Time to Plug in

There is a prominently held view that dissemination of renewable energy technology is marred by high costs. It's true that a few technologies like wind power have become cheaper, but others are still expensive. Solar photovoltaics (PV) and wind energy now cost one-tenth of what they did in the early 1980s. Today a wind energy plant costs just about the same as a coal-fired thermal power plant of the same capacity; it could be even cheaper at places with high wind speeds.

Time to plug in

There is a prominently held view that dissemination of renewable energy technology is marred by high costs. It's true that a few technologies like wind power have become cheaper, but others are still expensive. Solar photovoltaics (PV) and wind energy now cost one tenth of what they did in early 1980s. Today a wind energy plant costs just about the same as a coal-fired thermal power plant of the same capacity; it could be even cheaper at places with high wind speeds.

By hook, crook or vision

The 1980s and early 1990s were a time, the world over, of increasingly stereotypical confrontations between industry and environmentalists. Ecological considerations formed no part of industrial productive strategies, argued environmentalists. Industry treated the ecosystem as a vast self-replenishing raw material procurement facility, and as a convenient dumping site. Nonsense, thundered industry captains. They would not be blackmailed by bird-lovers; nothing could compromise profit-margins.

Lighter load

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It's dark outside the TV grab

In this day of television grabs, policies are about slugfests. The logic of the grab is that any discussion must be heated, with sharply divided positions -- clear proponents and opponents. It is a caricature of the world; in it, for instance, if one is an environmentalist then s/he must be against nuclear energy, even without logic or rationale; the grab allows it so. But let's discuss India's nuclear option, not as an absolute given or the mother of all things evil but as a possible energy source in a growing and starved nation. What does the future hold?

A new deal

We got off the train at Abu Road station in Rajasthan to visit two cement plants located in the nearby district of Sirohi. The drive was predictable -- dry stretches interspersed with marginal agriculture and signs of livestock grazing. But I was keenly waiting for signs of the trees covered with white dust that would signal our arrival to the cement factory. Cement, after all, is known to be incredibly polluting with its emissions and dust from raw materials smothering nearby inhabitants.

Forget oil

India's total energy requirement has doubled over the last three decades: from 147.05 million tonnes of oil equivalent (mtoe) to 437.69 mtoe. I t's of course well known that indiscriminate burning of hydrocarbon fuels causes much global warming. According to several press reports, several Europeans died of oppressive heat last summer, many glaciers vanished from the face of the Earth and even the height of the Himalaya was reduced.

'Renewing' energy practices

Ontario, Canada's most populous province and home to one third of its population, is poised to take a lead in renewable energy utilisation in North America. Though several American states have set renewable energy targets, they haven't introduced effective mechanisms for the growth of renewables. But Ontario's ruling Liberal Party recently endorsed a policy mechanism widely used in Europe for the purpose.

Opting for renewables

According to IEA's factsheet, Renewables in global energy supply, the wind energy sector has grown at more than 52 per cent per annum since 1971, and solar power by 32 per cent per annum. Renewables in 2000 accounted for 13.8 per cent of the world's total primary energy supply (electricity, heat, transport fuels, commercial and non-commercial energy). Combustible renewables and waste (97 per cent biomass) comprised 80 per cent of total renewables, followed by hydro power (16.5 per cent).

India: Aim, Hope High

Starting before industrialised Germany and the UK, India has perhaps promoted renewables the longest though a dedicated establishment. The country's Ministry of Non-conventional Energy Sources (MNES) is one of its kind in the world. India has the fifth largest installed wind capacity in the world at 2400 MW. In 2003 alone, India added 615 MW of wind energy. By March 2003, it had 484 MW of installed biomass power/zcogeneration, 53 MW from biomass gasifiers and 2.5 MW of solar PVs. Installed capacity for all renewables by March 2004 was more than 4,600 MW.