STATES ASKED TO FUND THEIR OWN POWER SUBSIDIES

In perhaps the first decision taken by our new power minister, Mr PM Sayeed, he deserves congratulations. Let us hope that there is no pressure to roll back this tough stand, asking States to provide subsidised power to farmers from their funds.

One hopes that this will see the end of the "drug regime" where cash subsidies, like wonder drugs are injected ostensibly into the food sector by bleeding another artery in the economy to reduce food costs. Such a regime rarely benefit few other than rich farmers, it leads to side effects, addictions and withdrawal symptoms, as we have seen in several States. Ironically, these "addicted" States happen to be large food-grain producers, enjoying the best of the irrigation, fertiliser and power policies.

Here is an excellent chance for innovation: Instead of viewing the farmer as an energy guzzler and food producer, the farmer should be seen as a fuel and compost supplier, to be given wheeling or energy credit against supplies of biomass.

In the food-grain sector, every 1.5 Kg of husk and 1 kg of most types of wood each result in delivery of 1 KwHr of electricity, when fed to gassifier-generators. Similiarly, the calorific values of most varieties in grass, twigs, leaves and plants have been well established as viable feedstock for biomass composting and gassification. Further, plenty of documentation is available to suggest that, in fertile lands as the grain-producing states have, as little as 3 to 5% of land holdings over 20 Acres set aside for 'energy plantation' can make these holdings self-sufficient in energy, by deploying the right equipment and techniques.

The MNES and its SNAs have done extensive work in promoting and developing biomass-based power projects, while IREDA and other bodies also provide international institutional funding for biomass-based power generation projects. As per MNES's 2002 figures, biomass accounted for 11% i.e. 381 MW out of 3513 MW totally generated from renewable sources - solar, wind and small hydro comprising the remainder. As for employement, biomass provides 1905 jobs out of 19985 jobs in the RE sector and these are slated to grow proportionately.

Additionally, India is the largest sugar cane producer while 60% of bagasse or spent cane is wasted. Its ability to yield economically attractive amounts of fuel gases is also well known. Some initiatives have already been taken in this direction. Bagasse-based power plants are coming up with public-private sector partnerships in several locations and MNES therefore projects a 28% share for biomass in 2012 including bagasse, at 3000 MW out of a total expected 10680 MW of power after adding waste-to-energy, solar, wind and small hydro based systems.

Likewise, vermiculture and other composting techniques for production of organic fertilisers are also very well documented and have been implemented on a reasonably widespread scale, though not intensively, for lack of a policy and administrative direction. Ill-effects of chemical fertilisers are being increasingly reported. While not promoting a mono-culture, a farmer may gain by using a mix of both types. Alternately, farmers can be alloted chemical fertilisers in exchange of compost supplied by them to a central or cooperative pool - or a higher level of energy credit for composted biomass.

Energy cooperatives are not a new concept, as experiments since the late 80s at Khandia Village in Baroda Distt in Gujarat under the aegis of GEDA and execution by Jyoti Ltd have shown. If the Power and Nonconventional Energy ministries join hands, say through the SEBs and SNAs in each state, farmers can avail of energy credit against all bio-wastes collected from them, which will incentivise them to produce more. The state administrations can aslo club together smaller holdings under a single command area. This way, energy cooperatives can be formed, possibly linked by the PDS infrastructure as well to distrubute and exchange produuce from one command area to another.

We have the capabilties for self-reliance in power, we have proven these in a number of scatterred ways and it is now time to consolidate these as the only way forward and make the Indian food sector a great power in itself.

Sincerely,
Udit Chaudhuri - Director
The microPower Initiative

MAXIMISE YOUR MILLIWATT
http://microPower.blogspot.com

6 Roop Kala, 128 West Avenue
Santacruz West, Mumbai 400 054
INDIA

Tel (+91-22)26045595; e-mail uditnc@gmail.com
http://unika.freehomepage.com

Renewables 2004

Please refer my earlier posted base document "Fusion of Positive Energies" drawing attention to the people's solidarity initiatives in renewable energy and India's critical role in it. Unfortunately, it seems that the Indian RE administrator and govt-controlled establishment of Nodal Agencies, etc are far too inward-looking and a perspective change is very essential.

The programme of Renewables 2004 is pasted below this message for your reference. It is a culmination of a global process of peoples support for RE and for developing countries to apply pressure on the developed world, which has been responsible for the GHG emissions, which has dumped inappropriate solutions at high cost and debt burden on the 3rd world.

I would appreciate the Indian media particularly the EPW taking this seriously and tracking this event, preferably with a issue focus after the ensuing summit and features at regular review intervals.

Beginning with JREC, followed by the CURES Declaration and now at this summit, the agenda will be now to put place a mechanism to assist, monitor and guide the incorporation of clean and effective RE technologies by the developed world for the benefit of the developing one.

India's RE experience has been a lesson to both the developing and developed world. As a proving ground and model in its 30 year old program going back to 1974-75, its present power generation levels at nearly 4000 MW from solar, wind, microhydel and biomass as well as its 2012 projection at 10680. India can play a technical experts' role to the entire developing world and stem the infusion of 'recycled' inefficient products and systems that cost the beneficiary industry dearly besides imposing a large debt burden, in the form of gigantic outdated windmills and hydro-turbines, high-power photovoltaics and inefficient (re-modelled marine) engine-driven generators re-adapted from their earlier dubious avatars.

Indian industry includes about 100 SSI units manufacturing solar-thermal absorber panels, water-heating systems for homes and industry, the hugely popular absorptive solar cookers, solar lanterns, biomass gassifier-generators, micro-hydro-electric generators and small-power windmills. These are over-shadowed by two giants promoted by influential local industrialists through JVs with Macs, in the form of Tata BP the world's largest solar products manufacturer and Suzlon among the top 5 wind-mill manufacturers. The public sector has a residual presence due to the earlier tight protection given to PSUs in photovoltaics.

The former industry has come up through in-house R&D, very limited Nodal Agency backed assistance and marketing, lot of local talent and risk-taker local entrepreneurs. Despite the original and appropriate products, the further assistance required through enhanced R&D facilities, access to more raw materials from overseas where needed and a better marketing infrastructure to upscale their production and cover larger populations, is being choked by our bureaucracy against the large packaged offers of ineffective over-priced equipment with finance. In many cases, these are sanctioned by ministries not related to the MNES. A lot of such situations would be redressed, as the CURES mechanism will require compliance to transparency and accountability norms.

The EPW can play a part here, as can the rest of the Indian media, by covering and highlighting these issues, not necessarily what I have written of them.

Regards
Udit Chaudhuri

MAXIMISE YOUR MILLIWATT
http://microPower.blogspot.com


renewables 2004


June 1 to 4, 2004

The International Conference for Renewable Energies, Bonn 2004 - renewables 2004 - will be held in Bonn, Germany, from June 1 to 4, 2004.

From June 1 to 4, 2004, Germany will host the International Conference for Renewable Energies, as announced by German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in September 2002 in Johannesburg. renewables 2004 will lend further impetus to the dynamic process launched in Johannesburg for the global development of renewable energy. It will also take up and add to the momentum generated by the coalition of like-minded countries for promotion of renewable energy (known as the Johannesburg Renewable Energy Coalition, JREC).

Currently, conference participants are expected to address the following themes in particular:
Financing (instruments) and market development
Formation of enabling political framework conditions
Capacity building (education, research, networks, cooperation, etc.)
These will be treated in a country-specific context.


Additional information:
contact: International Conference for Renewable Energies, B
e_mail: info@renewables2004.de
internet: http://www.renewables2004.de

SPV In India

We in India have a 30 year old solar energy programme, which very much
includes SPV or solar photovoltaics. See www.mnes.nic.in,
www.greenpeaceindia.org and www.winrockindia.org for more information. About 55-60 MW of power is generated from SPV instalations all over India.
Critical lighting and communications are major applications, even though you
see these being used for applications like rail signalling, cathodic
protection of underground pipelines & vessels, geophysical/oilfield
instrumentation, etc. Very few civilian use installations exceed 100 Watts.

