All the greens want clean energy to control global warming... The current debate on Jaitapur, it is more political than technical." For a minister who is engaged in serious global climate negotiations, the fact that 38 percent of the greenhouse gases in India are contributed by electricity generation is genuinely worrisome. At the time he made this statement, he was perhaps blissfully unaware that his predecessors had already cleared 1.46 lakh MW of highly polluting coalbased generation projects, most of which are not really required, according to the electricity demand estimates of the Central Electricity Authority, for the coming decade. Nor is it correct to say that nuclear power is either “green" or “clean", as one could discern from the aftereffects of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan, where several reactors have melted down, spewing out toxic radioactive isotopes into the air, the surrounding land and the ocean.
The word ‘green energy' has indeed become a misnomer. Large centralised power projects — nuclear, hydro, coal and gas-based — displace thousands of people and deprive them of their livelihoods, apart from destroying the local environment. Solar power sounds attractive but the per-MW land requirement for solar photovoltaic energy is as large as for these conventional power plants. Moreover, the manufacture of solar equipment leaves a large carbon footprint upstream. Incinerating either garbage or biomass for power generation can be a highly polluting activity. Wind power could be green but its contribution is limited, location-and-load specific. So is the case with the other forms of renewables.
Against this background, the question to ask oneself is whether we have been using the energy we produce efficiently and if` we can adopt an energy system that is ecologically sustainable. For example, the efficiencies of the devices we use for lighting (bulbs), heating (cooking) and motive power (fans) are abysmally low. One-third of the electricity produced is lost in the transmission network for delivering electricity from the power plant to the consumer. The thermal efficiencies of the coal and gas-based plants are low. If we can invest on efficiency improvements in each of these segments, we can save new megawatts (‘negawatts') that are more cost effective than new megawatts. The present energy planning approach is unfortunately based on increasing the supply without focussing attention on these demand-related measures that cost much less. Read the full report here.
Source: Eas Sarma, Tehelka Magazine, Vol 8, Issue 23, Dated 11 June 2011.
