AND NOW GAS AT 8.4 $/ mmBTU - WHAT FOR????

And now the gas at 8.4$/mmBTU. The Indian government bites the bullet on gas pricing, so go the headlines in Indian press. What for and to whose advantage? The gullible, ploy-able intelligentsia with unabashed commitment to anything  pro establishment has not even bothered to look into the nitty - gritty of the policy pronouncement before singing praises of the action of raising the gas price to nearly double the present day price.This only means that the subsidies to power and fertilizer plants as also to cooking gas sector will have to go up substantially and the public sector companies provide for these subsidies. The end result of this exercise for public sector companies which hold majority of gas reserves of the country is going to be diluted drastically.It is only the private sector companies who are going to hog fully the benefits of this windfall.

The nation was once again fed on the often repeated talk about country's need for energy giving fossil fuels like gas, coal etc to fulfill its huge requirements of power generation to give impetus to its sagging growth rates.What is surprising is that the solutions to increasing production of coal and gas has been diametrically opposed to each other. In case of boosting of coal production and power generation subsequently it was suggested that coal allocations should be done almost free of charge to provide incentives to enhance coal production and produce cheap power for rapid industrialization of the nation. And now for increasing gas production, the decision is to double the cost of gas while the aims are the same i.e. quick additions to gas capacity and providing cheap power for rapid industrialization. Now we are being told that higher cost realizations by the vendors will be value additive to the government exchequer. Could any of these buffoons in Khadi belonging to the ruling polity make the nation wiser as to how a similar action in coal allocation could have been value depletive to the exchequer.

Why such a bright game changing idea was kept on hold for all these years and has been brought in just before the elections. Equally surprising is the fact that this long term measure to boost the investor confidence and alluring multinational companies to make investments into this sector of prime importance with an open and coherent pricing policy is valid only for five years and again has to be reviewed before the next elections.

For what? Your guess is as good as mine. and again what a game changer!!! These wise men with all their theories and thinking expect that exploration to exploitation to value addition will all fructify in a span of five long years both for the investor and the nation and an investor who spends his own money will bite the bullet on their face value.Heard from many of them that they are finding it difficult to convince the investors to flock to India and participate in the Indian growth story. Yes the investor who has to pump in his own hard earned money is not convinced about the sincerity and long term vision and coherence of Indian policies. The Indian polity is capable of sacrificing everything at the altar of vote politics and self.

The World’s Biggest Coal Company Is Turning To Solar Energy To Lower Its Utility Bill: The largest coal company in the world, Coal India, is aiming to cut its own utility bills by installing solar photovoltaic panels at its facilities across the country. The coal giant is seeking proposals from solar energy companies to build a modular 2 megawatt solar plant on 9 acres of its own land. This plant [...]/p

INDIA CALLING OR CRYING: SAD STATE OF INDIAN GOVERNANCE: Indian economy has been going through a rough patch. The economic growth has come down to a decade low of sub 5% from 8% plus. Rupee has b...

BENEFITS OF ENERGY SECURITY THROUGH CLEAN RENEWABLES

It is not for nothing that a large number of philosophers and analysts are raising their voice for achieving energy security on our globe through use of Renewable clean energy sources. The seeds of this idea were sowed as early as 1931 by none other than Thomas Alva Edison, the father of the electricity revolution.

Up to the nineties of the last century this idea appeared to be a fantasy of some philosophical brains and was almost dubbed as Utopian by the technologists and analysts working in the field of energy. With the dawning of the fact that all fuel reserves are finite and mankind will run out of them sooner than later,the researches and technologies started gathering steam so much so that today wise men have started talking of energy security through 100% renewable clean energies as early as 2030.

Why so much of concern for the route to energy security? The switch over to clean renewable energy sources is beneficial on all fronts.

