Energy

Energy consumption of a nation is usually considered as an index of its development. This is

because almost all the developmental activities are directly or indirectly dependent upon
energy. We find wide disparities in per capita energy use between the developed and the
developing nations.
The first form of energy technology probably was the fire, which produced heat and
the early man used it for cooking and heating purposes. Wind and hydropower have also been
in use for the last 10,000 years. The invention of steam engines replaced the burning of wood
by coal and coal was later replaced to a great extent by oil.

GROWING ENERGY NEEDS

Development in different sectors relies largely upon energy. Agriculture, industry, mining,
transportation, lighting, cooling and heating in buildings all need energy. With the demands
of growing population the world is facing further energy deficit. The fossil fuels like coal, oil
and natural gas which at present are supplying 95% of the commercial energy of the world
resources and are not going to last for many more years. Our life style is changing very fast
and from a simple way of life we are shifting to a luxurious life style. If you just look at the
number of electric gadgets in your homes and the number of private cars and scooters in your
locality you will realize that in the last few years they have multiplied many folds and all of
them consume energy.

RENEWABLE AND NON-RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES

A source of energy is one that can provide adequate amount of energy in a usable form over a
long period of time. These sources can be of two types:
(1) Renewable Resources which can be generated continuously in nature and are
inexhaustible e.g. wood, solar energy, wind energy, tidal energy, hydropower, biomass
energy, bio-fuels, geo-thermal energy and hydrogen. They are also known as non-
conventional sources of energy and they can be used again and again in an endless manner.
(2) Non-renewable Resources which have accumulated in nature over a long span of time
and cannot be quickly replenished when exhausted e.g. coal, petroleum, natural gas and
nuclear fuels like uranium and thorium.
 Wood is a renewable resource as we can get new wood by growing a sapling into a
tree within 15-20 years but it has taken millions of years for the formation of coal from trees
and cannot be regenerated in our life time, hence coal is not renewable.

(a) Renewable Energy Resources

Solar energy: Sun is the ultimate source of energy, directly or indirectly for all other forms
of energy. The nuclear fusion reactions occurring inside the sun release enormous quantities
of energy in the form of heat and light. The solar energy received by the near earth space
is approximately 1.4 kilojoules/second/m2 known as solar constant. Traditionally, we
have been using solar energy for drying clothes and food-grains, preservation of eatables and
for obtaining salt from sea-water. Now we have several techniques for harnessing solar
energy.
Some important solar energy harvesting devices are discussed here.

(i) Solar heat collectors: solar heat collectors are natural materials like stones, bricks etc. or
material like glass which absorb heat during the day time and release it slowly at night which
is normally placed on the top of the building.
(ii) Solar cells: They are also known as photovoltaic cells or PV cells. Solar cells are made of
thin wafers of semi conductor materials like silicon and gallium. When solar radiations fall
on them, a potential difference is produced which causes flow of electrons and produces
electricity. Silicon can be obtained from silica or sand, which is abundantly available and
inexpensive. By using gallium arsenide, cadmium sulphide or boron, efficiency of the PV
cells can be improved.
A group of solar cells joined together in a definite pattern form a solar panel which
can harness a large amount of solar energy and can produce electricity enough to run street-
light, irrigation water pump etc.
Solar cells are widely used in calculators, electronic watches, street lighting, traffic
signals, water pumps etc. They are also used in artificial satellites for electricity generation.
Solar cells are used for running radio and television also. They are more in use in remote
areas where conventional electricity supply is a problem.
(iii) Solar cooker: Solar cookers make use of solar heat by reflecting the solar radiations
using a mirror directly on to a glass sheet which covers the black insulated box within which
the raw food is kept. A new design of solar cooker is now available which involves a
spherical reflector (concave reflector) instead of plane mirror that has more heating effect and
hence greater efficiency. The food cooked in solar cookers is more nutritious due to slow
heating. However it has the limitation that it cannot be used at night or on cloudy days.
Moreover, the direction of the cooker has to be adjusted according to the direction of the sun
rays.
(iv)Solar water heater: It consists of an insulated box painted black from inside and having
a glass lid to receive and store solar heat. Inside the box it has black painted copper coil
through which cold water is made to flow in, which gets heated and flows out into a storage
tank. The hot water from the storage tank fitted on roof top is then supplied through pipes
into buildings like hotels and hospitals.
(v) Solar furnace: Here thousands of small plane mirrors are arranged in concave reflectors,
all of which collect the solar heat and produce as high a temperature as 3000°C.
(vi) Solar power plant: Solar energy is harnessed on a large scale by using concave
reflectors which cause boiling of water to produce steam. The steam turbine drives a
generator to produce electricity. A solar power plant (50 K Watt capacity) has been installed
at Gurgaon, Haryana.

