GEARED FOR THE MILLENIUM
B.S. Padmanabhan *
The recent war in
Iraq and the resultant rise in the crude oil prices have once
again brought into sharp focus the issue of energy security of
the developing countries like India which are dependent on imported
oil to meet their growing energy requirements. India has been
one of the earliest in the world to recognise the need for reducing
dependence on oil imports by exploiting the potential of new and
renewable sources of energy (NRSE). Way back in the 1950s Indian
scientists developed solar cookers and water heaters. These were
technologically sound but failed to pass the test of economic
viability due to low prices and easy availability of oil at that
time. The oil shocks of the 1970s and 1980s led to a revival of
interest in NRSE and since then successive governments have been
putting in place a series of policy initiatives to promote NRSE
devices. Over the years there has been a steady growth in the
deployment of NRSE devices for a variety of applications but the
progress during the last five years has been quite spectacular.
This is evident from
the two-fold increase in the installed capacity of power generation
based on renewable sources from 1378 MW five years ago to 3800
MW at present. This represents 3.5 per cent of the total installed
power capacity of 107533 MW from all sources. The contribution
of renewable sources to the total installed power capacity has
surpassed even that of nuclear energy, which is 2720 MW only.
The progress is not confined to power generation but is also visible
in all other areas of application of NRSE.
Political Commitment
This can be attributed
mainly to the political commitment at all levels in the government.
Indicative of this was the creation of a separate Department for
Non-Conventional Energy Sources in 1982, which was upgraded into
a full-fledged Ministry ten years later. This has earned for India
the distinction of being the only country in the world to have
an exclusive Ministry for NRSE. More recently, the political commitment
at the highest level was reflected in the mention about promotion
of renewable energy made in the customary President’s address
to the joint session of Parliament on February 19, 2001. It was
perhaps for the first time that this subject had found mention
in the President’s address, which represented the agenda for government
action. The President announced the Government’s commitment to
increase the contribution of NRSE in the total power generation
capacity to 10,000 MW by 2012.
Apart from political
commitment a few other factors have helped in promotion of NRSE
devices. One is the abundant endowment of renewable energy sources
like sun, wind, small hydro and biomass in our country. The second
is the increasing global concern over atmospheric pollution, global
warming and rising sea levels caused by excessive consumption
of energy based on fossil fuel and emission of green house gases.
The third factor is the dwindling reserves of fossil fuels. The
world community today uses up in one minute what it took the earth
a millennium to create. At this rate the world will run out of
the conventional sources of energy well before the end of this
millenium. In this context NRSE has emerged a viable alternative
to ensure eco-friendly and sustainable development on the one
hand and energy security on the other. At the global level a Clean
Development Mechanism (CDM) has been launched envisaging technology
transfer and financial assistance from the developed to the developing
countries to promote NRSE systems. Almost all the countries have
taken initiatives to move away from a fossil fuel-based economy
and India is among those in the forefront of these efforts by
implementing one of the world’s largest broad-spectrum programmes
covering the whole range of renewable energy sources.
Constraints
However, large-scale
promotion of NRSE systems has been constrained by a number of
factors, the most important being the high initial cost of their
installation compared to conventional energy systems. Moreover,
almost all the renewable energy systems need some form of a backup
in the event of reduced availability of sources like sunlight
and wind. This pushes the cost of installation. But this is offset
by the low or almost negligible running cost as the feedstock
is available free. The other barriers include lack of sufficient
technical manpower for maintenance and servicing of renewable
energy devices, lack of sufficient awareness among prospective
consumers, inadequate standardisation of equipment and components
and, above all, the lack of a uniform or at least a near-uniform
policy among the State Governments in respect of purchase of power
based on renewable energy sources and promotional measures.
Government Initiatives
The Policy Statement
envisages goals covering 30 million households through improved
chulhas, installing an additional 3 million family size biogas
plants, deploying 5 million solar lanterns and 2 million solar
lighting systems, electrification by NRSE devices of 18,000 villages,
which cannot be reached by conventional grid power, and deploying
solar water heating systems in one million homes by 2012, besides
increasing the share of renewables to at least 10 per cent of
new power capacity addition projected for the period up to 2012.
The targeted trebling
of the installed capacity of power from renewable sources is considered
feasible, as there is a large untapped potential. The estimated
potential is 100,000 MW—45000 MW from wind, 19500 MW from biomass/cogeneration,
15000 MW from small hydro projects, 1700 MW from municipal and
industrial waste and 20 MW/square kilometre from the sun. The
achievement so far is less than 4 per cent of the potential. The
MNES seeks to tap the potential to the optimum extent by enhancing
the cost-competitiveness of NRSE systems through market-creating
interventions, time-bound performance incentives, mandatory set-asides
for renewables in all conventional power projects, mandatory purchase
of renewables-based electricity by electricity grids and remunerative
tariff for renewables-based power. The promotional efforts of
the MNES have started bearing fruit and NRSE devices are no longer
viewed with skepticism as is evident from the increasing interest
evinced by leading industrial houses in not only installing these
systems in their units but also setting up facilities for manufacturing
them. This process has been facilitated by the sustained growth
in renewable energy technologies, besides a range of policy initiatives
and incentive packages from the government. As a result, the economics
of power generation based on renewable sources has improved.
