Ministry Of Non-Conventional Energy Sources Research Articles

ROLE OF ELECTRIC RICKSHAWS IN LANKA TOWN AND ITS HINDER LANES OF HOJAI DISTRICT, ASSAM

Electric rickshaws are three wheeler battery operated para transit vehicles. From economic point of view they are far better than auto rickshaws which are run on petrol or diesel. India, Govt. had been funding with the help of Ministry of Non-conventional energy sources(MNES) to design and develop more safe and economic variety of E-rickshaws since 2000 till date. The present study on E- rickshaw is made to know role of E- rickshaws in passenger movement in Lanka town and its hinder lanes. Drivers of para transit was interviewed to know their socio-economic status and how it provide employment to poor literate in habitant of Lanka to serve their family livelihood. It is a cheap and environment friendly means of transport in town areas which produces negligible air pollution. Hence, conventional (petrol/diesel) auto-rickshaws are going to become past and E-rickshaws are going to become future day by day. KEY WORDS: E-rickshaw, livelihood, para transit, hinder lanes.

Non-conventional energy sources in present power sector in India

Energy is an important input in development of any country. Day by day demand of energy increased in India due to rapid urbanization and industrial demand. Growing population is also responsible for power crisis. Crisis of petroleum and nuclear product forced India to think alternate non-conventional sources of energy. India is one of the nation which have separate ministry of non-conventional energy sources. Due to limited sources of fossil fuel in India as a fastest economy growing country developed a non-conventional power sources to reduces the power shortage. Non-conventional energy sources play a important role in development of india and reduces the power crises in present power sector in india.

Study on Sustainable Hybrid Off-grid Power Supply System for Isolated Sagar Island

This paper deals with the feasibility study of Solar-Wind hybrid system of generation of electrical energy for Sagar Island. To study the prospect of a hybrid system of electrical energy generation, a MATLAB/Simulink model of Lanco Solar LSP 250-260M-60 and BWC XL.1 wind turbine based hybrid system has been built and study the feasibility with the help of Solar irradiance, wind speed and load data of a particular location of Sagar Island. The constraint due to the environment, grid-connected electrical energy supplying to the Sagar Island is cost effective and difficult to implement. At the present diesel and kerosene engine is the only option to generate electrical energy and mitigate the electrical load demand of Sagar Island. As the non-renewable source of energy diminishes day by day and it produces harmful Greenhouse Gases during the generation of electricity, researchers have a prime interest in renewable energy sources which does not produce harmful gases during the generation of electricity and save our environment. So far research has been carried out on the Solar Photovoltaic (SPV) system for the electrification of Sagar Island. Electricity generated from only Solar PV array is not reliable and not cost effective because of the availability of the solar energy all the year. Hence, in this paper, an attempt has been made to compensate the electrical energy requirement of Sagar Island through a solar wind hybrid system of power generation with the practical data of Sagar Island, obtain from NASA and Ministry of Non-conventional Energy sources. The analysis shows that the hybrid system of solar and the wind are much more reliable and cost effective compared to single units of SPV system. Beside them, the environmental effect related to Greenhouse Gases (GHG) also estimated and compared with the diesel engine generated electrical energy.

Sustainable Renewable Energy Development in India Through Ministry of Non- Conventional Energy Sources

India has a vast supply of renewable energy resources, and it has one of the largest programs in the world for deploying renewable energy products and systems. Indeed, it is the only country in the world to have an exclusive ministry for renewable energy development, the Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources (MNES). Since its formation, the Ministry has launched one of the world’s largest and most ambitious programs on renewable energy. Based on various promotional efforts put in place by MNES, significant progress is being made in power generation from renewable energy sources. India emerged in 2008 as an aspiring producer of solar PV. Both National and State Governments announced new policies to support solar PV manufacturing in special economic zones, including capital investment subsidies of 20 percent. These policies led to USD 18 billion in new solar PV manufacturing investment plans or proposals by a large number of companies. We know where the non renewable energies – coal, oil and gas – are located and how these fuels are transported, combusted, and the power transmitted throughout the country over the power grid. Now, let’s look at the renewable energies hydro, solar, wind and biomass. According to the Energy Information administration (EIA) the annual average increase will be about 4.0 percent from 2002 to 2025. The projected growth in net electricity consumption for emerging market economies is driven in large part by Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and population growth assumption. It makes sense to the authors that all efforts and investment should consider accelerating these sustainable energy resources before committing to the same fossil fuel path as western nations. The fossil fuel strategy will surely bring price volatility from dwindling supplies and added pollution from carbon combustion. Tapping India's wind, solar, biomass, and hydro could bring high quality jobs from a domestic resource. Renewable energy is the measure of the development of a nation like India extensive development of the renewable energy resources on the Indian subcontinent through MNES booming economic growth, rapid Industrialization and high standard of living of global population demand more and more energy in different forms.

