1.1 Introduction
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| Renewable Energy |
Energy is one of the major inputs for the economic development of any country. In the case of developing countries, the energy sector assumes a critical importance in view of the ever increasing energy needs requiring huge investments to meet them.
Classification of energy
Energy can be classified into several types based on the following criteria:
. Primary and Secondary energy
. Commercial and Non commercial energy
. Renewable and Non-Renewable energy
1.2 Primary and Secondary Energy
Primary energy sources are those that are either found or stored in nature. Common primary
energy sources are coal, oil, natural gas, and biomass (such as wood). Other primary energy sources available include nuclear energy from radioactive substances, thermal energy stored in earth’s interior, and potential energy due to earth's gravity.
Secondary Energy sources are obtained by conversion of primary energy into industrial utilities into secondary energy sources; for example coal, oil or gas converted into steam and electricity
1.3 Commercial Energy and Non Commercial Energy
Commercial Energy
The energy sources that are available in the market for a definite price are known as commercial energy. By far the most important forms of commercial energy are electricity, coal and refined petroleum products. Commercial energy forms the basis of industrial, agricultural, transport and commercial development in the modern world. In the industrialized countries, commercialized fuels are predominant source not only for economic production, but also for many household tasks of general population.
Examples: Electricity, lignite, coal, oil, natural gas etc.
Non-Commercial Energy
The energy sources that are not available in the commercial market for a price are classified as non-commercial energy. Non-commercial energy sources include fuels such as firewood, cattle dung and agricultural wastes, which are traditionally gathered, and not bought at a price used especially in rural households. These are also called traditional fuels. Non-commercial energy is often ignored in energy accounting.
Example: Firewood, agro waste in rural areas; solar energy for water heating, electricity generation, for drying grain, fish and fruits; animal power for transport, threshing, lifting water for irrigation, crushing sugarcane; wind energy for lifting water and electricity generation.
1.4 Renewable and Non-Renewable Energy
Renewable energy is energy obtained from sources that are essentially inexhaustible. Examples of renewable resources include wind power, solar power, geothermal energy, tidal power and hydroelectric power. The most important feature of renewable energy is that it can be harnessed without the release of harmful pollutants.
Non-renewable energy is the conventional fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas, which are likely to deplete with time.
1.5 Shares of energy sources
We have to find out the better utilization of inexhaustible source of energy like: wind power, solar power, geothermal energy, tidal power and hydroelectric power.
1.6 ENERGY CONSUMPTION PER CAPITA
Society is measured by the number of calories consumed per capita per year.
Country Unit (KWH)
PAKISTAN 69
INDONESIA 145
INDIA 425
CHINA 1248
UK 5600
USA 13000
1.7 Power generation
POWER GENERATION ROOT
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CAPACITY (MW)
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%
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THERMAL
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103449
|
64.7
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HYDRO
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36913
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24.7
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NUCLEAR
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4560
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2.9
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SOLAR/WIND/BIOMASS
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16429
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7.7
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TOTAL
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1,61,351
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100
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1.8 Fossil fuels
Coal, Oil and Natural gas are the non-renewable sources of energy. They are also called fossil fuels as they are products of plants that lived thousands of years ago. Fossil fuels are the predominantly used energy sources today. India has about seven per cent of the world's proven coal reserves. Coal supplies more than 50% of the country's total energy requirements India requires 210 MT of crude oil annually, and 75% of it is imported. Burning fossil fuels cause great amount of environmental pollution.
1.9 Hydel
India has a total hydro energy potential of about 1.5 lakh MW of which about 20 % is installed. Small hydro plant potential is about 15000 MW and most of it is in the northern and eastern hilly regions. The film ‘Swades’ is a perfect example of how power starved villages could realize their sources in to power.
1.10 Wind Energy
The wind power potential of India is about 45,000 MW out of which capacity of 8748 MW has been installed in India till 31st March 2008. India is one of the leading countries in generating the power through wind energy. Gujarat, AP, Karnataka, MP and Rajasthan are states having more than 5000 MW potential each. These potentials could be improved if the technology of putting turbines in sea is embraced. There are wind farms on sea generating as high as 160 MW of power.
1.11 Biogas / Biomass
Biomass is the oldest means of energy used by humans along with solar energy. As soon as the fire was discovered, it was used widely among humans mainly for heat and light. Fire was generated using wood or leaves, which is basically a biomass. Even today there are thousands of houses using firewood for preparation of food, heating water for bath, etc. The efficiency of such a process is very low as most of the heat is lost to the surroundings.
Biomass is converted into gas through a gasifier after combustion. The biomass could be used to generate steam or power or used as a fuel. There are various examples of gasifier power plants in India. Power is generated using rice husk in Andhra Pradesh, while several bagasse based plants are there. India has a potential of 3500 MW from bagasse. Other fast growing plants could be planned over a huge area, so that it provides biomass for generating power.
1.12 Bio-fuels
India has more than 50 million Ha of wasteland, which could be utilized for cultivating plants. Jatropha is one of the options thought of by many minds for producing bio-fuels. It is a kind of plant which can come up on arid land, albeit with lower yield. There are issues such as low supply of quality seeds, technical advice, low knowledge of agencies which would buy seeds etc. But lately such agencies have come up and are offering technical advice as well as buying for further processing.
Another option is coming up in bio-fuels which will beat Jatropha once the research on it is successful and scalable. Lot of it is being talked about around the world in the field of bio-fuels and is so attractive theoretically that anyone could go for it. When the output is compared in terms of oil in liter per acre, it is better than Jatropha by about 100 times.
This option is Algae.
The input is none other than carbon dioxide – the old foe of clean environment and light – which is aplenty. Just by using these two things algae grows, and could be used for extracting oil and then extracting bio-fuel from it. It will also act as a sink for carbon dioxide and seems to be the most attractive option. In a way it should be called utilization of solar energy!
1.13 Solar energy
The oldest source of energy to be used on earth! Even today, this is used to dry tons of material – mostly in rural areas. India is a tropical country and has many sunny days. According to estimates, 35 MW of power could be generated from 1 sq km. With such potential, solar is going to be the future. The start-up cost is the biggest limitation which has led to the low realization of the potential it has. For solar energy to become one of the front runners, it will require lot of research, cheap technology and low capital.
There are various technologies coming up around the world, which could be up scaled or replicated to use solar energy. Cooking, lighting, water heating and open air drying applications are common now-a-days, using solar energy. There are other applications like solar vehicles, desalination, agriculture, etc. which are coming up. It will take time to catch up because of the high cost involved in it. The two main methods of converting solar energy in to power are:
i) Photovoltaic cells
ii) Concentrated solar power and any operating fluid.
i) Photovoltaic cells
ii) Concentrated solar power and any operating fluid.
1.14 Energy from wastes
Tons of wastes are generated daily in Mumbai alone. Such huge quantity of wastes generated all over India, are a huge opportunity to be tapped. Sorting is required to be done for organic and inorganic and there is a good quantity for energy needs. Some of these are converted into fuel briquettes and sold.
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