Production has reached 20 MW annually, between nine manufacturers. Yet,
considering a total renewable energy production of 3500 MW, SPV has a very
small share. Its high cost and poor conversion efficiency make it affordable
only where the cost of not having any power is greater than the cost of a
SPV system. Here too, wind and biomass provide better alternatives in cost
terms.

SPV is excellent for low-power-high-quality power in remote locations, esp.
where fuel is not available as in a desert, or where noise and cables are
not affordable for safety/security reasons, like military and mobile
installations.

Reliability is no major issue - plenty of information and tech resources are
available. While silver solder materials are locally availed and importable,
I have made panels using very crude processes in the 80s, which continue to
embarass me by their living presence! It is however critical to ensure that
silicon cells do not get exposed to oxygen, being highly reactive, from the
time they are unpacked. And here lies a difficulty in producing panels. The
controlled environment means a scale for economy.

Before Liberalisation of the 90s by the Narsimha Rao govt., no one outside
the public sector was even allowed to sell a development, let alone produce
anything photovoltaic, except at system level. This has since changed
radically.

Solar cells are largely imported while Mettur Industries manufactures
silicon and few companies like Udhaya Semiconductors Ltd, CEL, BHEL,
RES/Microsol etc 'cut' the silicon sheets into strips and fabrcate the solar
cells. Panels are also made by these companies. As for total systems, Tata
BP Solar is about the world's largest producer, with a turnover of Rs 200 Cr
as of 2001-02.

Hence, SPV in India is a mature and growing industry, with plenty of upward
scope.

Udit Chaudhuri uditnc@gmail.com

And Now - A Sun-size Scam!

[Please click on the link http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/articleshow?msid=640963
"Punjab to get BHEL's solar powered pumps" about 700 SPV pumps to be supplied by Punjab Energy Devp Agency at a cost of Rs 19 Crore.]

This is indeed a scandalous profligacy and perhaps so timed to evade attention, given the election time issues. To spend such resources on freebies within the country's most prosperous agro belt and in a 100% electrified region, abundant with biomass and resources for power generation from more cost-effective technologies like waste-to-energy and gassifier-based generation is indeed state-sponsored blasphemy of the highest order!

India's SPV production is barely 20MW a year, while about half of this goes to critical applications in 'non-subsidy' sectors of defence, railways, oil exploration, telecom etc. This leaves less than 10 MW of panels for basic needs like village lighting, communication/ICT and safety annunciation in no-power zones.

At a system-level cost of Rs 500-600 per Peak-Watt and a high import content, these solutions need be spared only where the cost of NOT having ANY power is greater. Further, the effective 24-hr capacity is less than 20% of that installed, given that a SPV module delivers its rated power for only 4-5 hours on an average day in these regions. System efficiency is never better than 5%. The large starting currents of motors, multiple series-parallel interconnections and joints make SPV highly unreliable for large one-spot power requirements. These facts are well known and documented, given our 30-year old solar energy programme.

On the other hand, given Punjab's production of food-grain and therefore husk, that produces 1 KwH for every 1.5 Kg of it fed to a biomass gassifier, is itself a more economical and efficient alternative to driving engines of pumps or generators, let alone the other agricultural wastes like bagasse, that are anyway burnt to cause fire and pollution hazards.

Not only is this choking development, but thousands of women and children die or get blind and sick from kerosene fumes of lanterns and monoxides of crude hearths. The PM's 2002 I-Day promise of a solar lantern in every no-power village home remains largely fulfilled.

Such a profligacy can only be the result of a callous ego-centric bureaucracy that must sanction Crores if at all, if not the work of wheels within wheels. A thorough investigation and exposure is warranted.

Fusion of Positive Energies – observations and reflections

Taking a snapshot in perspective of the RE (renewable energy) movement from Kyoto to Johannesburg to Brasilia, the Choose Positive Energy (www.choosepositiveenergy.com) discussion on 19th January, at the World Social Forum 2004 in Mumbai, India highlighted the role of peoples’ initiatives including pressure groups influencing policy-making, planning and incorporation of RE (renewable energy) systems all over the world, especially in the developing countries. Important to India, it also averred from the discussions that our country’s RE experience is a lesson to the developing world. And that India can thus play an active role in that global movement, beginning with the Johannesburg summit JREC, moving to the CURES Declaration binding the GHG-producing countries to firmer commitments of support to the 3rd World and the impending Renewables 2004 meeting at Brasilia and onward.

The backdrop:

Our world faces a grim energy scenario with increasing deforestation, fossil and fissile fuel reserves facing depletion; climate changes from the Greenhouse effect aided by harmful emissions from a host of processes attributed to the industrialized nations and more fatal pollution by fuels. Millions of women and children die from cooking fires from want of a clean fuel and cook-stove, while ozone-depleting Greenhouse gases like the CFCs threaten the atmosphere itself. About 2 Billion people do not access electricity. A pace of electrification that even at its best would still leave 1.4 Billion people without power by 2030 , let alone other essential utilities like water and cooking gas aggravates the situation.

The corporate sector from the so-called 1st World seems to be ambiguous. On one hand, their powerful lobbying and financial support gives ready bait to administrators in developing countries to buy large power plants and electrify large areas but make them dependant on the vendor-countries for relevant technology, skills, supplies of naphtha, liquid natural gas, coke, petroleum or even nuclear fuels, besides endangering the environment with emissions. Or by propagating large projects like dams incorporating heavy hydel generators and centralized irrigation systems that submerge large tracts of land, upset the saline balance in soil and displace thousands of homes to impose a revenue burden on the citizen and a debt burden on the beneficiary nation. When the tailrace waters from these plants are fed used to construct another monstrous thermal plant, these effects are further compounded. On the other hand, 1st-world corporate behemoths are building large wind-mills and mini-hydel plants, which suffice for small village clusters and towns but are in many cases introduced through heavy lobbying, credit finance, export subsidies and connected to feed a centralized grid. Possibly these vendors can argue that developing countries have no other viable buyer than the government or its own power-grid authority.

Hopefully this would be resolved once the cooperative sector and peoples initiative groups become more active and financially strong allies of the corporate sector, instead of being adversaries.

As a thumb rule, electricity is about a third of all energy production, while oil, gas, coal and fissile fuels account for the rest. This proportion is, indeed interestingly, maintained at most national levels. Obviously this reflects the consumption pattern. Yet, specific local energy needs vary according to the break-up of local energy-consuming activity like industry, farming or mining as well as the local households and lifestyles. All this calls for multi-pronged and localized energy solutions, as against any ‘mono-culture’ wherein one energy source meets all needs.

Gender issues are also involved here, as are poverty issues. Energy needs extend to cooking and housewarming needs, all of which affect the woman homemaker. Compounding energy costs and poor availability further fuel poverty and force compromises by way of pollutant and inefficient sources of heat, light and motive power.

However, pressure by organizing people and opinions against the ethics of foisting undesirable solutions and dual environmental standards, from the grass roots to the policy-making levels. Also taking advantage of world-wide gatherings and events, various peoples initiative groups are attempting a dialogue between the perpetrators and its affected nations, resulting in the Carbon Credits and CDM or Clean Development Mechanism to enable the developing world to benefit by financial assistance from the 1st World in their endeavour to deploy ‘clean’ technologies for energy and utility, though a lot more needs to be done in this sphere.

RE systems – solar, wind, hyrdro and biomass - being relatively fuel-independent, environment-friendly besides being adaptable and scalable to a variety of command area scenarios, make a strong, viable and self-helping alternative for people to meet energy supplies. Solar-thermal and photovoltaic solutions have proven fully viable and feasible at the home and local-area level over the years, whereas wind and hydropower technologies have proven their mettle at the wide-area levels. This gives tremendous scope for self-help at the local level. Local persons, with a minimum of guidance and material, can put up simple systems to meet their energy needs. Incentives can also be provided in developing local micro-entrepreneurs to store components and consumables, assemble small systems, supply, and commission, maintain and upgrade them as needed. Investment is flexible to owners’ funds local enterprise or cooperative banking by beneficiary groups, given the scale-flexible nature of these systems.

