* Introduction:*
energy can be found in many things and can take different forms.
energy is defined as the ability to do a work.
we require energy for all types of activities.
what is the transfer of energy that happens when an external force moves an object.
Thomas Young (1773 − 1829) first introduced the word “energy” to the field of physics in 1800, but the word did not gain popularity. Thomas Young later established the wave nature of light through interference experiments. Jean-Victor Poncelet (1788 − 1867),
*significance of energy:*
Energy is essential to life and all living organisms. The sun, directly or indirectly, is the source of all the energy available on Earth. Our energy choices and decisions impact Earth's natural systems in ways we may not be aware of, so it is essential that we choose our energy sources carefully.
Energy is a critical aspect of the development process of nation. It is essential for industries.
Now it is used on a large scale in agriculture and related areas like production and transportation of fertilisers, pesticides and farm equipment. It is also required in houses for cooking, household lighting and heating.
*types of energy:(Forms of Energy)*
Energy exists in many different forms. Examples of these are: light energy, heat energy, mechanical energy, gravitational energy, electrical energy, sound energy, chemical energy, nuclear or atomic energy and so on. ..
Sources of Energy
Commercial Energy-
This type of energy is usually consumed by commercial entities and not by the residential or households. This energy is accessible to the consumers at a price to be paid and is a non-renewable source of energy. Commercial sources like coal, petroleum, and electricity are bought and sold it to the users. Sometimes the use of a commercial source of energy is taken as a sign of economic development of a country.
Non- Commercial Energy-
This sources of energy is used by people for household purpose. It indicates the standard of living of a country. Non-commercial energy is available free of cost to the users. Few examples are cow dung, firewood, and agriculture waste.
Conventional & Non-Conventional Source of Energy
Conventional Source of Energy- This source of energy is natural energy resources, that has been used for many years to produce light, heat, food, and electricity. The energy is further divided into Commercial and Non-commercial sources of energy. This energy is non-renewable and is available in limited quantity apart from hydro-electric power. Few types of conventional energy are Coal, natural gas, electricity, thermal power, cow-dung, straw, etc.
Non-Conventional Source of Energy- This source of energy is available in abundance in nature as it doesn’t get exhausted easily and are renewable. It is economical, eco-friendly and used for domestic purposes. Few types of non- conventional energy are wind, sun, biological waste, etc to produce power and heat.
various conventional sources of energy.
various non-conventional sources of energy.
Conventional Sources of Energy
Conventional Sources of Energy are also known as non-renewable sources of energy and are available in limited quantity apart from hydro-electric power. Further, it is classified under commercial and non-commercial energy.
Commercial Energy Sources
Coal, electricity and petroleum are known as commercial energy since the consumer needs to pay its price to buy them.
Coal
Coal is the most important source of energy. There are more than 148790 coal deposits in India, and between 2005-2006, the annual production went up to 343 million tons. India is the fourth-largest coal-producing country, and the deposits are primarily found in Bihar, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Bengal.
The following types of coal have been identified on the basis of their physical properties. They are,
(i) Peat is the first stage of transformation of wood into coal and it has only 30 to 35% of carbon.
(ii) Lignite or Brown coal is the inferior quality and contains 35-45% carbon (iii) Bituminous or coking coal is the second-best variety of coal and contains 70-90% of carbon. It is the most widely spread and most widely used variety of coal. It is the most popular coal in commercial use.
(iv)Anthracite is the best quality coal, which contains more than 95% of carbon. It is very hard but emits very less smoke and leaves very less ash.
Major coal mining centres:
Oil and Natural Gas
Oil is considered liquid gold and one of the crucial energy sources in India and the world. Oil is primarily used in planes, automobiles, trains and ships. The total oil production in India was 0.3 million tons in 1950-51, which increased up to 32.4 million tons in 2000-01. It is mainly found in Assam, Gujarat and Mumbai.
Electricity
Electricity is a common form of energy used for domestic and commercial purposes, and it is mainly utilized in electrical appliances like fridges, T.V, washing machines and air conditioning.
The major sources of power generation are:
Nuclear Power
Thermal Power
Hydro-electric power
Thermal Power
Thermal power is generated at various power stations utilizing oil and coal. It is a vital source of electric current, and its share in the nation’s total capacity in 2004-05 was 70 percent.
