia.
SAVE ENERGY IN ELECTRIC PUMP SETS
I have had been suggesting this since years.
Without anybody’s insistence in our fields we replaced 5 electric motors with efficient ones and we could see the enormous energy saving.
Energy Conservation in Electric Pump sets for Agriculture:
Energy conservation yields quick results than energy generation. In India Agricultural pump sets consume power next only to Industry. There are about 26 Million Agricultural Electric Motors in the country( about13 Lakhs in Andhra Pradesh). Many of them are quite old and inefficient. For Agricultural pump sets the power tariff is nominal or nil in some states. A scheme can be chalked out By both Central and State Governments to replace the old and inefficient agricultural pump sets with efficient ones by giving a subsidy. Electricity is a high grade energy which finds use in Industry, lighting etc. As such it must be judiciously used especially in the agricultural sector. Next to Industry Agriculture consumes about 27% of power. By replacing the inefficient pump sets, one can save 30% of power.
Energy Conservation
https://www.scribd.com/doc/250077351/Energy-Conservation
I have had been advocating energy conservation since long. Apart from Energy generation from Renewables, Energy Saving is the need of the hour in India. A Novel Scheme to replace Old and inefficient agricultural pump sets: Out of the 26 Million Agricultural pump sets in the country many are old and inefficient. The power tariff for farmers is minimal. Electricity is a high grade energy which is needed in industries, domestic purposes, computers etc. A scheme can be chalked out to replace the inefficient motors by efficient ones. The cost of a 5 HP Electric motor because is aboutRs 30,000.A subsidy of Rs 25,000 can be provided to replace
these inefficient motors. This yields quick results and “Energy conservation is better than energy generation”. Each Kwh saved is each Kwh generated (1 US$= Rs 60). There must be some contribution from the beneficiary otherwise he won’t take care of
the system. Giving free leads to misuse. In 80s the then Department of Non-Conventional Energy Sources(Now MNRE)under Demonstration Programme installed over 4000 Water Pumping Mills free of cost. In Andhra Pradesh about 500 were installed. At that time a windmill was costing Rs 20,000. A reliable windmill costs around Rs 80,000 at that time. In fact in our Filelds in Muthukur, Nellore District, Andhra Pradesh 2 Wind mills were installed. None of the windmills worked and vanished in no time. Based on several studies carried out on agricultural pump set efficiency, it has been found that the pump efficiency varies from25-35% due to various factors. By adopting BEE star labeled agricultural pump sets, the efficiency can be enhanced upto 50-52%. It is estimated that, by replacement of existing pumps with the BEE star labeled pumps, the achievable saving potential is30-40% and sectoral saving potential works out to be 4.34 BU per year. Instead of huge investment on New Power projects, The Government of India and different state Governments can jointly plan a scheme to replace the existing old and inefficient agricultural pump sets with efficient ones. This yields quick results. Energy conservation refers to reducing energy consumption through using less of an energy service. Energy conservation differs from efficient energy use, which refers to using less energy for a constant service. For example, driving less is an example of energy conservation. Driving the same amount with a higher mileage vehicle is an example of energy efficiency. Energy conservation and efficiency are both energy reduction techniques. Even though energy conservation reduces energy services, it can result in increased, environmental quality, national security, and personal financial security. It is at the top of the sustainable energy hierarchy. One of the primary ways to improve energy conservation in buildings is to use an energy audit. An energy audit is an inspection and analysis of energy use and flows for energy conservation in a building, process or system to reduce the amount of energy input into the system without negatively affecting the output(s). This is normally accomplished by trained professionals and can be part of some of the national programs discussed above. In addition, recent development of smart phone apps enable homeowners to complete relatively sophisticated energy audits themselves. Building technologies and smart meters can allow energy users, business and residential, to see graphically the impact their energy use can have in their workplace or homes. Advanced real-time energy metering is able to help people save energy by their actions. Elements of passive solar design, shown in a direct gain application. In passive solar building design, windows, walls, and floors are made to collect, store, and distribute solar energy in the form of heat in the winter and reject solar heat in the summer. This is called passive solar design or climatic design because, unlike active solar heating systems, it doesn't involve the use of mechanical and electrical devices. The key to designing a passive solar building is to best take advantage of the local climate. Elements to be considered include window placement and glazing type, thermal insulation, thermal mass, and shading. Passive solar design techniques can be applied most easily to new buildings, but existing buildings can be retrofitted. Energy Saving in Lighting. One innovation that saves enormous power in light is READING SOLAR LIGHT dual powered. Normally in India students read under a 40 Watt Fluorescent bulb. In school and college hostels Dual powered reading lights can be promoted.
