Solar power for weather conditioning

it may soon be possible for you to get a bubble wrap for your house or your soda bottle or for anything you want to keep either cool or warm. Plus, it will run free of cost on the most abundant energy source known -- the sun.

Petrol from plastic

a university researcher from Uttar Pradesh has developed a novel technique to produce valuable petroleum products, such as petrol and diesel, from discarded plastic bags.

Power to the environment

If humans desire to live for many more centuries to come, they have to take desperate steps to protect the environment. The socio-economic health of civilisations depends on it. A case in point is that of the power sector. India faces a huge energy deficit: till 2001, only 44 per cent of Indian households had access to electricity. But consumption's galloping: between 1947 and 2001, India's per capita power consumption rose from 15 to 592 units.

Dutch say 'niet'

The Dutch government has called for renegotiation of the new European Union (eu) buildings energy efficiency rules. This challenges eu's legal procedures and undermines the implementation of one of its key policies on climate change. The Dutch government said that due to "high administrative costs" of implementing the directive, the cabinet has decided against doing so "in the short term". And that it would also contact the European Commission (ec) to see if the law could be adapted.

Black money

us coal plants are winning the right to burn dirtier, with the administration subsidising the mineral and insisting it can be a 'clean fuel'. "If we weren't blessed with this natural resource, we would face even greater (energy) shortages and higher prices today," said us president George W Bush, while announcing his National Energy Policy on May 17, 2001.

Eminently renewable

India's wind power potential is an estimated 45,000 megawatt (mw). Out of this, sites identified with techno-commercial feasibility and ready and available for implementation is 13,000 mw. The energy is clean; a wind power unit requires a gestation period of just 6-12 months. Also, the cost is about the same as thermal power units -- Rs 4 crore per mw generated.

Power-packed option

the Lok Sabha cleared the Central Electricity Bill, 2000, on April 9, 2003. Its final passage is expected to pave the way for wide-ranging reforms in the power sector. Since the provisions of the proposed legislation are technology and supply neutral, it would in effect promote decentralisation -- a catalyst for rural electrification.

Stubble trouble

suspended particulate matter (spm) levels suddenly spiral in rural Punjab in the month of October. The culprit: fires lit by burning huge piles of stubble from rice plants in almost every field.

Back to basics

The energy situation in most developing countries is quite alarming. Energy production and distribution patterns in developing countries, including India, have been modelled on the 50 to 100 year old model of the Western countries, which includes centralised energy production, development of megacities at the expense of rural areas and the unsustainable husbanding of land. Agriculture is most dependent on energy.

Clean switch-over

The proposed 140 megawatt (mw) integrated solar combined cycle (iscc) power plant, coming up in Mathania near Jodhpur in Rajasthan, has already undergone many changes (see: Down To Earth, Vol 9, No 24, May 15, 2001). Now it is going in for a fuel switch-over.