Relevantly, India’s RE movement makes it a global lesson to the world. Given its origins in the 50s in micro-hydel following the Vickers study for the 1st 5-year Plan, the 60s in biogas, the 70s in solar and wind based systems. India is presently home to the 5th largest installed base in KwH terms and home to globally top-ranked manufacturers of solar and wind energy systems. At least one Indian renewable energy entrepreneur has served on the World Bank’s advisory panel on RE as far back as 1980-81. Greenpeace India’s (www.greenpeaceindia.org) publication Power from Renewables- An Indian Success Story and other documents also highlight this.

Meanwhile observes that just like Greenpeace and its affiliated bodies have done in Latin America, Africa and Asia, a number of bodies like the Intermediate Technology Development Group, (www.itdg.org) Light Up the World Foundation (www.lightuptheworld.org) as well as small initiatives including DIY Solar (www.biodesign.org.uk) are involved in providing low-power, low-cost SPV or solar photovoltaic products that have illuminated homes and as effectively, have energized radio and telecom equipment in a number of African and Asian countries. Micro-enterprises have also developed through these efforts.

Likewise one also observes, collaborative efforts of Indian industry and the State Nodal Agencies have seen the success of solar cookers in millions of Indian homes, particularly across the western half of India. Improvement programmes for pump installations and cook-stoves have seen varied success. Solar-thermal air and water heating has been taken up in homes and some process industries, to save several hundreds in MwH of electrical energy that would have been used for geysers and heaters. SPV streetlights and battery-backed invertors for community power supply have been installed in many villages too, along with solar stills (for distilled water to re-fill batteries) after training and motivating local beneficiaries or beneficiary-groups to clean, monitor these systems, report and follow-up servicing and repairs, also under such partnerships.

One further observes that international financial institutions like the World Bank and IDRC have pitched in by way of financial support for a number of projects in RE. Few of these were direct and many more are co-funded or through a local body, like the IREDA in India. However, some of their poverty redresser policies have come under of a cloud of late.

Can all these endeavours not unite into a single, win-win global initiative?



Panel discussion:

Peter Horsman, International Climate Campaigner, Greenpeace, UK (www.greenpeace.org.uk) outlined the overall energy situation in perspective and the several organised efforts all over the world.

A number of NGOs and like-minded bodies have initiated a global campaign for RE, organizing groups of citizens, organizing public awareness and opinion and negotiating with policy makers. A process of global collaboration has set in and needs to be strengthened by more of people initiative groups and perhaps a role for NGOs to play in this. It was encouraging to learn that the developing countries are not alone in the struggle for adaptation of renewable energy sources and in fact there is a wave of people, organisations and opinions building in favour of providing renewable energy to the world’s indigent population, who are working towards mechanisms and processes by which the developed nations favour and provide benefits to the developing ones in their renewable energy endeavours.

The Johannesburg World Summit for Sustainable Development was a beginning, with the Johannesburg RE Coalition JREC under its aegis, though the Summit did not meet the expected results and climate change related negotiations ran into difficulties, albeit noting that global warming and related effects continue at an alarming pace and hence an urgent need for action. Further deliberations between like-minded groups eventually lead to a joint strategic plan document, now known as CURES (Citizens Unity for Renewable Energy & Sustainability) Declaration by 38 organisations across the globe. Famous for its headline “The Future is Renewable,” a PDF of this declaration is available at www.cures-network.org/cures.html. . Prime movers to this process include Greenpeace International, Climate Action Network Europe, Climate Justice, the German NGO forum Environment & Development, WWF and the Heinrich Boll Foundation (www.boell.de/energie). This declaration was sent to Germany’s respective ministers for energy and development cooperation Jürgen Trittin and Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, at the opening of the regional preparatory conference for the "Renewables 2004" summit in Brasilia. The ministers will host the first global intergovernmental conference on renewable energies in Bonn in June 2004 .

To quote from the CURES document:
The WSSD was not successful in bringing the world closer to achieving the goals of poverty eradication, increasing gender equity, providing all people with clean and affordable energy services or avoiding dangerous climate change. This failure was a tremendous let-down to billions of people. The Bonn Conference offers a second chance to provide energy services to those people without and to begin to set the world on a pathway to avoid catastrophic climate change. This chance must not be wasted. …

In order to set the world forward on a more sustainable energy pathway, we welcome the initiative of the German government to host a major conference on Renewables in June 2004, as well as the Declaration of the Johannesburg Renewable Energy Coalition (JREC).
We need to take clear and decisive steps to:
· Transform the global energy system away from one dependent on fossil fuels, large hydro and nuclear power to one that is based on new renewables and energy efficiency. The Kyoto Protocol is the first step for this transformation and Russia must ratify it immediately.
· Create a special focus and programme for delivering appropriate clean and affordable energy services for the 2 billion people who are without these energy services as a key element to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). We call for free energy services for basic needs, allocated per person recognizing livelihood strategies in different countries.

Going beyond energy issues at the demand-supply level, this declaration seeks to deploy renewable energies as an agent of sustainable development. Thus to quote again:

In regard to both of the goals outlined above: combating climate change and poverty eradication, new renewables create a decentralized option that generates jobs and income, empowers local communities and strengthens self-reliance.

As a driver for sustainable development for the 2 billion rural and urban poor in the developing world, off-grid non-electrical renewable options (such as improved cook stoves, pico/micro hydro for mechanical power, solar heaters and driers, wind pumps and solar purifiers) can play a positive role in promoting gender equity – traditional energy sources, particularly traditional biomass, place a disproportionate burden on women. Because of women’s traditional role in fuel collection and use, there is a huge opportunity cost in terms of time that could be more productively used, as well as an enormous waste of human energy;
· fighting indoor air pollution – air pollution is associated with traditional biomass use in inefficient cook stoves and heating, which is a major cause of disease and mortality in developing countries, particularly among women and children;
· economic self reliance - poor people often pay a disproportionately large share of their income on kerosene, batteries, and candles to meet their energy needs; renewable energy sources, particularly non-electrical options, can dramatically reduce the cost of ‘imported’ sources;
· empowerment - community control and management of local resources for energy can empower communities rather than creating new dependencies on materials/equipment and ‘fuel’ provided from ‘outside’;
· security and local environment benefits – new renewables, as an important part of a locally owned and controlled energy system, can also have major benefits in terms of protecting and managing the local environment.

New renewables also have a major role to play in tackling the threat of dangerous climate change on a global level, and reducing regional and local air and water pollution. In addition to replacing fossil fuels and other ‘dirty’ technologies, which are driving climate change and polluting the environment:

· New renewables enhance energy security in economic terms, creating many more jobs per unit of energy produced, and creating whole new industries;
· New renewables are not subject to the economic insecurity created by the volatility of commodity prices, particular for fossil fuels on the global market. For both industrialized and developing countries, new renewables can have major benefits in terms of economic stability;
· New renewables are less likely to have the same vulnerabilities as centralized energy systems inherent in conventional fossil fuel or nuclear powered systems. Together with distributed power in independent, regional and local grids, they increase grid stability with less likelihood of blackouts; are not going to be the cause of environmental disasters such as oil spills, tanker explosions or nuclear accidents; and are less vulnerable to random acts of violence;
· New renewable sources are available globally, and are not going to cause resource wars, nor require massive military and security apparatus to protect.

It is significant to note here that besides JREC participants, this declaration spells out agendas at the Bonn meet for important stakeholder groups, mainly:-
· National Governments
- to instruct International Financial Institutions to phase out all fossil, nuclear and hydro projects not conforming to WCD norms, by 2008 and recognise all investments in RE and EE or energy efficiency systems as debt repayment
- Set new and ambitious targets for new renewables.
- Announce new policies and measures to increase the share of new renewables. such as feed-in laws, tax incentives, ambitious renewable portfolio standards that are appropriate for national circumstances, in consultation with local participation.
- Announce new policies to phase out subsidies to fossil fuel and nuclear.
- Announce new development plans to provide clean and affordable energy services to those without.
- Make new renewables a priority in bilateral and multilateral development cooperation, particularly through micro-financing schemes.
- Create fair and transparent prices, for grid access for renewable energy –taking into account economic advantages of embedded generation.
- Become role models by prioritising energy efficiency in their own activities and utilizing cleaner fuels for their needs.
- Assure demand based energy supply on the base of participatory assessment and decisions.
- Create national programmes to support energy efficiency.
- Put in place social assistance programmes for workers and communities who may be affected by the transition to cleaner energy.
- Promote the integration of knowledge on new renewables and energy efficiency into national educational curricula and in vocational training.