Wind Power
The installed wind
power capacity has risen to1870 MW making India occupy the fifth
position in the world. A noteworthy feature is that most of this
capacity, i.e. 1807 MW, is contributed by commercial projects
in the private sector. This implies that the wind power programme
has graduated from demonstration to commercial stage. Demonstration
projects are still there but mostly confined to new potential
areas where wind projects have not been undertaken so far. Over
11 billion units of electricity has been fed to the grid from
the wind power projects. The massive wind resource assessment
programme with 1000 wind monitoring and mapping stations, in 25
States the preparation of master plans for potential sites in
10 States and the establishment of the Centre for Wind Energy
Technology (C-WET) at Chennai and the Wind Turbine Test Station
at Kayathar in Tamil Nadu in the last five years have helped in
the development of the wind power sector.
Besides exclusive
wind power projects, wind-diesel hybrid projects are being promoted
particularly in island areas which are heavily dependent on costly
diesel for power generation. The first phase of a wind-diesel
hybrid power project of 100KW capacity was completed at Sagar
Islands in West Bengal during 2002-03 and the second phase of
400 KW capacity is being taken up during the current year. Similar
projects are being developed for Lakshadweep and Andaman &
Nicobar Islands.
Small Hydro Projects(SHP)
Next to wind, the
small hydro sector holds great promise in our country. Hydel projects
with capacity up to 25 MW have been brought under the purview
of the MNES, which was earlier in charge of only projects up to
3 MW capacity. The transfer of projects up to 25 MW to MNES by
the present Government has helped significantly in the development
of this sector. Its contribution to the installed capacity of
power generation has risen to 1463 MW. In order to exploit the
potential to the maximum extent the MNES has created a database
for SHP projects, which includes 4215 potential sites with an
aggregate capacity of 10,279 MW. The SHP sector can meet the power
requirements of the remote and hilly regions and thereby spur
an overall economic development of these regions. This is particularly
true of the Himalayan and sub-Himalayan regions and a number of
SHP schemes are being undertaken there. A high priority has been
accorded for commercialization of the SHP sector through private
participation and a number of fiscal incentives are being offered.
With appropriate systems for evacuation and utilisation of power
from these projects being put in place, the SHP projects have
become an economically viable and acceptable alternative to conventional
power.
Biomass Power
The contribution
of biomass power to the total installed capacity is no less significant
because of abundant availability of agricultural residues and
bagasse. The MNES has launched the world’s largest cogeneration
programme in the sugar mills and has simultaneously been promoting
biomass power generation from surplus agricultural residues. As
a result, biomass power projects with an aggregate capacity of
484 MW have been commissioned. Of this bagasse-based co-generation
projects account for 304 MW. The MNES has taken fresh initiatives
to give a momentum to co-generation not only in sugar mills but
quite a few other industries. Co-generation in core industry sectors
has an estimated potential of generating 10,000 MW of surplus
power for being fed into the grid. The co-generation and biomass-based
power projects have transformed rural life in many States. The
MNES has taken up taluka-level biomass resource assessment studies
and initiated a project for preparing a Biomass Resources Atlas
for the country.
India has also emerged
as a world leader in the area of small-scale biomass gasification.
Biomass gasifiers with capacity to produce power from a few kW
up to 500 kW have been developed indigenously. Besides meeting
domestic requirements, these are now being exported not only to
the developing countries of Asia and Latin America but also to
Europe and the USA. A total capacity of 53 MW has so far been
installed, mainly for stand-alone applications. A greater focus
is being laid on promoting village electrification and on meeting
rural energy needs for various applications through biomass gasifier
systems.
Solar Power
Grid-quality power
can be generated from solar energy through thermal and photovoltaic
routes. Under the solar thermal power programme, a 140 MW Integrated
Solar Combined Cycle (ISCC) Power Project is being set up at Mathania
near Jodhpur in Rajasthan. It has solar thermal component of 35
MW based on parabolic trough collectors. The balance 105 MW will
be based on Re-gasified Liquid Natural Gas. This project is first
of its kind in the world and large-scale promotion of solar thermal
power generation in India would depend on the experience gained
in this project being put up with financial assistance from Global
Environment Facility (GEF) and the KfW of Germany. This again
is a project conceived and processed in the course of the last
five years.
