标签: renewable resources

India has the opportunity to wisely direct the investment that needs to be made. How should this be done? This should be tackled on several parallel fronts. Energy efficient products should be one of the first issues to be tackled. Lighting continues to be a need for the people who are either without electricity or suffer from hours of denied electricity service everyday. Cutting back from traditional incandescent, even fluorescent lighting towards more efficient lighting technologies, such as solid state lighting, can reduce energy consumption by as much as 90%. It should be recognized that if an individual or a community meets their electricity requirements with dramatically reduced peak demand, then this translates into a permanent reduction in generation capacity that has to be connected. This translates into negative watts or ‘negawatts’ that have to be provided by the government, when compared with the conventional load that the community would represent. For a small village with 1000 homes, this could be as much as Rs 20 crores in capital cost savings that may be realized if such communities adopt a lower energy solution, with additional operating fuel cost savings of as much as Rs 10 crores over 20 years, if the solution is carbon-neutral.   Providing even half the saved capital investment as a subsidy could seed the formation of thousands of electricity cooperatives or ‘co-ops’ that provide carbon-free energy for select applications. This could be from renewable resources such as bio-gas generation, or solar/wind power all mixed with energy storage and distributed microgrid technologies, and could be rapidly implemented by private enterprise. Proper documentation and validation of avoided carbon emissions could provide additional financial benefits through carbon credits that could enhance the financial viability of such projects. Whether such projects are implemented at the village level using the co-op model, or at an individual home owner level using micro-credit programs, there is significant benefit to be realized at the national and individual level, by seeding the creation of such carbon-neutral energy hubs.   Just as most of India jumped directly to mobile phones, bypassing the traditional land-line, we need to move directly to a carbon-neutral energy infrastructure – starting with our villages. By choosing the most efficient technologies for lighting, electronic loads, heating, cooling and transportation, one can directly tackle the problem of bringing energy to the masses, at a cost point that is lower than a traditional infrastructure build-out would cost. From the outset, we should introduce energy access, not as an entitlement, but as a service, the cost of which varies depending on availability of the resource. For a population increasingly comfortable with variable cell phone rates, and currently facing a situation of no electricity at all, this may be fully acceptable.   Such an approach can provide a win-win scenario at the individual, state and national level, while also allowing reduction in carbon emissions – good at the planetary level. Appropriate financial incentives offer savings in public investments needed, and provide incentives for the private sector to establish and scale a sustainable energy infrastructure. This will also trigger the deployment of large amounts of competitive solutions, such as biogas, solar PV and efficient lighting solutions, driving the costs down as production volumes scale up to meet demand.   It is time to question the basic assumptions that drive us forward into a new tomorrow. When people ask whether we can afford to adopt ‘expensive’ new solutions, the question should really be – can we afford to not adopt these solutions!

China, India and some of the emerging economies have bounced back from the global recession faster than the developed countries. This is obviously a good thing. This shows that increasing internal demand, and not the global economy, has been the major engine driving India’s growth. The anemic pace of growth in the economically developed countries also provides India a breather when it comes to energy prices. The peak oil prices of $147/barrel are a distant memory, as we resume our petrol consumption binge. We also have 20% of our people to bring into the electricity age, and another 50% into the age of reasonably reliable electricity. Without sufficient energy, our economy will sputter along, and will never match the Chinese economic engine. Also, as the developed countries resume their economic growth, the upward pressures on petroleum prices will resume, and a dangerous cycle could be initiated.   One way to meet imminent energy needs is to continue to expand the infrastructure in the current paradigm: more cars to meet the demand, more coal, natural gas and hydro generation, and some lip service to renewable energy. While this will better satisfy pent-up near-term demand, this is also a recipe for a long-term problem. Electricity generation requires massive capital investments – ranging from $600 - $6,000 per kilowatt (Rs 27,000 crores for 1000 MW additional capacity). These investments last for 50-60 years, and can be further extended through proper maintenance. Further, fuel costs of over Rs 1000/MW-Hr delivered show a long term operating cost burden. If India makes the massive investments needed to add 100,000 MW of new capacity, sufficient to power 100,000 villages with bare minimal energy requirements, this will create a long-term legacy that future generations will have to live with. This will also make the transformation to a sustainable carbon-neutral energy infrastructure very difficult.    

Copenhagen was a bust! There is scientific consensus that carbon emissions due to human activity and climate change are linked. Everyone agrees that it is critically important that carbon emissions need to be reduced. Then why is it so difficult for world leaders to agree on what needs to be done? Developed nations have caused the carbon problem through their conspicuous consumption. However, now all nations are being invited to participate in reducing their carbon emissions to help save the planet. Emerging nations are likely to see a direct hit on cost of energy and GDP growth, directly impacting the prosperity of their people. A choice between saving the family and the planet is no choice at all—we must have both!  Let’s face it. Whereas we would all like to have no carbon emissions, we are really not prepared to give up our car, scooter or the various appliances we now have at home. We work hard for our family’s comfort and prosperity, and we are not really prepared to give up our fan, refrigerator or air conditioning. We want the lights to turn on, regardless of whether the electricity is there or not. However, we also like having fuel for our car and for cooking, and electricity for the home and office, at a cost-effective price that we have become accustomed to. A major increase in energy prices would simply not be acceptable. This creates a dilemma for the energy providers and for the government. It is clear that if fossil fuel prices were the same as for renewable resources, there is no question of which one would be preferred. That is still not the case. Solar energy prices are currently 2-3 times the price of conventional fossil fuel based electricity. Can we then justify the wide scale deployment of alternative energy technologies? What are the various technology options that are available, both globally and in particular for emerging nations such as India? Can these technologies be scaled to a national and global level? What actions can we take at an individual, national and global level to ensure that the world is preserved for our future generations? These are the questions that will be addressed in this blog. I look forward to a spirited dialog with our readers. These are issues that touch us all, and that can be effectively solved with the right mix of technology, economics and policy.