· Multilateral Development Banks
- to set up specialised cells for RE and EE projects, with an adequate balance of engineers and banking professionals
- special focus on lo-cost, local energy and off-grid systems
- to encourage the involvement of RE and EE projects in any power sector reform process
· Export Credit Agencies
- to phase out support as stated for IFI s above, by changing their energy portfolios to 20% for energy efficiency and new renewables by next year. ECAs must also become more transparent in order to monitor and assess the achievement of the target.
- to introduce institutional reforms and capacity building to enable new sectoral arrangements and phase out preferential support as presently under the OECD Arrangement for Export Credits
- In parallel, to provide funds at lowest interest and longest tenure under existing guidelines, for new RE and EE projects
· State or provincial governments
- Announce targets, policies and measures to increase the share of new renewables such as ambitious renewable portfolio standards, tax incentives and call on national governments to do the same.
- Announce their intention to use their position as utility owners and shareholders to move them away from nuclear and fossil fuels.
- Make sure that affected communities take part in decision-making processes and their rights and interests are respected.
- Lead by example through green public procurement.
· Business
· Parliamentarians
· Labour unions
· Commercial banks
· Intergovernmental organisations
· Developmental NGOs
· Environmental NGOs
· Academia
· Social movements and indigenous peoples
· Media

This process can have far-reaching results for the developing world in particular, if these are followed up and supported properly. And to aid such a mammoth process of change, a monitoring and follow-up process is also proposed, to be adapted at the Bonn meet, for :
1 Evaluation and progress reports with agreed upon criteria linked to the main goals of the Conference.
2 Governments to report to national parliaments and to the international community. Reports should include stakeholder involvement and also be given to the CSD 2006 special session on energy.
3 A follow-up conference in a developing country.
4 Clear institutional responsibility at a high level.

The object of these many reproductions from the CURES document is only to emphasise the tremendous opportunity that this global process offers to those people and various groups – from pressure-groups, beneficiary-groups, cooperatives, unions, institutions, enterprises, administrators at various levels and of course, governments in the developing world take due note and participate in its success.

Among the other panelists, Ms Maria Athena Ronquillo-Ballesteros, Climate & Energy Campaigner, Greenpeace, stressed the need of peoples participation in influencing the right choices, from the grassroots to policy level.

Notably, Thailand and Philippines, NGOs have mobilised effective opposition to such large power projects involving expensive imports and an eventual debt burden via fuel imports. Besides public protests, these groups had also legally challenged and obstructed environmental clearances for those unwanted projects. However it was also encouraging to note from Ms Ronquillo that under the Carbon credits system, wind power systems, notably from the UK and Japan, besides those from MNCs like Siemens were also finding their way in these developing countries, worth a total of USD 26 Billion. The high capital costs of renewables were of course an issue, she noted.

To reflect: Wind energy conversion, like hydel is a ‘successful’ RE technology in terms of efficacy and fuel-free, overcoming ecological as well as economic burdens. There are an abounding number of sites where wind speeds and hours are adequate to service an annual plant utilisation factor of 66% and higher. The danger, like hydel, from these systems could come from excessive dependence on large-capacity solo operation plants. Both - the technology development, leading in the Western countries – and administrators tend to push for large package deal. This could be a threat in 3rd world countries, with a large spread of low power users, often connected by an equally expensive distribution grid, are all forced to depend on a solo power source. One must never forget that the massive cascade tripping that shook up most of North America in mid-2003 began with the failure of one very large and old hydro plant that was too critical to afford a desirable maintenance shutdown. Germany has already begun to see local citizens objections to the large coastal windmill installations obstructing the horizon.

India’s experience with wind energy has been ambivalent –at both extremes. Initial windmill development as of the early 80s was targeted at mountain villages & hamlets, critical installations like microwave/repeater stations at remote locations and such. Meant to provide a local power source for a small network or moderate single load. Ratings ranged from 40W, 24Vdc to few kilowatts . However, thanks to the 7th 5-year-plan’s slash on RE allocations from Rs 4 Billion to a meagre 70 Million, all this had to give way to the slew of Megawatt-rated European and American offerings taking advantage of the initial capital equipment liberalisation. This killed the Indian windmill industry until the advent of risk entrepreneurs like Suzlon and Enercon entering the fray in the late 90s, with a lot of dubious players in between. One hopes that developments like CURES would stem such inequities instead of leaving the door open to them. And yes, there seems to be no greater need in India than people’s initiatives, collective voices and strengths. To put pressure on policies. To monitor resource mobilisation. And to assist physical implementation at field level.

On this point of capital costs Dr David Hooks, Sr Research Fellow working on the anaerobic digestion of biomass at the Centre for Intelligent Monitoring Systems, UK (www.cims.org.uk) observed that the successful introduction of renewables involved two layers of costs - on R&D and capital equipment, if these were to be implemented with the desired speed and volume.

In case of solar photovoltaics or PV alone, a study by KPMG estimated that about USD 200 Billion in order to develop PV systems that would make the grade and installed base as targeted. On the other hand, a typically conservative financial administrator tends to support investment on an existing product and technology, than risk even a smaller amount on radically new innovations. Hopefully the CURES declaration will address, in their guidelines to IFIs, MDBs and ECAs.

Dr Hookes outlined the work being done in the field of alternative combustion fuels – the major technologies being biomass digestion, biomass gasification, proton exchange fuel cells and direct hydrogen combustion. On the question of ‘which fuel will drive my car in the 21st century?” Dr Hookes sees several solutions that are close but not quite yet there. Some developments are elaborated here, to indicate the magnitude of efforts and their progress.

FCs or Fuel cells, producing electricity from the combination of hydrogen and oxygen ions are a clean and efficient power source, producing only hot air as a by-product. These, incorporating the polymerised PEM or proton exchange membrane, are also marketed in small numbers and have about the highest power density, yet unparalleled by storage batteries that anyway, are only secondary energy sources. A 25 kW fuel cell system, which can energise a large house and garden, is little larger than a 2-door refrigerator. Similar fuel cells are already driving experimental buses and cars in a number of countries in the West and East, while manufacturers of hand-held computers and digital diaries in Japan and Korea are trying to incorporate miniscule sized fuel cells in their hardware. The key bottleneck lies in the cost of the membrane, which is phenomenal. Auto giants from the US and Asia have been making cosmetic presentations of their FC-driven electric concept-cars at publicity events like alternative auto shows. Electronic giants Toshiba and Sony have announced an imminent introduction of FC-powered hand-helds.

Direct hydrogen combustion or DHC is another very promising energy source and trials are being run on a number of vehicles, from buses to motorcycles, as at BHU in India. Elementarily, when sparked, hydrogen combines with atmospheric oxygen to form water vapour and this is naturally a clean source of combustion. Modifications to an existing internal combustion engine are nominal and feasible, but fuel safety is the major bottleneck here, that has embattled engineers since the days of the Graf Zeppelin. Hyundai among other auto producers also offers a DHC variant.

Although manageable on an industrial scale, say in the fertiliser industry where hydrogen is quite safely and reliably handled in bulk, more work is needed for safe and viable systems for bulk storage and distribution over entire regions as also systems for consumers to access supplies of hydrogen, then to store on vehicles and burn it safely. The owner of any of these systems also needs a fail-safe reliability and safety-engineering regimen. The BHU solution was found in using fused sodium hydrides in a pressurised fuel tank. As the hydride absorbs hydrogen at lower temperature and releases it a higher temperature, a small amount of heat needs to be applied to the fuel tank, with very precise control. Exhaust heat can suffice for this release but a small heater is required while starting the engine. Cost and relatively readily available know-how are the strong points of this technology.