• The first and the foremost is the fact that the very existence of earth as a planet of life is in danger because of man's quest to harness more and more comforts for himself through energy. This is quite obvious when we sift through the data on global warming which is on one hand resulting in more and more pressures on energy requirements and on the other resulting in a receding snowline and depleting water tables. In fact the policies on energy security are leading to disturbances in the natural food chain, carbon cycle, hydrology or water cycle and are taking mankind to a path of self destruction. All clean renewable energy sources contribute little to no global warming emissions during all life cycle activity of manufacturing, installation, operation and maintenance, and dismantling and decommissioning. Surprisingly the much touted clean nuclear power  results in up to 25 times more carbon emissions than wind energy, when reactor construction and uranium refining and transport are considered.
• The next major benefit of clean renewable energy technologies is improved public health and environment quality resulting in lesser load and expenditure on health services. Additionally the overall water requirements of the society will also be reduced drastically. They reduce deaths due to air pollution
• Solar, wind, tide etc are vast, inexhaustible and eternal sources of energy and harnessing them for energy security could easily qualify to be invention of the human civilization,  far too bigger and revolutionizing than the invention of wheel perhaps.
• Clean renewable energy technologies are labour intensive and provide far more jobs per KWatt than the heavily mechanized and automated technologies based on all types of fuels.
• The energy from renewable sources has traversed its path from birth to infancy to childhood and have become viable and competitive  with conventional energy sources. The prices will keep on coming down as these technologies graduate from childhood to adolescence to adulthood. And mark my words, the old age and death are never going to come! So with clean renewables we are in for an era of stable energy prices.
• Over and above all, the two hottest technologies i.e. wind and solar provide far too safe, reliable and resilient power generation system because of their suitability in standalone, micro, mini and large scale requirements and intrinsic nature of being modular. They are less prone to large scale failures in the event of extreme weather conditions and calamities such as storms as is borne by the facts emerging after Hurricane Sandy 2012. Similarly even in the eventuality of a drought they will keep on working because of negligible water requirements for their functioning.
• Energy sources have been one of the biggest bone of contention among nations and have wrought in many a wars and political manipulations leading to global upheavals. Since wind and solar are available with all nations in reasonably abundant quantities enough to match their requirements, may be with one major bone of contention removed, we will see a peaceful and tension free world in the coming years. 

INDIA CALLING OR CRYING: TRUTH ABOUT INDIAN GOVERNMENT: 

Today the truth and efficacy of Indian government,s quick fix / patchwork solutions to the economic problems being faced by the Indian economy was laid bare when the GDP growth figures for the year 2012-13 were announced and came to a dismal sub 5%, at a ten year low. Indian planners, economists and financial experts are failing to understand that the fundamental principles of economics and banking alone cannot end the miseries of the nation. In fact this reminds me about the end results witnessed by a mathematics enthusiast as is told to school students down the generations from times immemorial. A mathematician was to cross a rivulet near his village along with his family. After finding out the averages of both the water  depth and height of members of the family, he ordered the family to march ahead. To his surprise none of the members could reach the other end of the stream. He checked and rechecked both the averages a number of times and when no anomaly came to light he simply remarked with astonishment. " The maths is absolutely right but how come the family got drowned???".

The same seems to be dilemma of Indian rulers. They are simply ignoring the crucial fact that all theories work under suitable conditions. In fact the sooner they realize the importance of economics, governance and inflation in India, the better it will be for the country. We have seen the negative effects of trying to reign in inflation through monetary policies alone and have ended up with massive slow down of economy. For managing current account deficit no worthwhile effort has been made and if India is a little better placed today it is because of international prices of crude and gold have come down temporarily. God bless the country once the uptrend in the prices resumes!!!!!

The so called reforms undertaken by the government are supposed to make better atmosphere for more investments by the foreign investors but it could attract only FII money  and hardly anything has come through FDI route which could have been a real force multiplier. This would happen only when the Indian government could convince the world about its intentions of providing good corruption free governance and a will to do something that is good for Indian growth at higher rates around 9-10%. 

The fiscal deficit control through reducing oil subsidy only to give government leverage to go ahead with food security bill and by divestment by selling country's jewels are again negative means and will do more harm than any good to the economy. These improvisations may win a battle for UPA in the next election but India will definitely lose the war for becoming prosperous and global economic super power. 

NUCLEAR POWER - THE FUTURE FOR INDIA ????

Recently the Russian ambassador, Alexander Kadakin made a statement that Nuclear power is the future for India and contended that even if India buys all the oil in the world it will not suffice even for its energy requirements in the near future.The statement is nothing but a weak attempt to look after the interests of the nuclear cartel of nations, Russia being one of the major seller of this technology.