Here are some policies to promote wind energy in India:
Encourage Wind Farm Co-operatives like the ones in Denmark and other European countries.
Community wind projects are locally owned by farmers, investors, businesses, schools, utilities, or other public or private entities who utilize wind energy to support and reduce energy costs to the local community. The key feature is that local community members have a significant, direct financial stake in the project beyond land lease payments and tax revenue. Projects may be used for on-site power or to generate wholesale power for sale, usually on a commercial-scale greater than 100 kW.
Australia
The Hepburn Wind Project is a wind farm at Leonards Hill near Daylesford, Victoria, north-west of Melbourne, Victoria. It comprises two 2MW wind turbines which produce enough power for 2,300 households.
This is the first Australian community-owned wind farm. The initiative has emerged because the community felt that the state and federal governments were not doing enough to address climate change.
Canada
Community wind power is in its infancy in Canada but there are reasons for optimism. One such reason is the launch of a new Feed-in Tariff (FIT) program in the Province of Ontario . A number of community wind projects are in development in Ontario but the first project that is likely to obtain a FIT contract and connect to the grid is thePukwis Community Wind Park. Pukwis will be unique in that it is a joint Aboriginal/Community wind project that will be majority-owned by the Chippewas of Georgina Island First Nation, with a local renewable energy co-operative (the Pukwis Energy Co-operative) owning the remainder of the project.
Denmark
In Denmark, families were offered a tax exemption for generating their own electricity within their own or an adjoining commune. By 2001 over 100,000 families belonged to wind turbine cooperatives, which had installed 86% of all the wind turbines in Denmark, a world leader in wind power. Wind power has gained very high social acceptance in Denmark, with the development of community wind farms playing a major role.[
In 1997, Samsø won a government competition to become a model renewable energy community. An offshore wind farm comprising 10 turbines (making a total of 21 altogether including land-based windmills), was completed, funded by the islanders. 100% of its electricity comes from wind power and 75% of its heat comes from solar power and biomass energy. An Energy Academy has opened in Ballen, with a visitor education center.
Germany
In Germany, hundreds of thousands of people have invested in citizens' wind farms across the country and thousands of small and medium sized enterprises are running successful businesses in a new sector that in 2008 employed 90,000 people and generated 8 percent of Germany's electricity. Wind power has gained very high social acceptance in Germany, with the development of community wind farms playing a major role.
In the German district of North Frisia there are more than 60 wind farms with a capacity of about 700 MW, and 90 percent are community-owned. North Frisia is seen to be a model location for community wind, leading the way for other regions, especially in southern Germany.
India
Starting in 2006, a village panchayat (local self-governing body) in Tamil Nadu state has become completely self-sufficient in energy by using renewable sources like wind, solar and biogas.
The Odanthurai village panchayat near Coimbatore city comprises 11 villages and has a population of about 8,000. By 2009, it had set up its own 350kW windfarm to meet its energy needs. The windmill was set up at Malwadi near Udumalpet and generates about 8 lakh units annually. The power requirement for Odanthurai stands at about 4.5 lakh units, and the local panchayat body is now selling the surplus power to the state grid. This gives the panchayat an annual income of 19 lakh rupees.
The village cooperative is also using other sources of renewable energy. It has 65 solar streetlights in two hamlets and a nine-KW (kilowatt) biomass gasifier to pump drinking water from the river to the overhead tanks. Doing so, Odanthurai became the first local body in India to utilize the remunerative enterprises scheme of the state government.
The Netherlands
Sixty-three farmers in De Zuidlob, the southern part of the municipality of Zeewolde, have entered into a cooperative agreement that aims to develop a wind farm of at least 108 MW. The project will include the installation of three phases of 12 wind turbines with capacities of 3 to 4.5 MW each. The aim is to put the wind farm into service in 2012
The Netherlands has an active community of wind cooperatives. They build and operate wind parks in all regions of the Netherlands. This started in the 1980s with the first Lagerweij turbines. Back then, these turbines could be financed by the members of the cooperatives. Today, the cooperatives build larger wind parks, but not as large as commercial parties do. Some still operate self-sufficiently, others partner with larger commercial wind park developers.
Because of the very unproductive state policies for financing wind parks in the Netherlands, the cooperatives have developed a new financing model, where members of a cooperative do not have to pay taxes for the electricity they generate with their community wind park. In this construction the Zelfleveringsmodel the cooperative operates the wind park, and a traditional energy company only acts as a service provider, for billing and energy balance on the public grid. This is the new role for energy companies in the future, where production is largely decentralized.