It is thus a damnable warp in priorities India’s energy administrators, more so in the light of their interest in producing hydrogen from electrolysis of sugar cane wastes through the MNES’ Working group on Bio-Methanation and 60% of bagasse being wasted, that instead of putting more pressure on accelerated development of DHC and hydrogen distribution, they have allowed the mass-scale conversion of diesel engines to CNG and the consequent massive investments, from special unloading terminals to retail networks.

Biomass digestion presents yet another promising possibility as a fuel source for cooking and other ‘stationery’ warming needs. The beginning with the popular Gobar-gas s plants that have proliferated all over India, initially under the aegis of the Khadi & Village Industries Commission, a lot of contributions have been made in anaerobic digestion of biological wastes, with the identification of plant species and natural catalysts. Plants like Azola and Aro-Taro have been popularised by a number of bodies and individuals all over the world. Methodologies have been developed for the ‘generation’ of hydrogen and carbon monoxide beside methane, from the digestion of forest and agricultural wastes. Hopefully the biomethanation programme of the MNES working closely with the sugar industry will augur well in the near future.

An interesting takeoff to biomass digestion is in the development of the organic fuel cell, wherein an organically cultured membrane that combines both naturally produced gases to produce electricity. In turn, this brings fourth the possibility of electricity farms in the literal sense. Plenty of routes for development of proton exchange membranes as well as organic ‘fuels’ or electrolytes for the proton exchange reaction are under way. In the Netherlands, a simulated experiment was carried out to energise an entire district with the use of organic fuel cells. The Marathwada University at Nagpur has also been working on identifying plants suitable for organic fuel cells. As yet this is a nascent technology. Yet one push in any of the right places will see it leaping to fruition as another viable power source, given the forces behind its development.

Nearer home, India has however had a very successful experience in biomass combustion Beginning with pioneering work done by GEDA and Jyoti notably at its Khandia village energy project, followed by onward development at R&D establishments including ASCENT under the aegis of the Indian ministry MNES , India now has a large installed base of biomass gassifiers. These systems charge diesel engines as well as burners and service applications ranging from small 3HP pumps to captive power plants as large as 500 Kw and from domestic boilers to large community cooking systems. These utilise waste wood, husk, dry leaves and grass approximately at a rate of 1-1.5 Kg per KwH and produce relatively clean producer-gas. Diesel is saved up to 60% and there are 100% gas-fired engines as well. Emissions have also been greatly minimised. The fuel cost is thus brought down from Rs 6-7 per KwH to under Rs 2.

Biomass combustion systems are especially attractive in the village context, when energy demand, like electricity for threshing of grain or lift-irrigation coincides with the harvest, late summer or early monsoon season, when plenty of combustible biomass is available. Bagasse-burning waste-to-energy systems find tremendous potential in India being the world’s largest cane producer. However, unless there is an assurance of fuel production either through natural means or community-managed initiatives like an energy cooperative and social forestry, extensive use of biomass gassifiers can be a threat to the environment. A cautious effort in planning of cultivation and forest development is required. It has also been found that in holdings of 20 Acres and more, as little as 3-5% of the land set aside for ‘energy plantation’ or growing plants of adequate calorific value can make the land self-sufficient in energy in most cases.

Mass production of biomass generating equipment also needs to be done very carefully, since precision machining and fabrication are required to produce efficient and non-polluting gassifiers, complying with economic efficiency and international emission norms. This in turn calls for more investment from the organised sector and stringent quality norms, given the recent de-licensing move. Countries with large tracts of forest and agricultural land can benefit greatly from this Indian experience. The recent increase in assistance to waste-to-energy programmes is a step in the right direction. There is good export potential too, even at the risk of competition from, say, Korean manufacturers of husk-firing gassifiers. These can be mitigated by Indian manufacturers’ experience with diverse varieties of biomass if costs are managed well.

After the advent of overseas funding, liberalised imports and private sector initiatives, a number of formidable sized waste-to-energy power plants like the 6Mw installation at Miryalaguda in Andhra Pradesh. The total capacity of these is well over 20Mw even as the this accounted for 51% of the USD 75 Million invested in RE enterprises through the Foreign Direct Investment route. These systems are still relatively new and mostly being multi-fuel, they also use diesel to start and before shutting down. Sufficient data by way of the actual fuel-efficiencies at different diesel/waste-gas ratios and corresponding reduction in diesel at various plant load factors is not yet established to validate the cost-benefit economics, wastes being a natural product, unless concentrated, like bagasse or husk during the harvest season. Their emissions are yet another question, even though the manufacturers claim clean combustion.

India perhaps has had its longest innings of success in absorptive solar-thermal solutions - solar cookers as well as the flat-plate solar absorber based water-heating systems. Most of the country enjoys a solar radiation energy availability of 5.2 to 6.3 KwH per Square Metre of land. The absorptive ‘box’ cookers have been found ideally suitable for rice and the slow-cooking style applied to a lot of the Indian cuisine. As for flat-plate solar absorber panels, collection efficiencies peaking at 70% have been reached and these dot the townscape in large parts of India. Solar-thermal technologies, despite their wide acceptance can still further reduce industrial fuel and electricity consumption, as has been demonstrated amply in the case of the dairy sector, wherein bodies like the NDDB have taken keen interest and installed these extensively in their milk collection centres, bottling and pasteurisation plants, for boiler-feed pre-heating as well as bottle washing. Canteens are a popular application too. Solar hot air systems are used for a variety of drying processes in the agricultural sector. Some solar-absorptive systems are building-integrated too. There are about 80 registered manufacturers and adding about 50,000 Sq M of solar panel area every year . All these systems pay back in 3 to 5 years through straight economics, let alone tax breaks or concessions.

Heavy-fuel burning bulk process plants like steel, cement, thermal power, fertiliser and petroleum can further their gains from using solar-heated water for warming of heavy fuel storage systems, like LSHS tanks besides the other applications. Even so, other industries like the cotton sector can follow suit, once the cotton mill reforms take off as per the new policy announced recently by our Finance Ministry, as can other food processing sectors. Solar stills are another proven product with poor exploitation, given the widespread drought-prone areas close to our coasts and the ever-increasing salinity in groundwater due to wash-down by canal irrigation and due to over-pumping that is causing so many health problems in villages and cities alike. These systems have all been used for autonomous applications and to meet local demands. As we do not have the kind of housewarming needs like the West large centralised heating systems with elaborate distribution pipelines are not needed. And in good sense, neither have we tried to ape the West and build solar-thermal power stations.

Reflective solar-thermal systems have not really ‘taken off’ except for a scattering of installations at R&D sites and institutions, often brought under a research project, overseas charity or international funding programme. With improvements in finishing technologies and tooling, small ‘sun baskets’ or small conical parabolic concentrators are entering the cooker segment. Any reflective system requires very fine and clean surface finish and must be aligned for efficient operation and except for large systems, this means a tracking motor which itself consumes energy or management time. Capital costs are the major factor – be they for product development or for imports. They would be effective where large amounts of steam are required, as also for applications like vapour-absorption refrigeration systems, yet another very potential area in the wake of the recent cold-storage development initiatives under the food processing industry policies.

A major consideration in all solar thermal solutions, especially in bulk-process plant applications is that these systems need to service a 24 hours requirement by collecting all requisite heat during just the 4 to 5 hours of peak insolation or maximum sunshine in each day. This means a premium on shadow-free and load-bearing spaces, given the weight of the panels and their working fluid, mostly water. There is also a scope for improvement in performance, which will be hopefully be met by liberalised imports of selective coating materials, thermal storage systems, thermic fluids and their production technologies, press-tooling of absorber plates et which will make the systems cheaper as well as more efficient. However, India has always had a good reputation in heat transfer –from textbooks to equipment – and so it is not surprising to see a rising figure of solar-thermal products being exported to other Asian as well as African countries. The energy from each solar panel installed is evaluated in MTCR or MT of coal replaced.

