Seeing through the romance

Coal fired plants and nuclear will not be going away in a hurry... It will not be possible for clean energy to displace fossil fuels before 2050... The romance with clean energy has to be tempered with practicality...

These were the messages that emerged from an interesting workshop organised by the Goethe Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan in Bangalore this week. Dealing with 'towards a substantial green energy supply for urban Karnataka' the seminar saw a lot of seemingly contradicting statements from its eminent speakers.

Prof J Srinivasan from the Divecha climate change centre pumped for solar PV given the solar intensities in the country. He however felt that policy must drive this thrust. The BERI spokesperson pushed for biomass, and Kredl noted its successes with water mills and gassifiers. However, Prof Edgar Schicker, Georg Simon Ohm University of Applied Sciences, Germany, had a different view. He urged caution before adopting any new clean technology that could end up 'ruining the environment'

For instance, he noted the production of PV modules involves the simultaneous generation of large amounts of toxic waste like sulphur hexafluoride. Sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) is one of the most potent greenhouse gases.It is estimated that a ton of SF6 equals a greenhouse effect of 25,000t of CO2.

The production of crystalline silicon cells (c-Si), creates silicon dust waste known as kerf. Rinsing of wafers is estimated to result in the loss of 50% material in air and water. This can create inhalation issues for labourers. Silicon dust is harmful for inhalation. c-Si production involves refining silica at high temperatures to remove oxygen and make metallurgical-grade silicon. c-Si produces a highly explosive gas called silane gas, which can be highly dangerous. SO on...

The bigger issue according to the professor is the lack of planning which does not look at where the demand is before rushing in to set up plants. More of that in our next post...