Author: TasmayShetty

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ENERGY EFFICIENCY AND SUSTAINABILITY IN INDIA

THE POTENTIAL FOR SUSTAINABLE POWER DEVELOPMENT IN INDIA

SOLAR

On average India is said to have around 300 sunny days in a year. The theoretical solar energy received by India’s land mass is around 5000 trillion kilowatt-hours per year. This value is greater than the combined energy from all of India’s fossil fuel energy reserves. As of September 2016, the country’s solar grid has a capacity of 8626 MW. In addition to large scale harvesting of solar energy, India has utilised smaller scale technologies that run on solar power. Kerosene lanterns are being replaced by solar powered lanterns in rural India.

In 2013, Cochin International Airport in South India started its ambitious project of going completely off the public electricity grid. Three years later it became the first fully solar powered airport in the world. The solar plant comprises of 46,150 solar panels laid across 45 acres of land. This plant is capable of generating 50,000 kilowatts of electricity daily.  There are plans underway to double the electricity production by 2017.

Most of the project was constructed in six months and the $ 10 million spent on it is projected to be recovered in the six years following construction. This solar power plant will produce energy equivalent to that produced by burning 3 metric tonnes of Coal (India’s most common source of electricity).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLAfpn09cco

 

WIND

Since 1986 when the first wind farms were set up in India, the country has progressed to become the 4th largest harvester of wind energy in the world. India’s estimated potential for wind farms is said to be around 2000 GW per year. Wind power accounts for close to 3% of India’s total power generation capacity. Around 70% of the wind energy is harvested during the 5 months of monsoon between May and September.

HYDROELECTRIC

The exploitable hydroelectric power potential is estimated at around 148000 MW per year. As of 2016, the harvested capacity was around 40000 MW which was 14.35% of total utility electricity generation in India. Most of the harvested hydro energy is from power plants in North and West India. The hydro power potential in Central India is largely unexploited due to opposition from the local population.

Sites with the potential to develop smaller scale hydro projects (less than 25 MW) exist throughout the country. Pumped storage units have allowed better energy balancing during peak hours and better coordination with solar power generation.

BIO FUEL

Jatropha curcas plant seeds are the main source of bio-fuel in India. The seeds of the plant are rich in oil and have been used as a source of bio-diesel by rural communities for several decades. Along with being a renewable and cleaner source of energy; bio fuel generation and usage helps strengthen India’s economy by reducing the nation’s dependence on foreign fossil fuels. Indian government has announced a policy of 20% blending of transportation fuels with bio fuels by 2017. Part of the inspiration to use more bio-fuels comes from the need to reduce the amount of air pollution in urban environments. Transportation vehicles are seen as the largest contributors to the deteriorating air quality in some of India’s largest cities.

GOVERNMENT POLICY MEASURES FOR ENERGY EFFICIENCY AND SUSTAINABILITY

UNNAT JYOTHI by Affordable LED’s for All (UJALA)

The UJALA programme promotes replacement of inefficient incandescent light bulbs with LED bulbs. Within the first year of this programme’s launch, 90 million LED bulbs were sold in the country reducing the electricity bills by US $820 million. The government’s target is to replace 770 million incandescent bulbs by 2019 with an annual estimated reduction of 20000 MW and savings of around US $5.9 billion in electricity bills alone.

JAWAHARLAL NEHERU NATIONAL SOLAR MISSION

JNNSM is an overarching goal to promote solar power generation. Some of the key components of this plan are:

  • Aggressive Research and Development into Solar Technology
  • Domestic production of Raw materials and components needed for solar power generation
  • Large scale goals for deployment of solar plants

Under this mission, capital costs of solar power station installation are subsidised. Subsidies are also offered for smaller scale solar technology implementation like PV water pumping systems for irrigation used in rural India.

STANDARDS AND LABELLING SCHEME

The S&L scheme is an attempt to curb the demand at the consumption level by enforcing certain standards for appliance manufacturers. All appliance manufacturers are required by law to label their products with a star rating system. Five stars for an appliance implies maximum efficiency for that product class. This system is intended to help consumers make more informed decisions on purchasing energy efficient appliances.

IDENTIFICATION OF SMALL HYDRO POWER SITES (LESS THAN 25 MW capacity)

This program is intended to encourage exploration and identification of small hydro power sites. Submission of a site plan and detailed project report on such sites will entitle the researching party for financial support of Rs. 6 lakhs for each project site identified below 1 MW; and Rs. 10 lakhs for each project identified over 1 MW. Various government agencies and local bodies are eligible to participate in this program.

 

 REFERENCES

 

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MEASURES OF SUSTAINIBILITY APPLIED TO THE CIRS BUILDING AT UBC

MEASURE 1: Design & Innovation

CIRS is aimed at being a regenerative building whose existence will improve the quality of the environment. This building contributes to reducing the energy use and carbon emissions. The building sequesters more carbon than the construction and decommissioning of the building will produce overtime.

MEASURE 2: Regional/ Community Design

Roof of the building is designed to be a self sustaining ecosystem where the vegetation includes indigenous plants for local birds and insects.

MEASURE 3: Land use and site ecology

The area of land that CIRS is built on improves the quality of the surrounding environment. It cleans the water it receives, captures heat that would otherwise be emitted to the environment and harbours vegetation that enriches the surrounding ecosystem.

MEASURE 4: Bio-climatic Design

Much of the heating in CIRS comes from the ground and from the heat exhausts from the building next door. Significant amount of the ventilation is from wind and a large part of the electricity is from the sun. This is really a building that survives within the natural flows of the environment.

MEASURE 5: Light and Air

Building is oriented to make optimal use of the daylight received by the site. The higher location of the windows allows for deeper penetration of the daylight into the interior spaces of the building. Solar shades and spandrel panels help control the glare and heat gain from the sun.

MEASURE 6: Water Cycle

All the water used in the building comes from the rain and the water leaving the building is of a better quality than the rain that is received on the roof. CIRS cleans the quality of the water and achieves a net positive in terms of water quality.

MEASURE 7: Energy flows and future energy

Uses geo exchange and solar energy. Uses waste heat from the Earth and Ocean Sciences building next door and captures the energy that would other wise be emitted to the environment.

MEASURE 8: Materials and construction

Wood used for the main structure of the building sequesters 600 tonnes of carbon. This is more carbon than the emissions from all the other construction materials, construction processes and decommissioning and the end of the lifetime of the building.

MEASURE 9: Long life, loose fit

CIRS is designed with ecological, social and economic rationale. Not only does it aim to improve the quality of the environment overtime it also aims to improve the health of its occupant. Flexibility, modularity, adaptability and expandability principles were included in the design of CIRS to ensure that it can adapt to new uses and respond to future space configuration requirements without the need of expensive and wasteful renovations.

MEASURE 10: Collective wisdom and feedback loops

In many ways CIRS is a research project that is intended to identify which processes and techniques work well and which ones have more scope for improvement. Research and observations of the way the building functions and interacts with the environment are ongoing and this knowledge will be used to improve sustainable designs of buildings in the future.

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