Although the RE policy makers and planners from the erstwhile CASE onward have been very sensible in nurturing appropriate solutions by support to R&D, tax concessions to manufacturers, subsidies to buyers as well as a system to develop BDAs or business develop development associates, consultants and above all – taking up turnkey projects with full funding in pre-defined priority sectors like public schools and hospitals, we are suffering from effects of this enthusiasm. It makes the MNES and all Nodal Agencies a veritable private club and sarvajnanis carrying an air of exclusive rights to these bodies. About nothing solar gets built without their divine blessings. There is very little onus on individual entrepreneurs, architects, systems engineers, plant designers, process industries, builders, establishment owners and their management to design, build or incorporate these systems, besides a 100% depreciation benefits and a non-transparent subsidy regime that is on its way out. More education as well as pressure needs to be applied to widen the incorporation of solar-absorptive thermal systems in buildings and establishments in urban as well as rural areas. This warrants more innovative policies and enterprising inputs – from government and the enterprise alike.

Our most expensive RE experience has been in SPV solar photovoltaic-based centralised power plants and streetlights. We have had good and bad experiences, both of which are being duplicated at a disturbing pace throughout the developing world. At a conversion efficiency of barely 10-15% on an average, this is not the ideal solution except that there is no other energy consumption, except for the manufacture of silicon and battery electrolytes. The low voltage of the panels add to this and make Kilowatt rated SPV power solutions unreliable and unwieldy from the large number of interconnecting joints and inefficient through transformer and battery losses. And these veritable “white elephants” work only for 4 to 5 hours a day, i.e. peak insolation hours. Even though silicon is claimed to be among the most abundant elements, refining this is expensive and under stringent process control, hiking its economic production volume with each development or improvement. Few silicon extractors, scattered over the West, virtually monopolise the global demand, which extends to semiconductors as well. They make a powerful MNC lobby anywhere.

Mono-crystalline solar cells cost about USD 2 per Wp or Peak Watt of electrical output, while the value-add by way of panel assembly, transportation and commissioning make about any mono-crystalline silicon-based SPV panel cost about USD 5 per Wp and an amorphous silicon panel at its half, with polycrystalline silicon somewhere between. Add the cost of batteries, regulating devices and the load equipment and we find a staggering system cost of USD 10 per Wp! Obviously SPV systems are viable only where the cost of not having power is far greater – typically the railways plying in no-power zones, defence, telecommunications, oil explorers, etc., for lo-power but critical uses like radio, telephony, signalling, security/safety lighting, alarms, in-field instrumentation and mobile computing.

For any reason, be it pressure from the monopolist and powerful MNCs like Hemlock, BP Solar, Siemens, Shell etc – or just a hatchet-man administrator tendency, of RE planners in the New Delhi firmament has unfortunately been an attitude to fit the sun into existing systems instead of understanding its uniqueness and hence its unique spectrum of solutions. The Government and PSUs tightly controlled solar cell development and manufacture. Through the 80s, these undertakings dumped thousands of SPV streetlights in most States spread across India, the SEBs racing the SNAs . Not only were the panels of poor quality – silicon needs protection from atmospheric oxygen as well as heat – the indigenously made batteries, mostly re-adapted automobile duty ones, were not built for the slow charge and drain cycles nor for unattended operation. They mostly used standard tube-lights and indoor –quality fittings. As a result they disintegrated in months, while in several States, no one from those departments even bothered to follow up the installations with a visit, let alone maintenance.

With the first phase of liberalisation in the early 90s, Tata BP Solar and others from the private corporate sector began to enter the SPV fray. However, by then the MNES and its SNAs had formed their network and began a programme of slow but relatively systematic programme of training and motivating local persons to monitor, maintain, report performance or faults along with their infrastructure for centralised procurement, financial support, installation and servicing of SPV systems. The product range has proliferated to include solar lanterns, home systems and solar pumps for dewatering as well, while another 50% of the SPV production goes to defence, railways, telecom and oil sectors, for their critical needs described earlier. All-India PV power production is about 55 Mw and growing by 20 Mw as of the last two years, while 30 Mw worth of SPV equipment has been exported . Tata BP Solar (India) Ltd that spearheaded the private sector SPV industry and diversified into solar-thermal systems, is now about the world’s largest single manufacturer of solar products, about Rs 2 Billion as of 2001-02. A large share of its production is exported.

Yet unfortunately, instead of using this added power – which also comes with financing schemes from their powerful vendors and IFI funding – as ideally suited to no-power and low-demand autonomous needs, say where cabling costs are not feasible to the energy demand, it seems that the RE commissariat, between the MNES and Nodal Agencies lead by IREDA just want to put up flags by claiming big installation figures. Instead of the deep forest and mountain regions that the SEBs’ grid will never reach, one finds indiscriminate installations crowding some of the most developed areas and at times bang in the middle of 100% electrified regions. Otherwise what justification was there in the building of a 4Kw station, at a possible cost of Rs 2 Million in a place like Nabha in Punjab or the large installations in the Sunderbans, which are as rich in biomass and perhaps a gassifier-driven power plant of 15 Kw or more could have been built with the same amount. And this was inaugurated by no less than the President whose Vision for India in 2020 should have been shattered by such profligacy! On the other hand, the Prime Minister’s 2001 Independence Day promise of solar lanterns to all homes in the no-power zones is yet to be realised. Yet, ironically many environment and energy policy thinkers involved with IFIs as well as activists in the West do not think much of the burden in the USD 10 per Wp cost of an average SPV system in the 3rd World. They have supported many such systems.

The commissariat of SPV also seems blind to the improvements, low cost and scale-flexibility of amorphous silicon panels, which allow for a host of low-power-low-cost solutions that a person in the poorest region can buy without any subsidisation and meet basic illumination and communication needs by charging batteries for LED lamps, electronic candles, torches and radios, even cell-phones and PDAs. Such over-regulation and over-enthusiasm is indeed dangerous, especially in the wake of the dismantling of the subsidy and state-funded regime. The tender-driven industry is likely to collapse unless it gains a market-driven stance, unlikely without radical re-engineering and large realignments.

However, to reach the above defined proven RE solutions – biomass, solar thermal and PV - beside the nascent fuel cells and other technologies – to the entire energy-starved population of the developing world will require large investments in R&D and production scale-up. A study by the financial consultancy giant KPMG estimated an investment of USD 400 Billion in the SPV area alone. A lot more homework and debate will be required to determine how such sums will be raised and recovered, as these will naturally mean build-ups of large vested interests with each large investment. The Cures declaration has a position on this, as has been seen, so have the several public initiative groups.

Here we come full circle on another poignant question identified by Dr David Hookes. That while a proven technology like ‘conventional’ energy producing equipment is able to establish a tangible track record and instil confidence in a banker to risk financing a new venture, what does a new technology instil, except promise and vision?

Here we come to two energy conversion technologies that have proven themselves over the years and though renewable, are no longer non-conventional – hydro and wind.

If one evaluates hydroelectric resources by clubbing the potential for micro and mini hydel plants, India, like many other developing countries has barely utilised 10-15% of its hydro electric resources. In fact, a Vickers study for the first Planning Commission had recommended a network of small hydro power stations as best feasible to meet India’s extensive energy needs, which could be synchronised with large stations at those relatively few centres of large power consumption like cities and heavy industry belts. Somehow this got buried while aggressive construction of dams with mammoth hydro stations and thermal stations commenced under the Nehruvian policy regime. Few manufacturers like Jyoti in 1958 took the initiative to manufacture micro-hydel generating sets and offer these on turn-key basis. Small hydro power generation now accounts for about 1438 Mw spread over 420 projects out of a total of 3513 Mw in RE installations, while another 512 Mw from 187 projects are under construction. Just as well, because with the doldrums that the Indian power industry has been through most of the past decade, largely caused by economic policies in transition and funds for subsidisation running dry, SEBs getting progressively broke and farmers rioting against the new power tariff, no significant power generating capacity was sanctioned in most of the States. The new wave of electricity regulation will bode well for this sector.

