Best to worst

The best to worst electric power sources are in the order:
1. wind power
2. concentrated solar power (CSP)
3. geothermal power
4. tidal power
5. solar photovoltaics (PV)
6. wave power
7. hydroelectric power
8. a tie between nuclear power and coal with carbon capture and sequestration (CCS).

Prof Jacobson from Stanford has conducted the first quantitative, scientific evaluation of the proposed, major, energy-related solutions by assessing not only their potential for delivering energy for electricity and vehicles, but also their impacts on global warming, human health, energy security, water supply, space requirements, wildlife, water pollution, reliability and sustainability. His findings indicate that the options that are getting the most attention are between 25 to 1,000 times more polluting than the best available options.

He was not funded by any organization!

Regarding the popular argument that renewable energy is infirm, Jacobson has evidence otherwise. Even otherwise, places like Massachusetts and neighbouring states have been adding green power to local utility companies. The amount of that available power nearly doubled from more than 940,000 megawatt hours in 2006 to about 1.6 million megawatt hours in 2007. Renewable power is neither too expensive nor too hard to develop.

Any reason why India should not adopt renewables aggressively? Besides wind power where India is the fifth leading nation, there is a lot of unexplored potential in solar and geothermal, as also offshore wind farms.

Today’s news reports talk of the climate change action plan making some recommendations to the government taking note of some of the points raised by organizations like CSE. There is a move to bring in congestion charges and making parking costly in a move to discourage private vehicles. Alarmed by the growth of private vehicles, (which has exceeded the population in six cities!) it is looking at ways to strengthen public transport like a dedicated lane, removal of duty on public transport, etc.

More investment in renewables is the need. Our NAPCC does put on paper some very noble intentions in this direction, but sceptics are not convinced. More binding norms, more substantial incentives, and the removal of fossil fuel subsidies will be required.

While India’s per capita emissions are far lower than many others, the cumulative emissions cannot be ignored. It adds up to no less than 1.5 billion tonnes, which is a quarter of the US' current levels of emissions. Even if India grows only six per cent faster than the US, its total emissions will equal those of the US over the next two decades.

Can we afford to overlook this? Especially, when the consequences of climate change, like droughts and falling food production, will impact the poor at the earliest.

What do you think?