Energy is one of the most important component of economic infrastructure. It is the basic input required to sustain economic growth. There is direct relation.
Introduction: The Industrial Revolution of the 19th century ushered in new technologies. The spurt in inventions in that century was unprecedented in many ways.
Some of these inventions involved use of natural resources like coal and oil. The thought of exhaustible nature of these resources and the environmental damage from the use of these resources never occurred either to the inventors or the subsequent generations. In the quest to sustain galloping economic activity, the dependence on coal and oil has soared at a phenomenal rate over the years. The burnt fuels result in the release of carbondioxide and other gases into the atmosphere causing environmental damage. It has become imperative to look at energy technology with a new perspective. There are abundant renewable sources of energy such as wind, sun, water, sea, biomass apart from even daily wastes. These sources are pollution free and hence clean energy apart from being unlimited/ inexhaustible.
Power generation in India has grown in size to around 1 lakh MW and in Tamil Nadu it has increased to 7924 MW which is distributed through a vast network of transmission, sub-transmission and distribution lines that reach all villages even in remote areas. The demand for power is growing rapidly. The problem will be compounded due to fast depletion of fossil fuel deposits, quality of fuels, heavy price to be paid for basic materials plus their transportation cost and above all the environmental degradation caused by the use of conventional energy sources. Under such conditions, environment-friendly and pollution-free, non-conventional and renewable energy sources known as 'clean and green energy' have emerged as an important alternatives to conventional energy sources.
The renewable energy sources are clean and inexhaustible as they rely on sun, wind, biomass, etc., as primary sources of energy. It is estimated that, about 2000 MW can be generated from wind potential available in Tamil Nadu. As against this potential, 19 MW of power in the State Sector mostly through demonstration wind farms and 838 MW in the private sector have been harnessed as on 31.3.02, Under Biomass, the estimated potential is about 500 MW and 154 MW capacity has been expected using biomass/bagasse.
The country is endowed with large amount of sustainable resource base and non-conventional energy technologies which are well-suited for grid connected power generation, energy supplies in remote areas which are not/ could not be connected to the grid and for captive consumption. Non-conventional energy sources like wind energy, solar energy through thermal as well as photovoltaic system, biomass and hybrid sources will help to a great extent in enhancing power generation capacity. Hence appropriate policies and programmes that optimise the use of available energy resources with new technologies have to be propagated, promoted and adopted, if necessary, by budgetary support. Tamil Nadu has done very well in promoting and harnessing renewable sources of energy particularly wind and bagasse based power generation. With a view to develop and propagate the non-conventional sources of energy, the Tamilnadu Energy Development Agency (TEDA) was formed in 1985.
Apart from serving as a coordinating agency to promote the use of non conventional energy sources. TEDA acts as nodal agency to the Ministry of Non-conventional Energy Sources (MNES), Government of India to implement Centrally funded and sponsored schemes in the State.
During the past 17 years, TEDA has conducted sustained campaigns to promote harnessing of renewable energy with active support from the Central and the State Governments. The total installed capacity in Tamilnadu under Non-conventional Energy Sources is 1000 MW as on 31.3.2002 which is about 13% of total TNEB grid capacity, while at the All-India level, it is only 3%. The major share of this comes from Wind Energy followed by bagasse based co-generation plants in sugar industries. This has largely come through private investments encouraged by policy initiatives of the Central and the State Governments. Please find the following attachments ' Non-Conventional sources of energy seminar report/pdf/ppt download'here. Abstract: Fuel deposit will soon deplete by the end of 2020 Fuel scarcity will be maximum. Country like United Kingdom may not have the chance to use petroleum products.
Keeping this dangerous situation in mind we tried to make use of non-pollutant natural resource of petrol energy. The creation of new source of perennial environmentally acceptable, low cost electrical energy as a replacement for energy from rapidly depleting resources of fossil fuels is the fundamental need for the survival of mankind. We have only about 25 years of oil reserves and 75-100 years of coal reserves. Solar power stations (s.p.s) provide a cost-effective solution even though work on solar photo voltaic and solar thermo electric energy sources has been extensively pursued by many countries.
Earth based solar stations suffer certain basic limitations. It is not possible to consider such systems and meeting continuous uninterrupted concentrated base load electric power requirements. Energy plays an important role in the material, social and cultural life of man kind. Please find the following attachments' Non-Conventional sources of energy seminar report/pdf/ppt download' here.
ADVERTISEMENTS: Energy is one of the most important component of economic infrastructure. It is the basic input required to sustain economic growth. There is direct relation between the level of economic development and per capita energy consumption. Simply speaking more developed a country, higher is the per capita consumption of energy and vice-versa. India’s per capita consumption of energy is only one eighth of global average.
This indicates that our country has low rate of per capita consumption of energy as compared to developed countries. Two Main Sources of Energy: The sources of energy are of following types. ADVERTISEMENTS: Commercial Energy Sources: These are coal, petroleum and electricity. These are called commercial energy because they have a price and consumer has to pay the price to purchase them.
(a) Coal and Lignite: Coal is the major source of energy. Coal deposits in India are 148790 million tonnes. Total lignite reserves found at Neyveli are 3300 million tonnes.