Hydroelectric Power
Hydroelectric power is produced by constructing dams above flowing rivers like Damodar Valley Project and Bhakra Nangal Project. The installed capacity of hydroelectric power was 587.4 mW in 1950-51 and went up to 19600 mW in 2004-05.
Nuclear Power
The fuel used in nuclear power plants is Uranium, which costs less than coal. Nuclear power plants can be found in Kaiga (Karnataka), Kota (Rajasthan), Naroura (UP) and Kalapakam(Chennai).
Non-commercial Energy Sources
Generally, the freely available energy sources are considered non-commercial energy sources. Examples of non-commercial energy sources include straw, dried dung, firewood./p>
Non-Conventional Sources of Energy
Non-conventional sources are also known as renewable sources of energy. Examples of non-conventional sources of energy include solar energy, bioenergy, tidal energy and wind energy.
Solar Energy
Solar Energy is produced by sunlight. The photovoltaic cells are exposed to sunlight based on the form of electricity that needs to be produced. The energy is utilized for cooking and distillation of water.
Wind Energy
Wind energy is generated by harnessing the power of wind and mostly used in operating water pumps for irrigation purposes. India stands as the second-largest country in the generation of wind power.
Tidal Energy
Tidal energy is generated by exploiting the tidal waves of the sea. This source is yet to be tapped due to the lack of cost-effective technology.
The differences between conventional and non-conventional energy sources:
Related to CA:
India’s Non – Fossil Fuel Milestone
What is the milestone achieved?
At the COP21, India had pledged to install 40% of overall electric energy from non – renewable sources. India aimed to achieve this target by 2030. But it has now achieved this well ahead in November 2021.
What is the achieved target?
The total installed electric capacity of India is 392.01 GW. Of this, the total non – fossil- fuel based energy is 157.32 GW. This is 40.1% of 392.01 GW to be precise.
How did India achieve the target so early?
The achieved target is a part of Nationally Determined Contributions. The NDCs were pledged in 2015 Paris Agreement. India was keen in implementing the NDC very sincerely since signing the agreement. India is the only G-20 country that has been meeting its climate goals. This helped India achieve the target early. Under NDC, India pledged to increase its total electricity generation from fossil fuel to 40% of the total electricity generation in the country. India had also pledged to reduce the emissions by 33% as compared to 2005 levels. The NDCs are to be achieved by 2030.
What steps were taken to achieve the target?
India increased its investment in renewable energy programmes. According to REN21 Renewables 2020 Global Status Report, India made total investment of 64.6 billion USD in renewable energy sector. In 2019 alone, India invested 11.2 billion USD in the sector.
Between 2015 and 20121, the Foreign Direct Investment in the non – conventional energy sector of India was 7.27 billion USD.
Role of AGC in the achievement
AGC is Automatic Generation Control. AGC aims to install 500 GW of non – fossil fuel electricity by 2030. AGC is operated by POSOCO (Power System Operation Corporation). Under AGC, 51 GW of electricity has been installed so far.
What does AGC do?
The National Load Dispatch Centre sends signals (frequency monitoring data) to 50 power plants through AGC. The data is sent every four seconds. The frequency of electric current changes with supply and demand. It is essential to maintain constant frequency of the National Power System. The Frequency of Indian electricity is 50 Hz. All the domestic goods run on this frequency. Change in frequency damages the goods. The Indian Electricity Rules, 1956 allows change between 48.5 Hz and 51.5 Hz, that is +/- 3%. Frequency decreases with increase in demand and vice versa. As more and more electricity are added on to the grid, it is essential to check if the frequency is maintained. If not, additional infrastructures have to be installed.
Climate Change Performance Index- India’s Rank
Highlights
Report was released on the side-lines of COP26 to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
CCPI 2022 finds that, major emitting economies which announced their Net Zero emission release targets poorly in climate change performance over 2021.
India’s Rank
In the index, India maintained its 10th rank.
India continued to be among top-performing countries within G20.
World Scenario
As per report, while United States has been ranked at 55th position among 66 countries with very low rating, despite USA is improving since it re-entered global climate negotiation process after President Joe Biden came to power.
