The year in Energy

http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/24280/page2/

Courtesy: Technology Review

Good time to start harnessing power from solar

Year by year mercury in India is rising and it seems as if there is no way it is going to reverse in coming years. Rivers are drying up with delayed monsoons and increasing temperatures thus putting stress on hydroelectricity. The only way to take advantage of this soaring temperature is to plan for large scale or house hold level solar based power harnessing and thus mitigating the power scarcity or crisis as mentioned below.

India heat wave sparks protests

Protests are growing in Delhi over power cuts as the Indian capital remains in the grip of a heat wave.

The government of the northern state of Punjab has announced that its offices will shut early as it also attempts to deal with a similar power crisis.

In Delhi, police have been called to break up demonstrations outside the offices of electricity companies.

Hundreds of people turned up at the house of a state minister demanding a solution to the problem.

As residents wait for this year's delayed monsoon, it is getting hotter and hotter and the disruptions to power supplies are getting bigger and bigger.

'Grim'

Most of the residents at the protests are without power for between six to 10 hours a day.

With temperatures in the mid-40s, there is an increasing demand for electricity as everyone tries to cool down.

The system here is unable to cope.

Some people are now sleeping in their air-conditioned cars.

The Chief Minister of Delhi, Sheila Dikshit, has described the situation as grim.

This city will host the Commonwealth Games next year and some say the current crisis shows that it is not ready.

The chief minister has dismissed those fears, saying two power plants are being constructed for the games.

This year's delayed monsoon is slowly moving across India. The people of Delhi are praying it gets here soon.

courtesy: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8123012.stm

Is electric car a sustainable solution?

The quest for green cars has led to the idea of electric cars. Everyone is betting big on it as the direct carbon emissions from the electric car is zero. But, when it is seen from a whole system point of view it doesn’t seem to be greener solution than the fossil fuel based cars.

An all-electric car runs on batteries charged at one of the power outlets which source from conventional power generation plants. Major portion of the power generated in the world comes from coal based thermal power plants or other fossil fuel based generators, which are the biggest greenhouse gas producers. Also, a centralized power generation is an inefficient system with losses accounting to around 75% during generation and transmission (as shown in figure below). In a fossil fuel based car, energy is utilized where it is produced and more efficient than centralized power generation. Thus, indirectly an all-electric car is a greater green-house gas producer than a conventional car running on fossil fuel. Global warming is a global phenomenon rather than local. Though we will be able to shift the pollution to the outskirts or away from the urban areas, it is going to become worse globally and will hit back as climate change. We are able to minimize the effect at one part but we are aggravating it at another.

Source: http://www.cfcl.com.au/Assets/Images/Energy-Distribution(72dpi).jpg

Also, batteries used in these cars are derived from lithium ion and have very short life. More batteries mean more generation of waste, and more usage of resources. What we are lacking when creating a new product is - looking through the whole system. There is need for estimation of its whole life cycle right from where all its resources come from and where it will end up at the end of its life.

Unless, most of the power is derived from renewable sources I don’t think an electric car is a sustainable solution.

More sources for your light reading:
http://www.dieselnet.com/news/2006/04cnw.php
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/02/business/global/02electric.html?_r=1
http://economistonline.blogspot.com/2009/04/chinas-electric-car-ambition.html
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/427272/1/.html

Reason behind TOYOTA outwitting GM in car sales. (my thought)

I read about TOYOTA overtaking GM in car sales in the news published by many newspapers yesterday. And I noticed that all the top people in GM were saying that the reason for GM losing it to its competitor is because of its poor marketing strategy and thus failing to sell to its consumers especially Americans. Yes, I agree strongly that GM failed in marketing and production strategy and that is GM’s lack of green thinking in its production and marketing strategy.

TOYOTA came up with green cars like the Hybrid Car, which is more durable, fuel efficient etc and became a big success all over the world, especially in America. GM was making cars which made people very happy until early nineties when no one was bothering about gas price, energy security and climate change. Now a days people are more aware and are concerned about the environment and energy security issues. TOYOTA acted early by realizing what people needed or wanting to have in late nineties and came up with this novel idea of Hybrid car, which adopts the hybrid engine model. (The hybrid engine switches to electric mode when the battery is fully charged and when the battery is weak, it runs on gas while charging the battery and thus saving a significant % of fuel usage). While GM went on producing the gas-guzzlers, light trucks etc to make early money and pull out of its financial difficulties rather than focusing on the impending energy and climate change problems in the future.

As the author of Natural capitalism, Amory Lovins puts it - The 21^st century is the century of businesses which care about environment and sustainability, and which is very true in this case. When it was first published, not many cared about it ….. and now every one is seeing the results for themselves.

So ‘Go Green’ to succeed in this fast changing 21^st century world and to outwit your competitors J.

few more sources FYI :

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/4039110a30.html

http://www.forbes.com/markets/2007/04/24/toyota-general-motors-markets-equity-cx_vk_0424markets05.html

Australia to ban incandescent bulbs in a bid to reduce greenhouse gas emissions

Australia is going to be the first country in the world to ban the incandescent bulbs and replace it with the fluorescent bulbs in a bid to curb the greenhouse gas emissions. The environment minister Malcolm Turnbull said that australia is making a legislation such that incandescent bulbs will be totally phased out of the market by 2009.

Incandescent bulb works on the principle that when current passes through the filament the electrons in the filament gets excited, which then emit the energy in form of photons of light to come to the ground state. However, major portion of the energy is wasted in the form of heat and thus resulting in a loss of energy.

Since major production of electricity in australia is based on the thermal power which rely on coal this move will reduce a portion of the greenhouse gases. Though this alone cannot reduce the greenhouse gas emissions by singnificant portions required, the minister says that this is one of the basic steps were public can involve directly.

Now, speaking in the perspective of county like india, whose economy is booming right now and is facing a sudden surge in the energy demand, a move of this kind will really be beneficial. As more than 95% population uses incandescent bulbs, a ban on them could really ease the energy demand to a significant level. However, the economic status of major sect of polpulation is in a situation, where they cannot afford to buy the flourescent lamps, which costs around 5 times more than the incandescent. Few solutions can be like 1) to educate people about the money they are going to save on the electricity bills in the future during the bulbs life time. 2) reduce the cost of the fluorescent bulbs in the market by subsidizing etc,. can help in achieving the target in a few years.

courtesy: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17233145/