In 1950-51, annual production of coal was 32 million tonnes. In 2005-06, annual production of coal was 343 million tonnes. Lignite production was 20.44 million tonnes in 2005-06. According to an estimate, coal reserves in India would last about 130 years. India is now the fourth largest coal producing country in the world.
Coal deposits are mainly found in Orissa, Bihar, Bengal and Madhya Pradesh. It provides employment to 7 lakh workers. (b) Oil and Natural Gas: In these days oil is considered as the most important source of energy in India and the world. It is widely used in automobiles, trains, planes and ships etc. In India it is found in upper Assam, Mumbai High and in Gujarat. The resources of oil are small in India.
In 1950-51, the total production of oil in India was 0.3 million tonnes. It increased to 32.4 million tonnes in 2000-01. Despite tremendous increase in oil production.
India still imports 70% of has oil requirements from abroad. In 1951, there was only one oil refinery in Assam.
After independence 13 such refineries were set up in public sector and their refining capacity was 604 lakh tonnes. After implementation of economic reforms, private refineries are also engaged in oil refining. As per current rate of consumption, oil reserves in India may last about 20 to 25 years.
(c) Electricity: Electricity is the common and popular source of energy. It is used in commercial and domestic purposes. It is used for lighting, cooking, air conditioning and working of electrical appliances like T.V., fridge and washing machine.
In 2000-01 agriculture sector consumed 26.8%, industrial sector 34.6% and 24% of electricity was used for domestic purposes and 7% was used for commercial purpose. Railways consumed 2.6% and miscellaneous consumption was 5.6%. There are three main sources of power generation: 1. Thermal Power 2. Hydro-electric power 3. Nuclear Power 1. Thermal Power: It is generated in India at various power stations with the help of coal and oil.
It has been a major source of electric power. In 2004-05, its share in total installed capacity was 70 percent. Hydro electric Power: It is produced by constructing dams over overflowing rivers. For example Bhakra Nangal Project, Damodor Valley Project and Hirakund Project etc. In 1950-51, installed capacity of hydro-electricity was 587.4 MW and in 2004-05, it was 19600 MW. Nuclear Power: India has also developed nuclear power. Nuclear Power plants use uranium as fuel.
This fuel is cheaper than coal. India has nuclear power plants at Tarapur, Kota (Rajasthan) Kalapakam (Chennai) Naroura (UP). Its supply accounts for only 3 percent of the total installed capacity.
Non-Commercial energy Sources: These sources include fuel wood, straw and dried dung. These are commonly used in rural India. According to an estimate, the total availability of fuel wood in India was only 50 million tonnes a year.
It is less than 50% of the total requirements. In coming years, there would be shortage of fire wood. Agricultural wastes like straw are used as fuel for cooking purposes. According to one estimate agricultural waste used for fuel might be 65 million tonnes. Animal dung when dried is also used for cooking purposes. Total animal dung production is 324 million tonnes out of which 73 million tonnes are used as fuel for cooking purposes.
The straw and dung can be used as valuable organic manure for increasing fertility of soil and in turn productivity. Non-Conve ntional Sources of Energy: Besides conventional sources of energy there are non-conventional sources of energy. These are also called renewable sources of energy. Examples are Bio energy, solar energy, wind energy and tidal energy. Of India has established a separate department under the Ministry of Energy called as the Department of Non-conventional Energy Sources for effective exploitation of non-conventional energy.
The various sources are given below: 1. Solar Energy: Energy produced through the sunlight is called solar energy. Under this programme, solar photovoltaic cells are exposed to sunlight and in the form of electricity is produced. Photovoltaic cells are those which convert sun light energy into electricity.
In year 1999-2000, 975 villages were illuminated through solar energy. Under Solar Thermal Programme, solar energy is directly obtained. Sunlight is converted into thermal power. Solar energy is used for cooking, hot water and distillation of water etc. Wind Energy: This type of energy can be produced by harnessing wind power.
It is used for operating water pumps for irrigation purposes. Approximately 2756 wind pumps were set up for this purpose. In seven states, wind power operated power houses were installed and their installed capacity was 1000 MW. India has second position in wind power energy generation. Tidal Energy: Energy produced by exploiting the tidal waves of the sea is called tidal energy.
Due to the absence of cost effective technology, this source has not yet been tapped. Bio Energy: This type of energy is obtained from organic matter. It is of two kinds: (i) Bio Gas: Bio Gas is obtained from Gobar Gas Plant by putting cow dung into the plant.
Besides producing gas this plant converts gobar into manure. It can be used for cooking, lighting and generation of electricity. 26.5 lakh bio gas plants had been established by the year 2003-04. They produce more than 225 lakh tonnes of manure. About 1828 large community bio gas plants have been established in the country.
(ii) Bio Mass: It is also of a source of producing energy through plants and trees. The purpose of bio mass programme is to encourage afforestation for energy.
So that fuel for the generation of energy based on gas technique and fodder for the cattle could be obtained, 56 MW capacity for the generation of bio mass energy has been installed. Energy from Urban Waste: Urban waste poses a big problem for its disposal. Now it can be used for generation of power. In Timarpur (Delhi) a power Ration of 3.75 capacity has been set up to generate energy from the garbage.