Comments on: Fragments – 5

By: Jayakumar

Jayakumar — Sat, 11 Mar 2006 02:04:56 +0000

I think we, the people, recognize that our depnedency on foreign fossil fuels is a huge problem. Certainly, one feels great discomfort that some percentage of the dollar that goes overseas to the middle east or other locations may be somehow utilized in a negative way against the nation. But I digress, everyone has written that up sufficiently. What’s your fix for the problem though? I’d like to hear more about that.

I feel civilian nuclear power isn’t so great for India because our electrical grid is neither efficient nor well established. Granted, if we could supply the primary industrial consumers, then that’d free up quite a bit for others. But the risk of catastrophy due to natural disaster, earthquakes, floods, or terrorist attack is higher than I’m willing to accept.

I would like to hear about more localized and lower capital cost technologies. Things like biodiesel, well, perhaps not so much about the technology but about success stories in local areas. I have heard things about posibly using genetically engineered red algae that generate methane (or was in ethanol) just by sitting in the sun in salt water. I figure we could easily dig some pits in Gujarat, or our abundant dessert areas and fill them with sea water and then grow our future energy sources.

I’ve heard an interesting commercial case for solar power. That is, today’s poor are using kerosene, parrafin, candles, hydrocarbons for lighting. So they’re paying x rupees monthly for that. You take those same x rupees and rent out solar panels with sealed lead-acid car batteries wired to simple LED based lighting. Now you’re making money. It’s better for the users because unclean burning generates carbon monoxide and soot that is unhealthy especially for children. I’d like to hear about people trying that and success stories around that.

By: Parvati

Parvati — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 11:59:22 +0000

I too was very concerned about this project since it was being spoken about so many years ago. It is a complete waste of time for India, and is open to all sorts of sabotage and continuous nuisancical trouble from Pakistan and terrorists.
It will be a perennial headache for India and as you say, we will be foolishly paying through our nose for this gift of torment…

By: gotnidea! Business Development Centre » Why is India Poor?

gotnidea! Business Development Centre » Why is India Poor? — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 10:36:20 +0000

[...] conomic Development — posted by Abhinav Kaushik on March 6, 2006 @ 1:48 pm

Atanu Dey writes: BBC reports that the US has done a U-turn and is not opposed to the Iran-India [...]

By: Little Ram

Little Ram — Sun, 05 Mar 2006 12:17:15 +0000

If you look at the math, the alternative of bio-fuel is not as good. it will take us at least 20 years of cultivation to realise a small fraction of our energy needs from this route. Also, the land that we will need to divert from other uses represents a significant opportunity cost. For now, there are no immediate alternatives to fossil fuel/ petroleum. "Powering the future" on "National geographic" has an detailed and interesting analysis. Sourcing our petroleum via the Iran-Pakistan pipeline has certainly some serious implications. As a country, we are in a bit of a pickle given our geo-political situation. On our West lie, a huge swath of countries that are non-democratic and a few that are potentially dangerous. We have no easy alternative solution. I suppose from that point of view , Nuclear power is important for us.

By: Sabarish Sasidharan

Sabarish Sasidharan — Sun, 05 Mar 2006 09:17:32 +0000

And all for some oil that can be ‘cultivated’ (bio-diesel) on the vast tracts of land that lie unused for years…