Yes it is a fact that even if India buys all the oil in the world it will not suffice even for its energy requirements in the near future. But will some sane person attempt to answer a simple fact if India utilizes a small fraction of all the  solar energy falling on its geographical area what will be the situation? This will never be answered by nuclear energy technology sellers and it is for the polity/policy makers of countries like India to understand who are fortunate enough to receive tremendous amounts of solar energy because of favourable geographic position.

To day the cost of building and operating a mid sized nuclear power plant ( say 500 MW ) is about 15 billion dollars and it takes about 15 years if all goes well to actually produce power from these plants. The pros and cons of going ahead with nuclear energy have been debated over the last few decades all over our globe and in fact nuclear power is our worst enemy. It is a curse that will perhaps continue to pester humanity and thrust towards renewable energy sources will keep on languishing till the world runs out of all kinds of fuels and  is left with no other alternative than to make use of renewable energy sources.

Let us for a moment forget all the thorns attached with nuclear energy. Let us buy the cost effectiveness logic given by the protagonists of nuclear power to provide weightage to their technology and logic by ignoring many aspects of cost calculation. True cost analysis of nuclear energy should cover capital cost, fuel cost, running cost, arrangements for stopping theft and pilferage of nuclear material, safety against terrorist groups, full arrangements for full compensation in case of a blow out for immediate damage/losses and losses resulting in even after two or three decades, decommissioning cost of a life expired plant and management of nuclear wastes and above all vulnerability to political and economic blackmail by the fuel suppliers and even the cost of transmission and distribution infrastructure and accompanying power losses. In fact the cost effectiveness of nuclear energy is a fraudulent myth being propagated solely by nuclear power technology sellers to get the best out of (wrong and out of sync with the realities of 21st century) investments made by them in research, technology and infrastructure development over the years. These guys are by design comparing the costs for a central mega power generation plant with huge transmission and distribution infrastructure whereas for solar the punch line is " solar is simple, keep it simple to retain its edge ".

The quick response capability of solar power should outweigh everything in a developing country like India. Compare the value addition the solar energy route will provide vis-a-vis the nuclear energy route. If a country opts for a 15 billion nuclear power plant, the money deployed annually will not yield any result for 15 years and any addition to the economy as a result of this plant will accrue from 16th year onward.  In the case of solar option, the 1 billion dollars spent will produce a capacity of 35 MW in the first year itself and 35 MW getting added to the power generation capacity each subsequent year available for use. In fact it means that the country will have on an average an additional power generation capacity of about 250 MW for all these 15 years. The impact of cumulative and snow balling effect of value addition to the industrial output or to the comforts of the citizenry as the case may be on the march to prosperity will be tremendous and cannot  be ignored by any true planner or ruler. 

HARNESSING SOLAR ENERGY FOR ENERGY SECURITY:AN ETERNAL HISTORY DEFINING IDEA

All life on our planet, be it human, animal or plant owes its very existence to the solar energy. The food chain, the carbon cycle and the hydrology or water cycle are all there because earth is lucky to have sun shining over its surface. The enormity of sun as a source of energy can be gauged by the fact that “In 14 and a half seconds, the sun provides as much energy to Earth as humanity uses in a day.” and over and above that this energy has been falling over earth's surface ever since earth came into existence and will continue to fall till eternity. Additionally solar energy is the mother of other energy sources like wind, tidal and even hydro. Compared to this all much talked about other 20th century energy sources like coal, petroleum, natural gas and nuclear fuel have started their journey towards depletion.

In the light of all this the very idea of harnessing solar energy for energy security on this globe should be the most outstanding idea that ever came to humanity. In fact this could easily qualify to be invention of the human civilization,  far too bigger and revolutionizing than the invention of wheel.

In a factual scenario as mind boggling as the one seen above, it is not difficult to understand    Why thrust towards renewable energy sources is languishing. It is only the hidden agendas and motivated vested interests of political leaders, industrial cartels/mafias, scientific and technical power groups which will keep on delaying the inevitable as long as possible.