2.5 The Complexities of Renewable Energy
63
2.5 The Complexities of Renewable Energy
Almost five decades after independence, the poor household sector in both urban
and rural areas continued their dependency on fuelwood as a result of which the total
requirement of fuelwood stood at 200 million tons per annum of which 102 million
tons was to be obtained from forest areas and the rest from farm forestry. To overcome the problems associated with fuelwood, biomass energy programs comprising
biomass production, biogas, improved cookstoves, gasifiers were encouraged and
implemented in the ninth plan with the aim of generating at least 500 megawatts.
Solar energy has its complexities and one of the major impediments that prevented
widespread application of solar energy was its cost. Compared with other conventional sources, the cost of solar photovoltaic cells, their installation, and production
of electricity was abnormally high. As a result, the use of centralized solar energy
system was deferred and decentralized applications such as lighting, water pumping,
water heating, and cooking were encouraged and stand-alone systems were installed
for applications like the solar thermal water heaters, solar cookers, solar dryers, solar
desalination systems and solar photovoltaic street lights, solar photovoltaic domestic
lights, and solar lanterns. Besides solar energy, technological options to produce
electricity from waste including from industrial effluents, municipal/urban waste,
tannery waste, vegetable/market yard waste, sewage, pulp, and paper industry waste
were also explored for the future.
As the energy challenges were getting more and more complex with social, environmental, economic, and security issues, the planners decided to adopt certain
measures to reduce the energy intensity of the economy. These included.
i. Demand management through greater conservation of energy, optimum fuel mix,
structural changes in the economy, an appropriate modal mix in the transport
sector, that is greater dependence on rail than on road for the movement of goods
and passengers.
ii. Measures to improve the transport infrastructure, viz., roads, better design of
vehicles, use of compressed natural gas (CNG) and synthetic fuel.
iii. Move away from depletable to inexhaustible resources, viz., solar, wind, biomass
energy.
iv. Greater emphasis laid on the exploitation of hydroelectric power, particularly
for meeting peak demand.
2.5.1 The Tenth Five-Year Plan (2002–2007)
2.5.1.1 Highlights
(a) More than 60% households depended on traditional sources of non-commercial
energy, such as fuelwood, dung, and crop residues.
(b) Fuelwood consumption was 130 million tons in 2001–2002 which constituted
more than 65% of non-commercial energy source in rural household.
63
2.5 The Complexities of Renewable Energy
Almost five decades after independence, the poor household sector in both urban
and rural areas continued their dependency on fuelwood as a result of which the total
requirement of fuelwood stood at 200 million tons per annum of which 102 million
tons was to be obtained from forest areas and the rest from farm forestry. To overcome the problems associated with fuelwood, biomass energy programs comprising
biomass production, biogas, improved cookstoves, gasifiers were encouraged and
implemented in the ninth plan with the aim of generating at least 500 megawatts.
Solar energy has its complexities and one of the major impediments that prevented
widespread application of solar energy was its cost. Compared with other conventional sources, the cost of solar photovoltaic cells, their installation, and production
of electricity was abnormally high. As a result, the use of centralized solar energy
system was deferred and decentralized applications such as lighting, water pumping,
water heating, and cooking were encouraged and stand-alone systems were installed
for applications like the solar thermal water heaters, solar cookers, solar dryers, solar
desalination systems and solar photovoltaic street lights, solar photovoltaic domestic
lights, and solar lanterns. Besides solar energy, technological options to produce
electricity from waste including from industrial effluents, municipal/urban waste,
tannery waste, vegetable/market yard waste, sewage, pulp, and paper industry waste
were also explored for the future.
As the energy challenges were getting more and more complex with social, environmental, economic, and security issues, the planners decided to adopt certain
measures to reduce the energy intensity of the economy. These included.
i. Demand management through greater conservation of energy, optimum fuel mix,
structural changes in the economy, an appropriate modal mix in the transport
sector, that is greater dependence on rail than on road for the movement of goods
and passengers.
ii. Measures to improve the transport infrastructure, viz., roads, better design of
vehicles, use of compressed natural gas (CNG) and synthetic fuel.
iii. Move away from depletable to inexhaustible resources, viz., solar, wind, biomass
energy.
iv. Greater emphasis laid on the exploitation of hydroelectric power, particularly
for meeting peak demand.
2.5.1 The Tenth Five-Year Plan (2002–2007)
2.5.1.1 Highlights
(a) More than 60% households depended on traditional sources of non-commercial
energy, such as fuelwood, dung, and crop residues.
(b) Fuelwood consumption was 130 million tons in 2001–2002 which constituted
more than 65% of non-commercial energy source in rural household.