Clean energy partnerships

Ministers from 24 countries unveiled about a dozen clean energy partnerships two days ago in an event that avoided the topic of climate talks, even as the participants make up more than 80 percent of world energy use. When the ministers met privately, they crafted a group of clean-energy initiatives in smart grid, carbon capture and sequestration, electric cars, efficient appliances and more.
If these programs reach their full potential, the US Department of Energy said, the world could skip building 500 mid-size power plants between now and 2030.

By DOE's calculations, that's about 1,500 terawatt-hours of power that won't be needed. By 2030, however, the world is on pace to add more than 14,000 terawatt-hours of power, according to the International Energy Agency. So 1500 is but a drop!)

India has signed onto four energy-efficiency projects. Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of India's Planning Commission and the head of its delegation, said of the meeting, "this has nothing to do with international negotiations."

He said the climate talks focus on topics like what national targets should be, how to verify what countries are doing, and how some countries should compensate others. The ministerial, to his mind, was more about sharing knowledge in areas where India is already committed to act.

India will help lead one program to replace old, inefficient televisions and light bulbs with efficient ones. According to DOE, these appliances make up 15 percent of household electricity use worldwide; efficient TVs could save about 80 power plants' worth of energy. California and much of Europe are in the process of banning/discouraging huge LCD sets.

Given the increasing sizes of TVs in Indian homes as also the number of sets per home, it becomes imperative that some efficiency standard be set. Surprisingly, the BEE has not yet started labelling TV sets.

It is a telling comment that such a meet avoided the subject of climate change - indiaction of how unwilling governments are to take action! Hopefully, some of the clean energy initiatives will indirectly help check the global warming crisis.