Renewables have the potential to revolutionise energy generation and consumption, but there are some major hurdles in the way
Author: Chandra Bhushan
Renewable energy has arrived. In matter of a decade, it has grown from a fringe player to a mainstream actor in the energy sector. In the past ten years, installation of renewable energy for electricity has grown at an annual rate of 25 per cent. It has reached 30,000 MW as of January 2014. During this period, wind power installation has grown ten times and solar energy has grown from nothing to 2,500 MW.
India’s energy poverty, achievements so far and future targets at a glance
A significant number of Indian households continue to rely on kerosene for lighting. Although the electricity grid has reached a large part of the country, supply is still unreliable and of poor quality. Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Assam consume more than 50 per cent of the total kerosene used for lighting in the country.
Since the push for action on cookstoves that burn biomass comes from the global climate change agenda, and not health concerns, solutions offered are half-baked and even counter-productive, says Sunita Narain
Author: Sunita Narain
Chulhas–cookstoves of poor women who collect sticks, twigs and leaves to cook meals–are today at the centre of failing international action. Women are breathing toxic emissions from stoves and these emissions are also adding to the climate change burden. The 2010 Global Burden of Disease established that indoor air pollution from stoves is a primary cause of disease and death in South Asia.
CASE STUDIES
A Tamil Nadu Panchayat invests in wind energy
A micro hydel project in Odisha gets community support
Segregated municipal waste is being used for power generation in Pune
People in Vidarbha innovate to make biogas viable
A bank’s experiment to provide solar home lighting system faces challenges