Lighting the Lives of the Impoverished in India’s Rural and Tribal Drylands

About two billion people in developing countries around the world lack electricity (Goldemberg and Johansson, 2004). Inadequate lighting has a direct negative impact on the health, ecology, and safety of rural households who are forced to light their homes with kerosene lamps, cow dung cakes, firewood from forests, and crop residues. Kerosene lamps are not only expensive but also inefficient, unhealthy, and dangerous. Furthermore, they consume significant amounts of limited global petroleum supplies and are consequently a major source of greenhouse gases. It has been estimated that kerosene lanterns in developing nations alone annually burn 470 million barrels of oil and release roughly 400 billion pounds of CO2 equivalent gases into the atmosphere (Mills, 2005). Solar photovoltaic lanterns appear to offer a practical and clean energy alternative. In India—the second most populated country in the world with over one billion inhabitants—roughly 70% of rural areas lack electricity and about 40% of industries rely on their own generators due to unstable power supplies. In addition, over 60% of rural households use only kerosene lamps for lighting which produce a light intensity of only 60–70 lm compared to a 100 W electric bulb which can produce 1,300 lm (Rajvanshi, 2007). Energy efficiency is especially critical to nations such as India which have large and growing populations. The International Energy Agency has reported that India’s demand for energy will double by 2020 (IEA, 2007). India now generates 129,000 MW of power annually, but even current demand is 200,000 MW— a shortfall of 40%. However, India receives solar energy equivalent to over 5,000 kWh annually, which is far more than the total energy consumption of the country (Ministry of Non-conventional Energy Sources, 1998). The annual average of sunny days ranges from 250 to 300. The daily average solar energy intake varies from 4 to 7 kWh/m depending on location but only a fraction of the aggregate potential in solar energy is currently being utilized. Solar photovoltaic lanterns offer an excellent opportunity to use this energy to provide better domestic lighting for rural homes that lack power grids or suffer from frequent electricity shortages. These lanterns have the potential to replace the candles, kerosene lamps and hurricane lanterns commonly used by villagers. Furthermore, they can be used outdoors in agricultural fields during irrigation and harvesting, for fishing at night, and many other farm-related activities. We here present quantitative data on the benefits of solar photovoltaic lanterns for the livelihoods of village communities and sustainable use of the environment in the semiarid regions of Western India.