China has moved down four places as compared to 2020 ranking. It is ranked at 37th
European Union is ranked at 22nd position, six places down as compared to 2020 ranking. It has been given ‘medium’ rating.
UK is occupying 7th slot.
Denmark emerged as the topper in the list with 76.92 per cent score.
Denmark is followed by Sweden and Norway.
What is Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI)?
CCPI is an independent monitoring tool, playing a leading role in providing information on implementation phase of Paris Agreement. It has provided analysis of climate protection performance of countries since 2005. The index evaluates 60 countries and European Union, which generate about 90 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. It analyses countries in four categories comprising of 14 indicators:
Greenhouse gas emissions (40 per cent of total score),
Renewable energy (20 per cent),
Energy use (20 per cent) and
Climate policy (20 per cent).
India to pilot 1000 MWh Battery Energy Storage System (BESS)
Key Facts
This pilot project is the joint effort of “Ministry of New & Renewable energy” and Ministry of Power.
Both the ministries have been working on this in order to provide a road map for installation of energy storage system in India.
Why BESS project is being undertaken?
The Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) will be set in a bid to support the ambitious goal of achieving 450 GW renewable energy target by the Ministry of New & renewable energy by 2030.
Who will procure BESS?
Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), a CPSU working under the Ministry of New & Renewable energy, called for expression of interest to procure 1000 MWh BESS. It will be published with RFS bid document and draft comprehensive guideline for procurement and utilization of BESS.
Final RFS document
On the basis of suggestions and feedback from various stakeholders, final RFS document will be floated in November 2021. Along with the RFS document, final comprehensive guidelines for procurement and utilization of BESS will also be floated as a part of generation, transmission and distribution assets.
Use of energy storage system
As per Ministry, India has planned to use energy storage system under Renewable energy. Energy storage system will be used as grid element in order to maximize the use of transmission system and strengthen grid stability. It will help in saving the investment in augmentation of transmission infrastructure.
IEA: Renewable Energy Market Update
Key findings of the Report
The 45% increase that occurred in 2020 is the highest in last three decades.
The wind power increased by 90% and the solar power (Photo Voltaic) increased by 50%
The Biofuel demand in 2020 decreased. The year-on-year decrease in production by volume was 8%.
Predictions of the report
The IEA predicts that the growth in wind power is to slow down in 2021. However, it will remain higher as compared to that of 2017-19.
The growth of Photo Voltaic is to continue to increase as China and US have come forward to update their climate targets.
The demand of biofuels is to rebound in 2021 to the levels of 2019. And will further grow by 7% in 2022.
Report on China
The report says that the renewable energy in China is to grow by 45%. It is to grow from 150 GW to 230 GW. However, this new forecast is lower than that predicted in 2020.
Report on USA
The forecasts for renewable energy in the US was increased by 20%. However, this did not include Biden’s new emission targets.
Report on India
The solar auction volumes in India increased. However, the ongoing COVID-19 surge in the country has created a short-term uncertainty.
Record Breaking renewable energy levels in India and China
India and China have made record-breaking competitive auctions. On an average, the countries secured 55 GW of new renewable power. The average price of wind energy was 60 USD per Mega Watt Hour and that of solar energy was 47 USD per Mega Watt Hour.
On an average, the corporate companies in India and China have signed “Power Purchase Agreements” for 25 GW in 2020. This is 25% increase as compared to that of the previous year.
UK to build World’s most powerful climate-change forecasting supercomputer
About the Supercomputer
The supercomputer is expected to be one of the top twenty-five supercomputers in the world.
It will help in better understanding of Climate Change.
The supercomputer will provide the following:
It will provide detailed weather models
It will help to improve localised forecasts
It will run more potential weather scenarios
It will help predict severe weather
The Supercomputer is to run completely on renewable energy. This will help to save 7,415 tonnes of Carbon Dioxide in one year. Supercomputers release huge amounts of heat and thus a strong cooling system is required for their operation. Thus, energy required to maintain supercomputers is high.
It will have more than 1.5 million processor cores
The supercomputer will be able to do 60 quadrillion calculations per second, which is 60,000,000,000,000,000.
Benefits
The Supercomputer will be used to create detailed city scale simulations to provide localised climate reports.
It will help the aviation industry with an accurate forecast of temperature and wind information. This in turn will help to improve the fuel efficiency.
