Subject:- Renewable Energy Sources

Topic:- Introduction to Energy Sources

Difficulty:- Medium

A) Solar energy :-

• 300 clear sunny days every year in India.

• A potential for 30 mw per.sq.km in India.

• Solar photovoltaic (spv) contributes 2.5% of power generation from renewable energy.

• SPVs with aggregate capacity of 47 Mw have been deployed for various applications.

• Maximum efficiency possible is below 30% . But CNT ( Carbon Nano Tube ) based PV cells hold promise of higher efficiency having 35% at present which is still not sufficient for its economical viability.

• Total installed capacity of renewable energy sources is 18454.5 MW as on 30 June 2011.

B) Wind energy scenario :-

• India is the fifth largest wind power producer in the world with a capacity of 12009 MW as on 30 june 2011.

• Estimated that 6000 MW additional capacity of wind power will be installed by 2012.

• Gross wind energy potential : 65000 MW.

• Technical potential : 45000 MW.

• States with high potential : Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, kerala, Maharashtra.

• State of the art wind power technologies are indigenously available in India.

C) Bio – Fuels :

• Alternative available for transportation needs are hydrogen based fuels, electrically powered vehicle & Bio fuels or may be gaseous fuels.

• Hydrogen fuels in preliminary stages of development and will take another decade to develop.

• But no surplus oil seeds available for bio-fuels. In this case, jatropha seems to be a viable alternative. Jatropha can survive almost any kind of soil, needs minimal input & propagation is easy.

• Phase one of Jatropha plantation started, emphasis on Jatropa plantation on 4 lakhs acres of land. India has 60 million hacres wasteland & 30 million of that is suitable for jatropha plantation.