India and Energy Security

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes 1. For Annual Projection of Energy Demand and Supply World Wide, see http://www.energy.gov/contact/newWebSite.htm. 2. Daniel Yergin, “Energy Security”, Foreign Affairs, 85, 2 (March/April 2006) 70–71. Also see, Girijesh Pant, Paper Presented in a Seminar on “India's Energy Security and The Gulf”, at The School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, 19–20 March 2004. 3. The President's address to the nation on the eve of the 59th Independence Day 2005, http://presidentofindia.nic.in/scripts/independencedetail.jsp?id = 6. 4. Ashish Agrawal, “Can India Achieve Growth Targets without Energy?” Economic Times, 22 December 2006. 5. http://www.coal.nic.in/. 6. http://www.asiafinanceblog.com/asiafinanceblog/oil/index.html. 7. “Reliance likely to invest $6–7 bn in KG basin”, Business Line, 12 September 2006. 8. http://www.ongcindia.com/investorcell/prospectus_s.pdf. 9. Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), http://www.ongcindia.com/. 10. See Gas Authority of India Limited, http://gail.nic.in/homepage/homenew.htm. 11. See ONGC Videsh, http://www.ongcvidesh.com/ 12. ONGC Videsh, http://www.ongcvidesh.com/op_sudan.asp. 13. For detailed study see Caspian Studies, http://www.caspianstudies.com. 14. Energy Security, http://www.iags.org/n0121043.htm. 15. http://www.indianembassy.ru/ru/ru_hp_win_ms_t022.html. 16. “Sakhalin-I starts oil, gas production”, The Hindu, 2 October 2005. 17. A. Sourie, “Iran-Pakistan-India Gas Pipeline Project and its Economic and Political Impact”, ORF Energy News Monitor, II, 16 (14 October 2005) 3–4. 18. Ambrish K. Diwanji, “Geopolitical Issues Set to Dominate Proposed Gas Pipeline From Iran to India”, The Rediff Business Special, 13 April 2000. 19. S. D. Muni and Girijesh Pant, India's Energy Security Prospects for Cooperation with Extended Neighbourhood. New Delhi: Rupa, 2005. 20. Talmiz Ahmad, “Advantages of Transnational Gas Pipelines”, The Hindu, 24 April 2006. 21. Siddharth Varadarajan, “Myanmar-India Gas Pipeline on Anvil”, The Hindu, 13 January 2005. 22. Talmiz Ahmad, n 20, The Hindu, April 24, 2006. 23. See http://www.oilworks.com/New/i042505.html; http://www.indianembassy.gov.qa/indqat.htm. 24. http://www.embassyofpakistan.org/news147.php; “Gas Import Through Pipelines, Possible Routes”, http://intellibriefs.blogspot.com/2005/01/gas-import-through-pipelines-possible. html-25 k. 25. Mahendra P. Lama, “Integrating Stakeholders in Energy Cooperation”, South Asia Journal, 3, 1 (July–September 2005) pp. 6–20. 26. Yoginder K. Alagh, “Economics of Nuclear Power in India”, Nu-Power International, 11, 1–3 (1997) 22. 27. NucNet News No. 333/03, http://www.industrie.Gouv.fr as quoted in WNA Newsletter (January/February 2004). 28. Manpreet Sethi, “Inputs for a Nuclear Energy Policy for India”, in Jasjit Singh (ed.), Nuclear Power and Non- Proliferation: Conflict or Convergence. New Delhi: Knowledge World, 2004, pp. 80–101. 29. Gordon Feller, “China's Wind Power”, http://www.ecoworld.com/Home/Articles2.cfm?TID = 390. 30. Ashok Parthasarthy, “Renewable Energy Sources: Situation and Prospects”, World Affairs, 10, 1 (Spring 2006) 112–138. 31. ORF Energy News Monitor, II, 40 (1 April 2006) 23. 32. Prafull Goradia, “Strategic Horizon of Indo-US Nuclear Deal”, Pioneer, 5 April 2006. 33. ORF Energy News Monitor, II, 39 (24 March, 2006) 24. 34. Energy Information Administration, Official Energy Statistics from the US Government, http://www.eia.doe.gov/. 35. Ashok Parthasarthy, “Renewable Energy Sources: Situation and Prospects”, World Affairs, 10, 1 (Spring 2006) 112–138. 36. “Solar Power Plant to be Built in North China”, China Daily, 3 June 2006, 37. Administrative approval of Renewable Energy Programmes, Ministry of Non-conventional Energy Sources, Govt. of India, http://mnes.nic.in/frame.htm?majorprog.htm. 38. Solar Energy Programmes at a Glance, Ministry of Non-conventional Energy Sources, Govt. of India, http://mnes.nic.in/frame.htm?majorprog.htm. It is estimated that India has 30 billions tonnes of unexplored hydrocarbon reserves. Additional informationNotes on contributorsAshok SharmaDr. Ashok Sharma did his PhD at the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. He is currently a Research Fellow at the Centre for Air Power Studies, New Delhi

Enhancement of Thermal Efficiency of Traditional Indian Cooking Furnace (Chulha)

Energy is the prime mover of economic growth and it is a wheel of modern economy. Future economic growth crucially depends on the long-term availability of energy, and cost of sources, availability, accessibility, and environmental friendly. India is a developing country and it needs more energy to accelerate the rate of development. India has the sixth position in the total energy consumption in the world. The energy resource is constant but energy consumption increases day by day. So each country requires more energy efficient equipment for the development and to save energy consumption. There are three ways for efficient energy conversion (a) Discover new energy resource (b) To minimize the energy losses (c) waste heat recovery. Here every human needs the energy for cook food. In India 74% population of India lives in villages and uses the conventional resources e.g. wood, cow dung and agriculture waste and available of bio-mass. So, I select rural area where mostly use bio-mass fuel, like wood and agriculture waste. The chulha (wood stove) use as a cook furnace for bio-mass in rural area. The traditional chulha give low thermal efficiency. In view of conservation of wood fuel and reduction of smoke from the kitchens of rural. In view of conservation of wood fuel and reduction of smoke from the kitchens of rural India, the Ministry of Non-conventional Energy Sources(MNES), Government of India, launched a National Programme on Improved Chullhas(NPIC) during 1984- 85. The NPIC measure traditional Chullhas have thermal efficiency is 8 to 10 percent but in my modified model, thermal efficiency has improved by 15 to 17 percent through extra supply of air. The thermal efficiency of modified chulha over the conventional chulha is 7 % to 9% more. In my modified model do not create pollution into environment due to complete combustion of fuel.