Notwithstanding zigzags in policies, priorities and negative developments mentioned earlier, the wind power scene has undergone a radical change in India, especially post-liberalisation. India is the 5th largest producer of power from the wind as also home to the 5th largest windmill manufacturer in the world, Suzlon, followed by Enercon and others. Initially, during the 80s, the local industry concentrated on the local grid concept, where small windmills of 40 Kw to few Kw would drive a local mountain or coastal hamlet’s community tube-well pump, few lights or energise batteries in a microwave station – along the local grid concept. These were displaced with a wave of gigantic megawatt-rated windmills from Europe, along with aggressive lobbying and international finance - KfW, Danish Export Finance, ADB, WB included. Bureaucrats who anyway preferred to sanction the largest power station to justify their involvement, also fell for these schemes and identified several wind-farm projects. Some of these succeeded but many failed, initially giving a bad name to wind power. However, several lessons later, private funding contributes to 96% of the 1617 Mw capacity installed while 7 Indian manufacturers produce 500 to 700 Mw of windmills per year, mostly in the power range of 1 Mw. Along with their sophisticated aerodynamic blades and control systems.

Under the popularly known Wheeling Scheme, a number of SNAs undertake total and complete responsibility from site selection to commissioning and on-site maintenance. A number of large business houses invest in them, avail of the 100% depreciation benefit and gain “Wheeling rights” wherein they are allowed to draw a certain share of the power produced by those windmills at their own plants. The exact Wheeling Rate or share varies from State to State and there are complaints that these have been cut down from 100% to 50% and 20% by some cash-strapped and power-deficit State Governments, despite a MNES guideline to the contrary. Under the new IPP or Independent Power Producer policy, there is a proforma PPA or power purchase agreement, wherein thee State’s appointed power distribution agency pays outright for the power fed to the grid. This is a risk as some SEBs face severe deficits from unaffordable power rates, concessions under political pressure, arrears and thefts, besides transmission and distribution losses which account for as much as 40% of the power generated in some regions.

One reason for the recent progress in the Indian RE scenario has been in the change of the Indian state from ultimate energy and capital provider and regulator to facilitator, along with bold entrepreneurial initiatives. Of course this has produced its own set of currents and cross-currents, as we see growth and under-growth. But this seems to be an irreversible trend, with international investment reforms, disinvestments, dismantling of the subsidy regime and an enhanced role of the private corporate sector. Hence, all RE stakeholders – industry, consumer, solution provider at any level, financier and entrepreneur - need to make the most of this scenario even while they need to induce course corrections in this tide of change.

Conclusion:

In general, one hopes that impulsive tendencies of inappropriate technologies and solutions being dumped by the manufacturers and IFIs from the developed world, under cover of the CDM and other means, would be curbed by the developments following the CURES implementation.

Local industry in each beneficiary country must stand up for what is right in its own territory. A lot of swings in demand for god and bad solutions took place, especially in India and possibly in other 3rd World, with the local businessmen re-aligning themselves with one overseas vendor or another, often willing to throw aside their own products and the money spent on them. Added to this the few manufacturers and large buyers who mislead the various decision-making agencies, by making false claims of efficacy, reliability or performance of their RE solutions in their greed for interest-free or subsidy funding, gave the entire RE industry a reputation loss at one point or another. Stronger conviction in their own abilities and products would have averted this.

Industrialists on the other hand, are an influential component of society. Especially to democratic societies, their ability to influence the right policies and decisions is as important as sound corporate governance is to their own well-being and their societal initiatives. In the Asian context, avenues for a dialog between sections of the industry and administrators have steadily improved since the 80s, with the general shift toward democracy and the collapse of totalitarianism. Lobbying with fair means and for the right causes, is increasingly accepted. Left-right differences have considerably resolved with the market becoming the new-order proletariat.

Likewise, the RE industry as well as the larger energy consuming industry and consumers representatives need to get together at various levels to ‘think globally, act locally’ and work out appropriate solutions. And as the scope of ‘industry’ widens from a basic producer to a provider of tangible and non-tangible resources, an industry’s sphere of influence also grows, as does the scope of factors impinging on it. So this need for societal responsibility rests on banker, facilitator and promoter, as much as manufacturer, system designer, integrator and contractor, as much as supervisor, inspector, instructor and accountant.

Over-organisation is a misunderstood term here. While India’s early realisation of the potential of RE and its development over the past 3 decades became a world-class lesson under the aegis of the government and its support system of departments and their enthusiastic teams, this has also given way to a lot of bureaucracy, with its limitations and biases. An air of exclusivity shrouds all initiative. “Are we allowed to install solar panels without Government permission?” is not too unfamiliar a question by a first-time buyer-prospect. Many beneficiaries find it hard to fathom their eligibility for financial assistance. Despite a website and a host of publications, instructional material and training programmes by the MNES and all its agencies, a casual enquiry or visitor at any of their real or virtual properties invariably draws a blank, in the absence of the “right connection”. There are also rumours about some American NGO keeping a stranglehold on all publications and media content of MNES. Surely this is uncalled.

MNES and its supported bodies have also standardised product designs and specifications but have not followed all the technical developments to upgrade them, leading to frozen notions of what a RE product or system should be, instead of an ever-evolving, ever-improving solution. This forms a bounded matrix of RE user or beneficiary, vendor, financier and nodal administrator. RE finds cosmetic appearances in school and science college curricula, while specialised technical and research institutes have large RE programmes, churning out publications as well as original product designs and concepts. Very few of these are integrated with an industry’s R&D programme. Their outputs mostly get obscured after a seminar, thesis is passed or the grant expires. Yet, the key usage influencers like architects, builders, utility engineers, systems designers and energy managers are, in many cases, not even aware of, say, the number of solar heating installations in their own town or city, let alone the means to incorporate these in their works.

Stable policy and transparent norms across the board, exploiting all intelligent solutions like ICT to streamline decisions and communicate them effectively is the need of the day. We are entering an age where institutions are giving away to softer structures, like flexible and virtual networks to achieve more than what was conceived to be only within an institution’s reach. No nodal agencies are needed to promote MP3 players, instant cameras, community transmitters or earphone radios, even in no-literacy regions. At the same time, a laises faires attitude will not do, with the world losing its fuel reserves, GHG emissions and the alarming rate of global warming. The Israel model, making it compulsory to install a certain capacity of solar installations in every building, as a pre-requisite for a Completion Certificate an example of the enforcement needed. Mass communication apart, mass mobilisation is warranted. Funding needs to be done more innovatively, like the German authorities pay monthly subsidies to owners of SPV power systems against their actual energy delivery, to ensure regular upkeep of the systems.

A wider class of people need to be involved in the RE movement and a spread of multiple people-initiative groups should be encouraged, instead of the present trend of institutionalising all priority work. If India succeeded in IT, the credit also goes to the massive spread of neighbourhood computer classes and programmes like the Microsoft Certified Professional (MSCD, etc) and the Prometrics exam centre chain as much as it goes to premier institutes like the IITs. And for every one Wipro or Infosys, there are hundreds of small hot-shops, not necessarily spectacular, but supporting the value-chain with multimedia content, documentation, specific software tools & components, just as the engineering sector enjoys the support base of the less organised ancillary sector for its raw material, parts, sub-assemblies, tooling or spares. This type of enterprise-wide integration of the organised and non-organised sector is, in fact the secret of the entire Far East’s success in manufacturing that was once nothing compared to India.

The future will be as renewable as we, the world, see ourselves, as beneficiaries first, then become our own promoters and facilitators and solution providers, using institutions and their resources as catalysts, not the means. Such a fusion of positive energies will renew our future. Forever.

