India's Thrust on Renewable Energy Resource - Power

By Prabir Sen

Let us first understand what energy is.

We need energy to move about and work. We need healthy food to get that energy. The plants convert the sunlight and water into energy to grow. On the other hand, we use energy to travel from place to place in a car or in a plane, and it is this energy that we use to light and heat our homes. We use the energy stored in fuels, when gasoline is used to power the car. The engine in the car transforms energy in fuel to work on the wheels, for the car to move.
The energy that we put to use every day comes from the Earth's natural resources, and these resources could be classified into two categories; renewable and non-renewable energy. It is the energy that we can use over and over again, which we call renewable energy, for example wood. We get more and more wood by growing trees, the source is far from running out at present. But, as far as gasoline is concerned, the resource has already started to deplete, and the energy that we get from fuel is a non-renewable energy.

The solar power is now being used to generate the much wanted electricity using the photovoltaic energy, converting the Sun's rays to generate electric power. These photo cells are devices, made from silicon alloys, which produce electric energy when the Sun light falls on it. The Sun’s rays are composed of photons, which contain various degree of energy, and this energy corresponds to the different wave-lengths of the solar spectrum. When the sunlight strikes a photocell, the photons falling on it either gets absorbed, reflected, or pass through. It is those photons that get absorbed produces electricity. As the Sun's rays strike the surface of the photovoltaic cell, electron migration takes place, and this creates imbalance of charge, which appears as a voltage potential at the output. A large array of these photovoltaic cells are used to produce enough electricity to light up a small house. The Sun light is therefore a renewable energy source, which could be harnessed to provide power.

India's total installation of power capacity is a little over 124,000 MW and out of that 60% is coal based, with hydro at 25%, and the rest are coming from gas and nuclear energy. Power shortfall has been estimated at 11% of the total energy, and 15% of the peak capacity requirements. These are likely to increase. It has been recently announced that the country would be facing a sudden power shortage of 70,000 MW, and several measures are being taken by the Indian Government to avert the shortfall. However, the power sector planning estimates, that another 10,000 MW of capacity will be required by the country in the in the near future, with the requirement of a further 10,000 MW in the next 10 years.

There are environmental concerns about coal-base power plants, related to its emissions of particulate matters, sulfur dioxide, nitrous oxide, carbon dioxide, methane and other gases.

As regards the other alternative, Hydro-power plants can lead to degradation of soil, erosion, destruction of forest, wildlife displacement, and most important of all displacement of human habitats. The Indian Government has put the use of renewable energy in its top priority list to encounter the shortfalls envisaged.

Being a tropical and sub-tropical region, most part of the country experiences a clear sunny weather, over 250 to 300 days a year. This is comparable to the annual global radiation, which varies from 1600 to 2200 kWh/sq.m, which provides an equivalent energy potential of about 6,000 million GWh per year. According to the report maintained by the India Meteorological Department, the state of Rajasthan and Gujarat receives the highest annual global radiation, and with a large part of the land in the state of Rajasthan being barren and scarcely populated, it has become a suitable site for large central power stations based on solar energy.

In the sunny state of Rajasthan, the Indian Government is about to complete a huge new power station using hybrid systems. This fossil fuel/solar hybrid power plant is poised to generate a huge 140 megawatts of electric power, out of which 40 megawatt will be produced from a large array of solar parabolic troughs. The technology, which is much more cost effective than photovoltaic cells, uses large parabolic mirrors to focus the sunlight to heat a thermal media, like, gas or steam, which in turn drives a turbine generator. The project cost runs to about $1 million per megawatt and is still considered to be cheaper than the others.

In setting up a solar thermal plant in the state of Rajasthan, there are a few points to be proved, and these include:

• - The operational viability of the technology used.


• - Development of solar power energy for an expected significant reduction in operating costs.


• - Contribute efficiently towards clean energy, and help to reduce greenhouse effect in the long run.
  

The operational viability of the solar energy thermal power plant is hoped to be demonstrated through commercial power sales and delivery arrangements with the grid. The technical development of the system is planned to be achieved through technical assistance and training. The power plant is a step forward to a long term program, for promoting the objective focused on climate change.

Over twenty two years experience in Oracle. Significant development & Management skills viz.,technical writing, project planning and execution, project management, Oracle sql, pl/sql, data flow design, database design, datawarehousing, Oracle applications viz., manufacturing, scm, crm, financials, hrms, workflow, Oracle discoverer, forms, reports, etc., having expertise in Business Analysis. Presently a Sr. Program Manager with a Large IT organisation in London, looking after 10 Oracle applications project in Europe, and managing offshore development partners.

Education:

1. Fellow - Institute of Electronics & Communication Engineers.


2. MSc. Eng (Computer Science), University of London.


3. BSc. Eng (Electronics), University of London.
   Hobby: Writing
   

prabirsenuk@yahoo.co.uk
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