Renewable energy programmes in India

With a strong industrial base and successful commercialisation of technologies in renewable energy, India is in a position today to offer state-of-the-art technology to other developing countries and is poised to play a leading role in the global movement towards sustainable energy development. India has a separate ministry to promote renewable energy sources, which has been named Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources (MNES). The ministry has different programmes, such as the solar energy programme, wind energy programme, bio-energy programme and small hydro programme. These renewable energy programmes are discussed in detail in this paper. The ministry has estimated the potential of solar, wind, bio-energy and small hydropower as 55 MW/Sq Km, 45 000 MW, 14 300 MW and 10 000 MW respectively. Out of this potential, the ministry has installed 191 MW, 2980 MW, 727 MW and 1693 MW through solar, wind, bio-energy and small hydro respectively. The country is aiming to install more renewable energy systems to contribute 25% of the total energy requirement by the year 2020.

Policies to overcome barriers to the spread of bioenergy technologies in India

India has over two decades of experience of formulating and implementing bioenergy programmes. These programmes have undergone changes from time to time, reflecting the dynamics of the policy environment. The Ministry of Non-conventional Energy Sources (MNES), the prime mover of the programmes in India, has now responded with a comprehensive renewable energy policy to give a further fillip to the evolving sector. The need for climate change mitigation provides an opportunity for promoting the renewable energy (RE) sector. This calls for an assessment of the policy barriers to the spread of bioenergy technologies (BETs) in India. This paper attempts to (1) assess technical potential and achievements of BETs, (2) analyse the institutional framework for bioenergy development, (3) review policies on BETs being promoted under various RE programmes in India, (4) identify barriers to the spread of BETs, and (5) consider policy options to overcome some of the key barriers. The experience shows that despite several financial incentives and favourable policy measures, the rate of spread of BETs is low because of the existence of institutional, technical, market and credit barriers. These barriers are by and large known, but what still remains to be understood is the type and size of barriers from the stakeholders' perspective, which varies for a given technology and the stakeholder. Policy options suggested to overcome such barriers include (1) rational energy pricing, (2) incentives to promote private sector participation, (3) institutions to empower and enable community participation, (4) financial support for large-scale demonstration programmes and for focused research and development on BETs for cost reduction and efficiency improvement, and finally, (5) favourable land tenurial arrangements to promote sustained biomass supply. The global mechanisms for addressing climate change such as the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) provide additional incentives to promote BETs.

National Programme on Improved Chulha (NPIC) of the Government of India: an overview

The National Programme on Improved Chulha (NPIC) in India was a unique programme aimed at popularising the use of improved cooking devices in rural areas. India's heavy dependence on wood and biomass as domestic fuel is expected to continue even in the present century. However, from April 2002, the Ministry of Non-conventional Energy Sources has discontinued its funding support to NPIC. After its inception in 1984, NPIC underwent several changes in both policy and implementation. The present paper attempts to make a critical appraisal of the programme. NPIC concentrated mainly on development of a variety of efficient stove models, and their promotion and popularisation. The programme revealed the intricacies involved in the apparently simple issue of use of biomass as a household fuel. Two of the important issues that came up in the course of the programme were: (1) the impact of wood and biomass fuels on the health of the rural women and children; and (2) the use of the commercialisation approach as against the subsidy and welfare approach. We also discuss several approaches for potential future programmes in the light of the lessons learnt from NPIC. We hope that future programmes will be aimed at achieving the greater goal of creating a culture of efficient, clean and sustainable utilisation of biomass energy in the rural areas.

