Obstacles To Energy Revolution

The bureaucratic obstacles that will delay The Energy Revolution; More importantly these delays will no doubt increase the economic cost of the revolution and heighten the reduction of standard of living that will occur while we are undergoing this process. Under existing procedures it could easily take 10-15 years to build a major energy facility. To transition through the revolution it will require building thousands of such facilities. Other countries could build such facilities in much less time, with far less bureaucratic obstacles and less concern for impact on the environment. This would result in further requirements for costly imports, rather than us becoming an exporter of products for which we have abundant natural resources.

 The ideas and suggestions put forth in this post may not be popular in some camps. The urgency of aggressively resolving the problems that will occur during The Energy Revolution cannot be emphasized too much, we are facing a revolution with possible consequence as great as a war and it must be treated as such. If we do not our society may have to revert to a lifestyle more typical of 19th century agrarian communities. Is that what you want?

 "Not-in-my-back-yard" (NIMBY) and "build-absolutely-nothing-anywhere-near-anything" (BANANA) attitudes have become standard obstacles for any large construction project. The sitting process for such projects is a nightmare to builders because the opponents, who certainly have the right to be heard, can drag out this process almost indefinitely. We have to  use the example of the permitting process for small distributed energy systems requiring 18 steps, requiring approval from four federal agencies, 11 state government agencies and 11 local government agencies. "For India to attain a lower level of dependence on liquid fuel imports after the advent of world oil peaking, a major paradigm shift will be required in the current approach to the construction of capital-intensive energy facilities. Central and State governments will have to adopt legislation allowing the acceleration of the development of substitute fuel projects from the current decade time-scales."

When will we play it instead of just taking the dive smoothly?

Behind all these obstacles that you have so well explained, is an absence of collective intention. If there really was a wish amongst enough people to create a greener world, then it would happen---we would cut through the other obstacles. But in the absence of widespread demand from the people, there is political inertia and lack of leadership from those who could lead that change. However, it is January 2009 now and I cannot help but feel a real sense of optimism about the green agenda. I think Obama has, to use his own word, the "audacity" to challenge the old vested interests and the political lobbyists who want to maintain the status quo. I believe he can shake us out of our inertia and inspire an acceptance of the changes we need to make as we transition towards a new era of green energy

Power generation from wind has emerged as one of the most rapidly growing renewable energy technologies. The estimated power generation capacity in India through wind is about 45,000 MW. The installed capacity is about 1,870 MW, which is about 4% of the total estimated potential.

Globally, wind generation capacity has increased by 27% in the year 2002 and is expected to expand 15 – fold in the next 20 years. Wind energy technologies have matured and large capacity wind turbines in the range of 1.25 to 1.65 MW are now being manufactured in India. The productivity of larger capacity machines is higher than that of smaller machines. Minimum wind velocity required for power generation is about 2.5 m/s and the maximum could be 30 m/s.

Energy generation for 1 MW turbine could be about 28 to 30 lakhs units per year, with a plant load factor of 25 to 30% Among the different renewable energy sources, wind energy is currently making a significant contribution to the installed capacity of power generation, and is emerging as a competitive option. The programme covers research and development, survey and assessment of wind resources, implementation of demonstration and private sector projects and promotional policies.  As a result, India, with an installed capacity of about 3000 MW, ranks fifth in the world after Germany, USA, Spain and Denmark in wind power generation.

Small wind energy systems, namely water pumping windmills, aero generators and wind-solar hybrid systems can also be used for harnessing wind power potential, in addition to the large capacity wind turbines. These systems have been found to be very useful for meeting water pumping and small power requirements in decentralized mode in rural and remote windy areas of the country, which are un-electrified or have intermittent electric supply.

Not every individual's requirement is the same. We cater to individual tailor-made packages for optimum use. Systems from 300W generating power of 2.4Kw per day to systems of 1MW Generating upto 12MW per day. On grid or off Grid, Rural setting or Urban. Monopole, Guy-wires or Trellis take your pick.                                                                                                  

Not Every site offers standard wind conditions for installation of standard Wind turbines. Low wind conditions determine a special type of wind turbine to exploit the conditions with VAWT  and HWT, WPC can ascertain and match the turbine with prevalent wind condition.  High density wind conditions and cyclonic prone areas do need special care and our expertise in the said field makes that popular. 

Which Tower is suitable for which areas, Which Turbine and rotor suits which area. and hope much of electricity is to be drawn and stored to match the battery bank and the .. the many queries that exist are answered and resolved even before the first bolt is placed to erect the turbine by stimulated conditions in our digital laboratories.