Wednesday, December 2, 2015

Negawatt more valuable than Megawatt

" I sit on a man's back, choking him and making him carry me, and yet assure myself and others that I am very sorry for him and wish to ease his lot by all possible means - except by getting off his back."
—Leo Tolstoy (Russian, 1828-1910)
Word for the day
Quixotic (adj)
Extravagantly chivalrous or romantic; visionary, impractical, or impracticable.
(Source: Dictionary.com)
Malice towards none
The developed nations' stance on climate control - नौ सो चूहे खा कर बिल्ली हज को चली!
First random thought this morning
One can understand politicians to preach tolerance to people so that no one raises voice against their misdeeds.
But thinkers, writers, artists, who have always lead revolutions from the front, wanting people to be tolerant is little perplexing.
सबसे ख़तरनाक होता है
मुर्दा शांति से भर जाना

तड़प का होना सब सहन कर जाना
घर से निकलना काम पर
और काम से लौटकर घर जाना
सबसे ख़तरनाक होता है
हमारे सपनों का मर जाना
(Avtar Singh Sandhu 'Pash')

Negawatt more valuable than Megawatt

The government's desired path of double digit GDP growth would require energy consumption to grow at around 7% annual rate, even allowing for the trend growth in energy intensity.
As IEA stated in a recent report, despite gradual rise in domestic production, the import of energy by India would continue to be rise in next decade.
Moreover, in achieving sustained higher growth double digit growth target, the challenges to protect the environment will also intensify. It will be necessary to evolve mechanisms through which a suitable balance can be struck between the energy requirements of development and the environmental needs.
The government resolve to change the energy mix by materially increasing the share of energy from renewable sources is commendable, but the imperative need to achieve higher level of energy efficiency besides focusing on augmentation of domestic supplies of energy cannot be ignored.
The domestic consumption of electricity in India is about one fourth of the total. In past decade per capita availability of electricity for households has improved significantly, but is still abysmally low in global comparison. However, the steadily rising household income and village electrification program is leading to accelerated rise in demand for electricity.
Currently, in India, 14 out of every thousand people own a car as against 20 in China and 140 in Brazil. Developed countries like Germany, UK, Japan and US have a ratio of 400 cars per thousand people. The rising household disposable income has led to conspicuous increase in the total addressable market for the passenger cars.
The relatively low cost, energy savings and carbon emission reduction potential that could come from improving energy efficiency in buildings, transportation, industrial processes etc. is yet to be fully exploited; though there has been a conspicuous interest in renewable energy.
Therefore, while endeavoring to increase the production of energy through conventional and renewable means, it is also critical to promote energy efficiency. The efforts like promoting LED lamps for lighting are encouraging indicators.
A unit of energy saved by a user is greater than a unit produced, as it saves on production losses as well as transport, transmission and distribution losses. Thus a “Negawatt”, produced by a reduction of energy need has more value than a Megawatt generated.
I would be delighted to see government setting a target of 10,000 Negawatts of energy efficiency in next four years, besides 20GW target of renewable energy production.

No comments:

Post a Comment