Capital cost and economic viability of thermosyphonic solar water heaters manufactured from alternate materials in India

Many companies in India manufacture solar water heaters but these are not becoming popular in the domestic sector because of their high cost. The Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources (MNES), New Delhi is recommending flat-plate collectors with copper (Cu) risers, headers and plate. Therefore, their cost is high. Long term studies have been carried out at the Central Arid Zone Research Institute, Jodhpur, to reduce the cost by replacing copper tubes with galvanised steel (G.S.) tube and copper plate with aluminium (Al) plate. The aluminium plate is wrapped over the G.S. tube by a special wire wound technique so that good contact of plate with risers and headers has been maintained. In this paper performance and testing of solar water heaters having G.S.–Al fin, Cu–Al fin and Cu–Cu fin in flat-plate collectors have been compared. It has been found that performance of all the three heaters is almost similar. The heater can provide 100 litres of hot water at an average temperature 62.0°C at 4 pm that can be retained to 50.4°C when average tap water temperature was 23.9°C. The efficiency of the heater is 51.9%. The cost of the heater with G.S.–Al collector is only Rs. 8,000.00 while it is Rs. 10,250.00 for solar water heaters with Cu–Cu collectors. The payback period of a solar water heater with G.S.–Al collector has been worked out by considering 10% compound annual interest, 5% maintenance cost, 5%, inflation in fuel prices and maintenance cost. The payback period varies between 2.92 years to 4.53 years depending upon which fuel it replaces. The payback periods are in increasing order with respect to fuels: electricity, firewood, LPG, charcoal, and kerosene.

Improved cookstoves in rural India: how improved are they?: A critique of the perceived benefits from the National Programme on Improved Chulhas (NPIC)

The National Programme on Improved Cookstoves (NPIC) was started by the Ministry of Non-conventional Energy Sources (MNES), Government of India, in 1985 to achieve the twin objectives of fuelwood conservation and smoke reduction in kitchens. NPIC has overseen the installation of 28 million improved cookstoves, saving nearly 20 million tons of firewood per year. These achievements, though seemingly impressive, are not realistic as they are based on certain assumptions, particularly regarding the life expectancy of stoves. This paper examines the various assumptions made in such calculations and tries to arrive at some realistic numbers regarding fuelwood savings, which can be used to evolve a policy for refining the NPIC further.

Overview of photovoltaic technologies in India

India has a vast potential for large-scale utilisation of photovoltaic technology. The Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources (MNES) is responsible for the formulation of policies, support to R&D and industries, field demonstration and large-scale applications in photovoltaic (PV) technology. The present paper gives a brief outline of the Indian programme on photovoltaics, related Government policies and discusses various issues related to development, industrial activity, field trials and related experience and commercial market development efforts in India.

Status of renewable energy technologies in Urjagrams in India

SYNOPSIS Urjagram literally means an “energy village” (urja is energy and gram is village). The Urjagram programme is aimed at harnessing the locally available renewable energy sources such as biomass, solar and wind in an integrated way at the village level. The energy produced through these sources will be utilised for such end-uses as cooking, lighting, agriculture and cottage industries in the villages. In India, 244 urjagram programmes have been established in 17 states and 168 were under progress by the end of December 1996. Under the evaluation for appraising the study undertaken, 15 urjagrams were covered in India. They comprised four villages in the state of Uttar Pradesh, three each in Madhya Pradesh and Bihar, two in Haryana, and one each in Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir. The dissemination of renewable energy technologies was undertaken with involvement of local institutions and state nodal agencies. Periodic monitoring and inspection was conducted by the regional offices of the Ministry of Non-conventional Energy Sources. The study indicated that the duration of implementation for completed urjagrams varied from one to 24 months. The functionality of solar devices was higher (67%) than other technologies. Most of the successful programmes can be attributed to the people's involvement in the management and participation in implementation of the technologies. There are substantial gaps in the number of sanctioned and actually installed systems. These range from 35% to 75% for biomass technologies and 13% to 77% for solar technologies. The investment made on the solar devices has been the largest (81%) of the total expenditure of Rs. 10 million on the 15 urjagram projects. Even though the urjagram as a concept is sound, it did not have an adequate impact due to faulty implementation and lack of proper institutional arrangements.

India and renwable energy : A future challenge

India is endowed with a very vast renewable energy potential. Significant progress has been made in development, field trials and commercialisation of several renewable energy technologies. The Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources is responsible for formulation of policies, support to R&D and industries and large scale applications. The present paper gives a brief outline of Indian National programme on renewable energy, potential of renewables, achievements, related Government policies and discusses various issues related to financing, large scale dissemination, after sales service etc.