All World
Gayatri Pariwar

   Modern civilization has flourished on extensive consumption of energy. Thanks to the marvelous developments in science and technology, we have been able to produce energy by diverse means harnessing enormous resources of Nature. However, now our requirements are outgrowing drastically, putting a question mark on our energy-security itself. This is more because of excessive energy consumption in our comfort-driven life-style than in what is essential for development.

 Apart from the risk of energy scarcity, we have also invited environmental hazards. Excessive production and use of thermal and electrical energy and petroleum products has led to global warming which, if left unchecked, will result in unbearable rise in the temperature on earth’s surface, eventually melting the glaciers and submerging vast areas of the world in ‘overflowing’ oceans. The threats of nuclear waste are more horrifying, as the nuclear radiations can cause abnormalities at the genetic and cellular levels, and thus deform, damage, and disrupt the structure and function of any part of the body including the brain. Protection and sustenance of healthy environment is therefore a natural concern associated with energy-security.

Depleting natural resources like oil and coal are signaling inevitability of energy-crisis in coming decades, if no drastic alternative measures are taken. Safe management of nuclear waste puts a question mark on use of nuclear energy as well. Hydropower plants too can’t be suitable substitute because of scarcity of water, environmental feasibility of its present technology and other issues of eco-system balancing, rehabilitation of people affected by dams etc. Scientists, developers, policy makers and alert citizens are well aware of these unprecedented challenges of synergistic management of energy and environment. Nature-friendly, alternative modes of harnessing renewable or non-renewable energy have shown a silver line of hope, which seems to be getting brighter with deeper research and dedicated efforts of implementation. Public awareness, will and participation in maintaining energy-discipline would however be essential to reap the real fruits.

Let us quickly review the facts as they are today and accordingly plan the best options and approaches for the future.


Fossil Fuel —Alarming Risk Today:

It took about five million years for the formation of the coal and oil deposits. But we, the ‘fast progressing’, ‘intelligent beings’, have consumed and depleted them so rampantly in the 20th Century and have continued doing so in the new millennium that the entire oil reserves would be exhausted within the next hundred years only and the coal reserves would not last for more than a thousand years.

We keep hearing and reading this sort of information and keep confronting the rising prices of petroleum products, cooking gas, etc, but nothing changes our careless attitude and extravagant life-style. We continue rushing with our vehicles, even increasing their numbers and congesting the road traffic, wasting coal, oil, water and electricity as long as we can afford to pay for all this. We don’t want to suffer the deadly effects of toxic pollutants and ultraviolet radiations due to depletion of protective ozone layer, but we don’t mind generating pollutions, adding to the pool of plastic waste and enhancing global warming. We hardly realize the magnitude of the energy-crisis and environmental hazards in store because we are trapped in the lure of immediate gains, narrow domains of selfishness and shortsighted view of life.


Potential Solutions:

Reforestation is necessary for saving our environment. It will also help reducing the global warming effects to some extent but can’t serve the purpose of fulfilling wood requirement for fuels or energy, as the process of producing coal from it is inefficient and slow. If one tries to do so in some factories, it would add to air-pollution and warming. Moreover, the area available for (re)forestation and agriculture itself has reduced significantly due to the expansion of urban land, infra-structure (including roads) development and industrialization. Therefore alternate sources of energy need to be explored.

The alternate sources of energy successfully tried and also brought in use to varied extents include the non-renewable ones, like the nuclear energy and bio-product energy, and the renewable ones, namely the hydro-energy, wind energy and solar energy.


Nuclear and Bio-product Energy:

Since past half-a-century, the developed world has been giving emphasis to production of electricity in nuclear plants. However, this method of electrical power generation has several limitations: -

(i) it relies on fission of uranium and plutonium; the stock of these nuclear fuels and substitutes like thorium available on the earth can last at the most for two thousand years; (ii) it is very costly hence the electrical power produced at this cost cannot be afforded by developing countries;

(ii) there is always a danger of used nuclear fuel being processed for making atomic bombs; and

(iii) most definite and immediate is the threat of radioactivity generated from the nuclear waste of such reactors.

Larger the production of nuclear electricity, more severe would be this threat.

As the bio-species (entire animal and plant kingdom) exist on the earth because of the Sun, the energy obtained from bio-products would also be indirectly a gift of solar power. Production of energy from bio-products includes – biogas from cow-dung as a substitute of LPG (cooking gas) and fuel, production of electrical energy from bio-degradable waste, conversion of Bagasse (sugarcane waste) into diesel or extraction of (bio)fuel from oil bearing plants like “Jatropha” and its use for running automobiles. However, so far nothing promising has been reported on cost-effectiveness and long-term sustainability of this alternate source of energy. In the present scenario, the shrinking forestlands and cattle population coupled with growing migration of people from villages have further diminished the possibility of large-scale production using bio-products.


Hydro and Wind Energies:

Generation of electricity using the force of water currents is also dependent indirectly on the Sun. The water vaporized from the surface of the oceans (due to heat of the Sun) eventually forms clouds and pours rains that fill the ponds, lakes and rivers on the earth. The state-of-art technology for hydropower generation is still not able to produce large amounts of electricity. Even in the developed countries, on an average, only two to three percent of total requirement of electricity is fulfilled by this mode. Moreover it requires formation of dams, which disrupts water supply for other vital purposes and also disturbs natural environment in the surround regions.