References:

“Sustainable Energy for Poverty Reduction” ITDG and Greenpeace report
Hydel = Hydro electric
IREDA News, Vol.13, No.2 Apr-Jun 2002, “Decentralised Energy: The Social Issues” Pp 27-29.
The CURES website http://www.cures-network.org/ download - cures_declaration_engl.pdf
Conclusion of the CURES declaration. See iv
EE = Energy Efficiency
IFI = International Financial Institution
See iv
Jyoti Ltd developed the 40 & 60 W, 24Vdc rated windmills in-house, while higher capacity auto-pitch control and auto-lock windmills were to be manufactured under collaboration with Aerowatt of France. An association to develop vertical-axis windmills was tentatively explored with Flow Wind of USA. These developments were between 1977-86. www.jyoti.com This company now manufactures dedicated brushless synchronous alternators for windmills of 400 kW and beyond.
MDB = Multilateral Development Bank
ECA = Export Credit Agencies.
BHU = Benares Hindu University
Gobar = Cow dung
Proceedings of the 2002 U.S. DOE Hydrogen Program Review NREL/CP-610-32405 Techno-Economic Analysis of Hydrogen Production by Gasification of Biomass By Francis S. Lau, Robert Zabransky, and David A. Bowen
Gas Technology Institute (GTI), Charles M. Kinoshita and Scott Q. Turn Hawaii Natural Energy Institute (HNEI) & Evan E. Hughes, Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI)
Gujarat Energy Development Agency, among India’s first Nodal Agency, www.geda.org.in. Total village energy project was undertaken at Village Khandia, in Taluka Vaghodia of Baroda District in 1984-85 involving development of energy cooperative and the incorporation of biomass-powered engines to drive generators & pumps, beside solar cookers and photovoltaic lighting-power systems. Lead vendor & contractor was Jyoti Ltd, www.jyoti.com among the first Indian companies to develop RE products and systems, as far back as 1974.
Ankur Scientific Technologies Ltd www.ankurscientific.com has pioneered the manufacture of biomass gassifiers since 1986. Notably, they have developed the Fluidised Bed Gassifier and 100% gas-fired engine systems, which greatly substitute fossil fuels and provide a clean combustion gas.
MNES = Ministry of Non-conventional Energy Sources, Govt of India www.mnes.nic.in
MNES 2000 – Rs 240 Mllion project funded by IREDA loan
MNES 2002
Manual for Solar Thermal Systems, IREDA
All-knowing sages.
SEB = State Electricity Board, under the Power ministry of Govt of India
SNA = State Nodal Agency, under the MNES, Govt of India
MNES – 2002. Total electrical generation by RE systems stood at 3513 Mw, about 3% of total power produced in India.
See http://micropower.blogspot.com, the ‘microPower’ link at http://unika.freehomepage.com and www.biodes.org.uk - the DIY Solar movement and The microPower Initiative
A pioneering British engineering company, in the field of power systems engineering; Notably, this company had undertaken electrification of Russia under a commission from the last Czar.
MNES – 2002.

microPower - now a global campaign!

Following a global spread of responses to this blog and the superb discussions with delegates from Greenpeace etc at WSF 2004, The microPower Initiative must now join the global quest for inexpensive solar solutions and execute small but doable steps towards meeting this scenario:

Our world faces a grim energy scenario with increasing deforestation, fossil and fissile fuel reserves facing depletion; climate changes from the Greenhouse effect aided by harmful emissions from a host of processes attributed to the industrialized nations and more fatal pollution by fuels. Millions of women and children die from cooking fires from want of a clean fuel and cook-stove, while ozone-depleting Greenhouse gases like the CFCs threaten the atmosphere itself. About 2 Billion people do not access electricity. A pace of electrification that even at its best would still leave 1.4 Billion people without power by 2030 , let alone other essential utilities like water and cooking gas aggravates the situation.

The corporate sector from the so-called 1st World seems to be ambiguous. On one hand, their powerful lobbying and financial support gives ready bait to administrators in developing countries to buy large power plants and electrify large areas but make them dependant on the vendor-countries for relevant technology, skills, supplies of naptha, liquid natural gas, coke, petroleum or even nuclear fuels, besides endangering the environment with emissions. Or by propagating large projects like dams incorporating heavy hydel generators and centralized irrigation systems that submerge large tracts of land, upset the saline balance in soil and displace thousands of homes to impose a revenue burden on the citizen and a debt burden on the beneficiary nation. When the tailrace waters from these plants are fed used to construct another monstrous thermal plant, these effects are further compounded. On the other hand, 1st-world corporate behemoths are building large wind-mills and mini-hydel plants, which suffice for small village clusters and towns but are in many cases introduced through heavy lobbying, credit finance, export subsidies and connected to feed a centralized grid. Possibly these vendors can argue that developing countries have no other viable buyer than the government or its own power-grid authority.

Hopefully this would be resolved once the cooperative sector and peoples initiative groups become more active and financially strong allies of the corporate sector, instead of being adversaries.

As a thumb rule, electricity is about a third of all energy production, while oil, gas, coal and fissile fuels account for the rest. This proportion is, indeed interestingly, maintained at most national levels. Obviously this reflects the consumption pattern. Yet, specific local energy needs vary according to the breakup of local energy-consuming activity like industry, farming or mining as well as the local households and lifestyles. All this calls for multi-pronged and localized energy solutions, as against any ‘mono-culture’ wherein one energy source meets all needs.

Gender issues are also involved here as are poverty issues. Energy needs extend to cooking and housewarming needs, all of which affect the woman homemaker. Compounding energy costs and poor availability further fuel poverty and force compromises by way of pollutant and inefficient sources of heat, light and motive power.

However, pressure by organizing people and opinions against the ethics of foisting undesirable solutions and dual environmental standards, from the grass-roots to the policy-making levels. Also taking advantage of world-wide gatherings and events, various peoples initiative groups are attempting a dialogue between the perpetrators and its affected nations, resulting in the Carbon Credits and CDM or Clean Development Mechanism to enable the developing world to benefit by financial assistance from the 1st World in their endeavor to deploy ‘clean’ technologies for energy and utility, though a lot more needs to be done in this sphere.

RE systems – solar, wind, hyrdro and biomass - being relatively fuel-independent, environment-friendly besides being adaptable and scalable to a variety of command area scenarios, make a strong, viable and self-helping alternative for people to meet energy supplies. Solar-thermal and photovoltaic solutions have proven fully viable and feasible at the home and local-area level over the years, whereas wind and hydro power technologies have proven their mettle at the wide-area levels. This gives tremendous scope for self-help at the local level. Local persons, with a minimum of guidance and material, can put up simple systems to meet their energy needs. Incentives can also be provided in developing local micro-entrepreneurs to store components and consumables, assemble small systems, supply, and commission, maintain and upgrade them as needed. Investment is flexible to owners’ funds local enterprise or cooperative banking by beneficiary groups, given the scale-flexible nature of these systems.

Relevantly, India’s RE movement makes it a global lesson to the world. Given its origins in the 50s in micro-hydel following the Vickers study for the 1st 5-year Plan, the 60s in bio-gas, the 70s in solar and wind based systems. India is presently home to the 5th largest installed base in MwH terms and home to globally top-ranked manufacturers of solar and wind energy systems. At least one Indian renewable energy entrepreneur has served on the World Bank’s advisory panel on RE as far back as 1980-81. Greenpeace India’s (www.greenpeaceindia.org) publication Power from Renewables- An Indian Success Story and other documents also highlight this.

Meanwhile observes that just like Greenpeace and its affiliated bodies have done in Latin America, Africa and Asia, a number of bodies like the Intermediate Technology Development Group, (www.itdg.org) Light Up the World Foundation (www.lightuptheworld.org) as well as small initiatives including DIY Solar (www.biodesign.org.uk) are involved in providing low-power, low-cost SPV or solar photovoltaic products that have illuminated homes and as effectively, have energized radio and telecom equipment in a number of African and Asian countries. Micro-enterprises have also developed through these efforts.

Likewise one also observes, collaborative efforts of Indian industry and the State Nodal Agencies have seen the success of solar cookers in millions of Indian homes, particularly across the western half of India. Improvement programmes for pump installations and cook-stoves have seen varied success. Solar-thermal air and water heating has been taken up in homes and some process industries, to save several hundreds in MwH of electrical energy that would have been used for geysers and heaters. SPV streetlights and battery-backed invertors for community power supply have been installed in many villages too, along with solar stills (for distilled water to re-fill batteries) after training and motivating local beneficiaries or beneficiary-groups to clean, monitor these systems, report and follow-up servicing and repairs, also under such partnerships.

One further observes that international financial institutions like the World Bank and IDRC have pitched in by way of financial support for a number of projects in RE. Few of these were direct and many more are co-funded or through a local body, like the IREDA in India. However, some of their poverty redresser policies have come under of a cloud of late.

Can all these endeavors not unite into a single, win-win global initiative?