WIND ENERGY
The high speed winds have a lot of energy in them as kinetic energy due to their motion. The
driving force of the winds is the sun. The wind energy is harnessed by making use of wind
mills. The blades of the wind mill keep on rotating continuously due to the force of the
striking wind. The rotational motion of the blades drives a number of machines like water
pumps, flour mills and electric generators. A large number of wind mills are installed in
clusters called wind farms, which feed power to the utility grid and produce a large amount of
electricity. These farms are ideally located in coastal regions, open grasslands or hilly
regions, particularly mountain passes and ridges where the winds are strong and steady. The
minimum wind speed required for satisfactory working of a wind generator is 15 km/hr.
The wind power potential of our country is estimated to be about 20,000 MW, while at
present we are generating about 1020 MW. The largest wind farm of our country is
near Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu generating 380 MW electricity.
Wind energy is very useful as it does not cause any air pollution. After the initial installation
cost, the wind energy is very cheap. It is believed that by the middle of the century wind
power would supplymore than 10% of world.s electricity.
HYDROPOWER
The water flowing in a river is collected by constructing a big dam where the water is stored
and allowed to fall from a height. The blades of the turbine located at the bottom of the dam
move with the fast moving water which in turn rotate the generator and produces electricity.
We can also construct mini or micro hydel power plants on the rivers in hilly regions for
harnessing the hydro energy on a small scale, but the minimum height of the water falls
should be 10 metres. The hydropower potential of India is estimated to be about 4 × 1011
KW-hours. Till now we have utilized only a little more than 11% of this potential.
Hydropower does not cause any pollution, it is renewable and normally the hydro power
projects are multi-purpose projects helping in controlling floods, used for irrigation,
navigation etc. However, big dams are often associated with a number of environmental
impacts which have already been discussed in the previous section.

TIDAL ENERGY
Ocean tides produced by gravitational forces of sun and moon contain enormous amounts of
energy. The high tide and low tide refer to the rise and fall of water in the oceans. A
difference of several meters is required between the height of high and low tide to spin the
turbines. The tidal energy can be harnessed by constructing a tidal barrage. During high tide,
the sea-water flows into the reservoir of the barrage and turns the turbine, which in turn
produces electricity by rotating the generators. During low tide, when the sea-level is low, the
sea water stored in the barrage reservoir flows out into the sea and again turns the turbines.

OCEAN THERMAL ENERGY (OTE)

The energy available due to the difference in temperature of water at the surface of the
tropical oceans and at deeper levels is called Ocean Thermal Energy. A difference of 20°C or
more is required between surface water and deeper water of ocean for operating OTEC
(Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion) power plants. The warm surface water of ocean is used
to boil a liquid like ammonia. The high pressure vapours of the liquid formed by boiling are
then used to turn the turbine of agenerator and produce electricity. The colder water from the
deeper oceans is pumped to cool and condense the vapours into liquid. Thus the process
keeps on going continuously for 24 hours a day.
GEOTHERMAL ENERGY
The energy harnessed from the hot rocks present inside the earth is called geothermal energy.
High temperature, high pressure steam fields exist below the earth.s surface in many places.
This heat comes from the fission of radioactive material naturally present in the rocks. In
some places, the steam or the hot water comes out of the ground naturally through
cracks in the form of natural geysers as in Manikaran, Kullu and Sohana, Haryana.
Sometimes the steam or boiling water underneath the earth do not find any place to
come out. We can artificially drill a hole up to the hot rocks and by putting a pipe in it
make the steam or hot water gush out through the pipe at high pressure which turns the
turbine of a generator to produce electricty. In USA and New Zealand, there are several
geothermal plants working successfully.