The cumulative achievement
of installed capacity through SPV systems has reached 107 MW.
But even at this low level the SPV power plants have brought immense
benefits to the rural and remote areas besides island regions
in terms of home lighting and street lighting. Installed the capacity
of grid-connected SPV power projects has reached 2.5 MW.In island
regions, reducing the consumption of diesel. This, in turn, has
helped save on the cost of transportation of diesel from the mainland
and its storage, besides preserving the island ecology. The grid-interactive
SPV power systems have helped in providing voltage support for
the weak grids in the remote areas, while in the urban centres
these have helped in providing power for peak load saving.
Power From Wastes
Urban wastes constitute
a rich source of energy with a potential of 1700 MW of power generation—1000
MW from municipal wastes and 700 MW from industrial wastes. Waste-to-energy
projects with an aggregate capacity of 25 MW have come up so far.
This may appear insignificant but their value lies in finding
a profitable use for the large quantities of wastes piling up
in towns and cities in the wake of rapid urbanisation and industrialisation,
thereby ensuring a clean environment. It is estimated that 40
million tonnes of solid waste and 5000 million cubic metres of
liquid waste is generated every year in the urban areas.
Besides these, chemical,
geo-thermal and ocean energy sources have good potential. However,
the technologies in these areas are mostly in the development
stage and hence it would take quite some time for these to reach
the stage of commercialisation. The R&D efforts have led to
development of battery-operated three-wheelers and cars and fuel
cell technology.
Solar Thermal
Energy Systems
The MNES has initiated
programmes to exploit solar energy—estimated at 5000 trillion
kWh per year—for a variety of applications like cooking, water
heating, drying of farm produce, water pumping, home and street
lighting, for meeting decentralised requirements in villages,
schools and hospitals. Solar water heating systems have become
popular following promotional measures taken by the MNES. A number
of institutions including hotels and hostels have gone in for
these systems. Water-heating systems with 680,000 sq.m of collector
area have so far been installed against an estimated potential
of 140 million sq.m of collector area. The State Governments have
been advised to provide for solar water heating systems in certain
categories of buildings mandatory by making necessary modifications
in the building bylaws.
Solar cooking systems
are picking up fast. The Self-Employed Workers Scheme launched
in 1999-2000 has helped in building up a cadre of local technicians
well-trained in repairs and proper use of solar cookers, including
preparation of various recipes. Besides promoting solar cookers
this has helped to generate employment opportunities in the rural
areas. Besides the box type cookers, solar concentrating cookers
are being promoted for mass cooking to cater to large congregations
of people. Three types of such cookers—Dish Solar Cooker to cater
to 10-15 persons at a time, the Community Solar Cooker (Scheffler)
for 35 to 40 persons and Solar Steam Cooking System, which can
cook food for a few thousand people—are being promoted. A number
of institutions have gone in for one or the other of these systems
depending upon the number of people to be catered to. The latest
to join this list is the Tirumalai Tirupathi Devasthanam, which
has recently commissioned the world’s largest system with a capacity
to prepare food for 15000 pilgrims. Over the last few years 500
dish type cookers and 60 community cookers have been installed.
The Ministry has
also been promoting solar air heating systems and solar buildings.
The solar air heaters are popular among industries which require
hot air at low temperature ranges as process heat for drying.
The concept of solar building envisages climate-responsive building
designs with optimum use of solar energy and other forms of ambient
energy. This would help reduce energy consumption to keep the
interior of a building comfortable. A number of programmes have
been organised to spread awareness of this concept. Quite a few
buildings based on this concept have come up in different parts
of the country.
SPV Systems
The solar photovoltaic
(SPV) technology enables direct conversion of sunlight into electricity
without causing pollution. The SPV systems have emerged as a viable
option to meet the electrical energy needs in the rural and remote
areas. The systems being promoted are lanterns, home lighting
systems, street lighting systems and water pumps. So far 10 lakh
SPV systems with an aggregate capacity of 107 MWp have been deployed.
Of these systems with an aggregate capacity of 46 MWp have been
exported. The Ministry has an ambitious plan of reaching electricity
to 18000 unelectrified villages through stand-alone SPV power
plants and grid-interactive power generation over the next two
Plan periods. Research and development work has been stepped up
for cost reduction in SPV cells, modules and systems besides improvement
in operational efficiency.
The SPV technology
is also being deployed for water pumping, particularly for agriculture
and related uses. So far, 5113 SPV water pumping systems have
been set up. Besides, water pumping wind-mills, small aerogenerators
and hybrid systems are being promoted to harness both solar and
wind energy potential for rural and remote area applications.
As many as 854 windmills have been set up so far. Small aerogenerator
systems with an aggregate capacity of 183 kW have also been installed.
Renewable energy is geared to become the energy of the millennium.
*
Senior Freelance Journalist
