Decentralisation the way

In the US the average electricity bill is 5 pc of total income. Compared to that, the average domestic consumer in the middle class here in India pays much less, while the poor and farmers pay more! For a farmer who pays Rs 8500 per annum per 5 HP pump, his income going by the US standards should be over a lakh, while we know it is a pittance, hardly crossing four digits!

 Should the farmers be charged at average cost of supply? How will it affect agricultural productivity? However subsidizing will mean industrial and domestic consumers bear the burden. What is the solution?

One, encourage farmers to become energy independent by using local resources. Biomass could generate either energy for cooking needs or even produce electricity. The latter will mean a shift from cash crops whose stalks and remains alone will not be enough to generate enough biomass. Around 6500 MT of biomass is required for 1 MW of power. Perhaps they need to be encouraged to grow yield rich crop that can serve as fodder for cattle and biomass. This will have to be done jointly with groups of farmers as individual growers will not be able to sustain the demand.

A program on this concept has been initiated in Rahuri in Maharashtra. The concept revolves around power from biomass. Following the identification of AG feeder serving 400-600 pumps, some 40-60 DPs are provided to supply power to the pumps. Farmers get around 25k per acre plus energy at low cost, jobs are generated, manure produced, so on.

The APDRP provides for dedicated agricultural feeders to facilitate load shedding for AG pumps while government offers subsidy of 10 and 30 pc for biomass gasification and biogas respectively. It is conceived that around 5000 11 Kv feeders can supply power to 31 lakh pump sets at low cost using biomass! Shouldn’t this be the way ahead?

Indoor air pollution leads to cardiac problems

An estimated two billion people in the developing world heat and cook with a biomass fuel such as wood, but the practice exposes people -- especially women -- to large doses of small-particle air pollution, which can cause premature death and lung disease. And now, a study shows cardio risk too!

In a study just published online in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Health Perspectives, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have associated indoor air pollution with increased blood pressure among older women.

In a remote area of Yunnan Province, China, 280 women in an ethnic minority called the Naxi wore a portable device that sampled the air they were breathing for 24 hours. By correlating exposure over 24 hours with blood pressure, the team associated higher levels of indoor air pollution with a significantly higher blood pressure among women aged 50 and over.

Small-particle pollution raises blood pressure over the short term by stimulating the nervous system to constrict blood vessels. In the long term, the particles can cause oxidative stress, which likewise raises blood pressure.

Other studies have shown that improved stoves or cleaner fuels can cut indoor air pollution by 50 to 75 percent. In fact, the researchers concluded that this reduction would translate into an 18 percent decrease in coronary heart disease and a 22 percent decrease in stroke among Asian women aged 50 to 59.

Because biomass fuels are also the primary source of energy for more than 2 billion people globally, cleaner fuels and better stoves would produce even greater cardiovascular benefits worldwide.

Biopower - going waste

Garbage is a problem not only in developing world but also the developed world. Landfills are running out of space in UK which we read has decided to export waste pellets! In cities like Bangalore and Chennai and Kolkatta, you cannot drive too far without seeing some dump right within the city with waste rotting and flowing over.

What a waste we are letting all our garbage rot in landfills from where they emanate methane, etc. Instead we can be generating energy out of this waste both at individual flats level and community levels. There are people and organizations practicing this and happy with the same. Unfortunately, they are not news makers!

All it requires is 15 kgs of waste on alternate days for replacing the LPG for a family of 9. A moderate hotel can save upto Rs 75,000 annually by turning its waste into gas. The cost of disposal of waste for such a hotel is around Rs 25,000. Cowdung is also an excellent fodder for such biogas plants.

Success of such biogas plants however depend on proper segregation of the kitchen waste. Materials that can pose problems to the efficient running of plant are coconut shells and coir, egg shells, onion peels, bones and plastic pieces. While bones, shells and utensils can spoil the mixer physically, onion peels, coir and plastic can have detrimental effects on microbial consortium in the predigester and main digestion tanks. But above all, primary segregation of waste is the problem. If this can be inculcated at household levels, it could make a big difference.

Meanwhile, the total energy consumption generated from biomass in Sweden grew from 88terrawatt hours (TWh) to 115 TWh between 2000 and 2009, while the usage of oil-based products declined from 142 TWh to 112 TWh during the same period, according to the Swedish Bioenergy Association Svebio.

Biomass surpassed oil to become the number one source for energy generation in 2009, accounting for 32% of the total energy consumption in the country. It is projected that biomass consumption will continue to increase by another 10% in 2011.