Electrical power generation by wind energy requires setting up farms of grand fans at suitable open spaces. It requires movement of power turbines by wind supply. So, for large scale sustainable production of electricity by this source would be feasible if wind generators that operate on cost effective and efficient source are deployed.


Solar Energy — Achievements and Scope:

Most promising among the eco-friendly renewable sources of energy is the Solar Energy, with golden prospects in countries like India, which have abundance of sunlight. Let us look at what it is offering us at present and what are the assured benefits in the near future and what is expected from us — the user community, to ensure environmental protection and viability and expansion of energy enrichment through these perennial resources.

Significant progress in solar technology-development since a decade or so has not only sizably reduced the cost of production but also increased the productivity of — (a) solar cookers of both heat box and reflector types (e.g. the recent parabolic designs for domestic use and dish solar cookers for large-scale cooking); (b) solar stills for roof-top heating and solar water heaters; and (c) photovoltaic cells for generation of electricity. Use of these helps saving almost 90 to 100% of the fuel or electrical energy that one would consume for corresponding applications using the common devices or tools like electric heater, LPG gas stove, etc.

Development of photovoltaic cells that directly convert sunlight into electricity was found somewhat expensive and infeasible in the protocol projects because of the high cost of production and lack of technology for preserving or transforming the excess storage, etc. However, the recent progress made in this regard has removed such doubts and made it clear that this is a viable alternative of electricity generation and that large-scale production and use of this source will lead to lower and lower costs and greater returns. Countries like India can benefit a lot from this, as on an average plenty of sunlight is available here for more than 300 days of the year.

Some scientific experiments have been successful in developing solar furnaces that could produce temperatures as high as 4000 to 5000C. These furnaces are located on mountain top and work on the principles of focusing intense sunrays with the help of large concave, parabolic mirrors. While these offer cost-effective applications in large scale melting of heavy metals for industries, the principle of absorbing the heat of solar radiations has been successfully used in commercial and domestic applications for heating water and buildings. The rooftop solar water heaters (single or cascaded) are being widely used in hotels, hospitals, industrial plants, etc in many developed and developing countries[1,2].

Solar heating plants are used in some parts of USA and Europe for warming the residential and official buildings. For this, heat of sunrays is absorbed by blackened Aluminium plates and then transmitted to air or water circulated in metal tubes (pipes) that are painted or shielded to prevent dissipation of heat. Interestingly the absorbed thermal energy provided by the Sun is also used in air-conditioning using auto-controlled puff insulation from sunlight. These puffs are placed in the cavities of walls and roofs and help keep the extreme temperatures at bay and thus maintain the building cooler in summer and warmer in winter. A municipal hospital at Kalwa (Thane, near Mumbai) is designed to have a solar powered 120 tonnes Air Conditioner. The solar powered housing complex named “Rabirashmi” is also equipped with this facility at a lower scale for individual houses.

The Renewable Energy Development Agency, West Bengal (India) jointly with Bengal Development Consultants Ltd has made the dream of convertible solar power housing complex a reality in the Rabirashmi housing complex. Every bungalow here has its own ‘power plant’ on the rooftop consisting of a solar photovoltaic panel of 2KW capacity. All the domestic appliances, including inverters, work on this electricity during the day. It is the first major project in India where residents push power — generated in their rooftop photovoltaic panels — into the grid of power utilities[3]. The solar generated power stored in the grid during the day is used in the night or on cloudy days when there is no sunlight. If there is surplus electricity in some house, it can also be directed to state’s power distribution grids. The latter option has attractive incentives. Apart from having the provision of warm water supply in their kitchen and bathrooms through the solar water heaters at rooftop, residents can also enjoy swimming in the lukewarm water of the pool heated by solar energy. This unique urban residential complex is not only a living example of self-reliant energy security by solar energy it is also a dream come true for the environmentalist.

Other promising rewards of solar energy include distillation of heavy water, even the seawater, to get fresh drinkable water. Till date there is no other scientifically validated method that could offer this oasis to the thirsty world, which is fighting against depleting natural resources of drinking water.

God has gifted us with enormous boons like the solar energy using which we can achieve both - energy security and healthy environment. Observance of austerity in energy-consumptions and sensitivity towards environment protection are integral to prudent use of these precious resources. We must have the will and wisdom to follow it.


References:

Harnessing the Sun. Science popularization article by KD Abhyankar. Dream 2047 (Vigyan Prasar), May 2007, pp. 27-30.

Synergic Solutions for Sustainable Development. Conf. Proceedings. Eds. MN Madhyastha and S. Shrihari. Research Publishing, Chennai, Singapore. 2007.

Kolkata builds a housing project powered by Sun. News report by Sucheta Haldar. Indian Express. July 5, 2008. pp.1-2

Save Water – a single drop of it can save life.

Save Oil to Save Civilization.

Save Electricity Or Write a Future in Darkness!

Save Trees they help us breath life sustaining energy.

The choice is yours — to Breathe, Drink and Eat Toxins or to Protect Nature!