United Kingdom
As of 2012, there are 43 communities who are in the process of or already producing renewable energy through co-operative structures in the UK. They are set up and run by everyday people, mostly local residents, who are investing their time and money and together installing large wind turbines, solar panels, or hydro-electric power for their local communities.
Baywind Energy Co-operative was the first co-operative to own wind turbines in the United Kingdom. Baywind was modeled on the similar wind turbine cooperatives and other renewable energy co-operatives that are common in Scandinavia, and was founded as an industrial and provident society in 1996. It grew to exceed 1,300 members, each with one vote.
A proportion of the profits is invested in local community environmental initiatives through the Baywind Energy Conservation Trust. As of 2006, Baywind owns a 2.5 megawatt five-turbine wind farm at Harlock Hill near Ulverston, Cumbria (operational since 29 January 1997), and one of the 600 kilowatt turbines at the Haverigg II wind farm near Millom, Cumbria.
Community-owned schemes in Scotland include one on the Isle of Gigha. The Heritage Trust set up Gigha Renewable Energy to buy and operate three Vestas V27 wind turbines, known locally as The Dancing Ladies or Creideas, Dòchas is Carthannas (Gaelic for Faith, Hope and Charity). They were commissioned on 21 January 2005 and are capable of generating up to 675 kW of power. Revenue is produced by selling the electricity to the grid via an intermediary called Green Energy UK. Gigha residents control the whole project and profits are reinvested in the community.
Another community-owned wind farm, Westmill Wind Farm Cooperative, opened in May 2008 in the Oxfordshire village of Watchfield. It consists of five 1.3 megawatt turbines, and is described by its promoters as the UK's largest community-owned wind farm. It was structured as a cooperative, whose shares and loan stock were sold to the local community. Other businesses, such as Midcounties Co-operative, also invested, and the Co-operative Bank provided a loan.
Community Energy Scotland is an independent Scottish charity established in 2008 that provides advice and financial support for renewable energy projects developed by community groups in Scotland. The stated aim of Community Energy Scotland is 'to build confidence, resilience and wealth at community level in Scotland through sustainable energy development'.
Findhorn Ecovillage has four Vestas wind turbines which can generate up to 750 kW. These make the community net exporters of renewable-generated electricity. Most of the generation is used on-site with any surplus exported to the National Grid.
Boyndie Wind Farm Co-operative is part of the Energy4All group, which promotes community ownership. A number of other schemes supported by Highlands and Islands Community Energy Company are in the pipeline.
Unity Wind Ltd is an industrial and provident society that intends to install two 2MW wind turbines at North Walsham in North Norfolk. Its key aim is community wind turbines installed and run by community investment and for financial benefit to the community.
United States
In 2009, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory published a report that identified three different types of community wind projects in the United States.. The first model describes a project owned by a municipal utility, such as the Hull Wind Project in Massachusetts. The second model is a wind project that is jointly owned by local community members, such as the MinWind Projects near Luverne, Minnesota. The third type is a flip-style ownership. This model allows local investors to partner with a corporation in order to take advantage of Production Tax Credit federal incentives. Flip projects have been built in Minnesota and Texas.
So are Solar Co-operatives.
OFFSHORE WIND FARMS:
India has a long coastline. There is much progress in offshore wind farms in Europe especially in UK and US, China,Taiwan have ambitious plans. The advantage of offshore Wind farms( about 10 km away from the coast) is wind on the sea is higher as roughness factor of water and ice is zero. Since there will be no obstacles for free flow of wind compared onshore wind speeds will be about 30% higher offshore. In the power equation Power is having cubic relation with velocity of wind. Other factors remaining constant wind energy offshore will be about 30# more nearby onshore. Moreover because of higher velocities large wind turbines can be deployed. Capacities of even 8 MW wind turbines are established.
It is unfortunate even though India occupies 5th position in the world on wind, is yet to start offshore wind farms.
Hitherto incentives like Depreciation are given to big industries who set up Renewable Energy Projects. A Renewable Energy Fund can be created by Central Government and contributions under Section 80C by individual tax payers can be exempted. This way there will be he money for Renewable Energy Projects recurring annually besides mass involvement in Renewable Energy.
Dr.A.Jagadeesh Nellore(AP)
Renewable Energy Expert
E- Mail: anumakonda.jagadeesh@gmail.com
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