It will help UK to achieve its net Zero target by 2050.
About Supercomputers
Since 2017 the top 500 supercomputers of the world are running on Linux-based Operating System.
The performance of supercomputers is now measured in Floating Point operations per second called FLOPS. Earlier they were measured in Million Instructions per Second.
Lenovo became the largest provider of Top 500 supercomputers. It has provided 117 units of the top 500 supercomputers in the world.
Facebook’s First Renewable Project in India
About the project
The project is located in Karnataka.
The project capacity of 32 MW.
Under the project Facebook and CleanMax will work together to provide renewable energy into the electrical grid of India.
Facebook is to use the renewable energy purchased from CleanMax to power its data centre. The Facebook is to start the operations of the data centre in 2022.
Facebook had made similar agreements with energy providers in Singapore such as Terrenus Energy, Sunseap Group, Sembcorp industries. These projects are capable of producing 160 MW of solar power.
Data Centres in India
The revenue of Indian data centres is expected to grow at 20% year on year.
COVID-19 has increased data consumption in India by 38% as compared to the previous year.
The India data centre industry accounts to only 1% to 2% of the global share. It is expected to grow to 8.4% in 2023.
The Data Centres are mainly established for collection of data, processing of data, distribution of data and processing of data.
The data centres are set to account for 14% of carbon emissions by 2040. This is one of the main reasons why Facebook is turning towards green energy options to power its data centres.
Draft Data Centre Policy
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has released the Draft Data Centre Policy. It aims to simplify the clearances to establish data centres in India.
Bill to amend Electricity Act sent for consultation
Highlights
The bill was also sent to the law and justice ministry for its critical examination and evaluation. After the cabinet approves the bill, it will be introduced in the current session of parliament with the aim of passing it in the same session.
Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2021
The amendments proposed through the bill aims to de-license the power distribution and increase competition among them. The bill is being regarded as the next-generation power sector reforms across the country. The amendment bill was proposed in line with what Prime Minister Narendra Modi said with respect to the electricity suppliers. The prime minister had said that the electricity consumers should be able to choose their supplier like the retail commodity. The amendments also propose to appoint a member with the legal background to every electricity regulatory commission. It also seeks to strengthen the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity. The electricity regulator will spell out the penalty for not meeting the renewable purchase obligations. These obligations require the power distribution companies (DISCOMS) to buy fixed amount of renewable energy in order to reduce their reliance on the fossil fuels. The bill might also prescribe the rights and duties of the power consumers in line the government’s plan of ensuring round the clock supply.
Background
The framework to allow the consumers to choose their electricity suppliers was proposed in the Union budget 2021-2022.
India’s energy Target
India has set the target to achieve the 450GW renewable energy capacity by the year 2030. The current installed renewable energy capacity of India stands at 89.63GW. The energy of 49.59GW capacity is currently under execution while energy requirement of 27.41GW has been tendered.
Denmark to construct World’s First Energy Island
Highlights
The energy island will be used to produce and store enough green energy to meet the electricity demands of around 3 million European households.
The artificial island in the North Sea will be equal to the size of the 18 football fields.
The energy island will be linked to hundreds of offshore wind turbines so as to supply power to the households.
It will also be used to supply green hydrogen to use in heavy transport, shipping, aviation and industry.
The decision to build the energy island was taken in the backdrop of the European Union’s plan to transform its electricity system to rely on the renewable energy and to increase its offshore wind capacity 25 time by 2050.
Energy Island
The energy island will be constructed in the North Sea. The project will cost around 210 billion Danish crowns. It will be constructed 80 kms off the west coast of Denmark. The energy island will be surrounded by the wind turbines and it will have an initial capacity of 3 gigawatts. The country has planned to make the energy island operational by 2033.
Denmark’s renewable energy policy
Denmark has taken the decision to construct the energy island as a significant part of country’s target to cut down the greenhouse gas emissions up to 70% by 2030 as compared to the levels in 1990. This target is the most ambitious targets of the country which is legally binding.
North Sea
It is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean. The sea is surrounded by the Great Britain comprising of England & Scotland besides, Denmark, Germany, Norway, Belgium, France and the Netherlands. The sea connects to the ocean by an English Channel to the south and Norwegian Sea to the north.
