Friday, July 31, 2009

India & Global Warming - 2

This is a continuation of my previous post. First time readers would do well to read the post just prior to this one to get the complete picture.

The challenges posed by Global Warming are enormous and are going to challenge the human race in every way possible. There are going to be technological challenges, infrastructural challenges, societal challenges, etc. It might not be too far fetched to say that it is going to be the most difficult challenge that we will face in this century.

We are going to have to be at our innovative best if we are to generate enough power to sustain life and civilization as it is today. In this scenario it is imperative that the Ministry of Power should develop a road map for power generation in the future. Sadly, nothing of the sort is forthcoming.

Below, I'd like to discuss some plans and ideas that I have in mind to overcome the power generation challenge. I've not really done a complete study on the viability of these projects but I have a hunch that some of them could work.

Central to my ideas is the belief that we have to try and make each house self-sufficient in power. Solar energy will of-course play a big part in this. There could also be other avenues like the construction of low-cost wind mills, or energy from bio-mass etc. Now what this means is that every house owner is responsible for generating energy for themselves. So if you want to put that additional AC in your house then you have to make sure that you are able to generate enough power for it.

Any excess power generated should be fed in to a grid. In times of distress where a particular household is not able to generate enough power for it's needs then it should be able to draw power from the grid. So for eg, if it's an overcast day in the place you are staying in and the solar panels on your roof are not generating enough electricity then you can draw power from the grid and run the appliances in your house.

Major solar-power plants and hydel power plants can be used to provide power to large industries. Additionally they should also supply power to the grid which can balance the supply and demand over the whole country.

I think we should take it on ourselves and try some of these ideas out. It might not be a bad idea to go in to the interior regions of our country, where there is still no access to electricity, and give it a shot.

There needs to be an urgency to tackle these challenges. We need to be more bold and welcome the challenges that the new economy is going to put on us rather than shy away from them.

I'll be happy to hear your thoughts on these ideas. Thanks. :)

5 comments:

Ayesha Parveen said...

Both parts 1 and 2 are very well-written. Thanks, Ajai.

Best wishes :)

Madman said...

i doubt this could be established, especially solar panels on roof. Buddy they are no cheap people might have to shell out super cash to install that. And moreover this renders self power generation out of the window. Even if you generated power form it wont be enough to run appliances. Sorry to say this is an highly ambitious project in a country which earns about 800 dollars not per month but per annum

A New Beginning said...

Hi,
Maybe if we keep working on ideas, we will get where we really want to reach, this issue needs sincere thinkn!Thanks Ajai..ideas do become reality if determination and hardwork go hand in hand..

Ajai said...

@Ayesha
Thank you for reading it. :)

@Venky
Bro, that's exactly where we have an advantage of size that no one else has. We can create so much demand that we can bring down prizes using economics of scale. Pilot projects using solar energy are already active in the remote regions on the amazon in Brazil and also in Israel. I'm sure we can emulate these models and use them here. Solar energy is the way to go for a country that gets sunshine for 10 months of the year.

@Sana
Sure thing. We need to get a dialogue started otherwise we'll get nowhere.

Madman said...

@ Ajai

Yes ur right economy of large scale will come into play. But still can we produce sufficient energy we require just from solar panel because most of the 220 volt appliances cannot be powered. It would be great if some one takes it in a large scale, so some research would clear all the defects and brings the cost down.

All this is possible only assuming that we have a sane govt unlike which had sub-standard power generation which led to power shortage recently