BIOMASS ENERGY
Biomass is the organic matter produced by the plants or animals which include wood, crop
residues, cattle dung, manure, sewage, agricultural wastes etc. In rural areas these forms of
waste biomass are burned in open furnaces called Chulhas which usually produce smoke and
are not so efficient. Now improved Chulhas with tall chimney have been designed which
have high efficiency and are smokeless. The burning of plant residues or animal wastes cause
air pollution and produce a lot of ash as waste residue. The burning of dung destroys essential
nutrients like N and P. It is therefore, more useful to convert the biomass into biogas or bio
fuels.

BIOGAS
Biogas is a mixture of methane, carbon dioxide, hydrogen and hydrogen sulphide, the major
constituent being methane. Biogas is produced by anaerobic degradation of animal wastes
(sometimes plant wastes) in the presence of water. Anaerobic degradation means break down
of organic matter by bacteria in the absence of oxygen. Biogas is a non-polluting, clean and
low cost fuel which is very useful for rural areas where a lot of animal waste and agricultural
waste are available. India has the largest cattle population in the world (240 million) and has
tremendous potential for biogas production.

BIOFUELS
Biomass can be fermented to alcohols like ethanol and methanol which can be used as fuels.
Eg. Gasohol is a mixture of ethanol and gasoline used for running cars and buses.
Methanol can be easily obtained from woody plants and ethanol from grain-based or sugar-
containing plants.

Non-Renewable Energy Sources

These are the fossil fuels like coal, petroleum, natural gas and nuclear fuels. These were
formed by the decomposition of the remains of plants and animals buried under the earth
millions of years ago. The fuels are very precious because they have taken such a long time to
be formed and if we exhaust their reserves at such a fast rate as we have been doing, ever
since we discovered them, then very soon we will lose these resources forever.

Coal
Coal was formed 255-350 million years ago in the hot, damp regions of the earth during the
carboniferous age. The ancient plants along the banks of rivers and swamps were buried after
death into the soil and due to the heat and pressure gradually got converted into peat and coal
over millions of years of time. There are mainly three types of coal, namely anthracite (hard
coal), bituminous (Soft coal) and lignite (brown coal). Anthracite coal has maximum carbon
(90%) and calorific value (8700 kcal/kg.) Bituminous, lignite and peat contain 80, 70 and
60% carbon, respectively. Coal is the most abundant fossil fuel in the world.

PETROLEUM
Petroleum is a cleaner fuel as compared to coal as it burns completely and leaves no residue.
It is also easier to transport and use. That is the reason why petroleum is preferred amongst
all the fossil fuels.
Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG): The main component of petroleum is butane, the other
being propane and ethane. The petroleum gas is easily converted to liquid form under
pressure as LPG. It is odourless, but the LPG in our domestic gas cylinders gives a foul smell.
This is, in fact, due to ethyl mercaptan, a foul smelling gas, added to LPG so that any leakage
of LPG from the cylinder can be detected instantaneously.

NATURAL GAS
It is been formed by decomposing remains of dead animals and plants buried under the earth.
Natural gas is the cleanest fossil fuel. It can be easily transported through pipelines. It has a
high calorific value of about 50KJ/G and burns without any smoke.
Compressed natural gas (CNG): It is being used as an alternative to petrol and diesel for
transport of vehicles. Delhi has totally switched over to CNG where buses and auto rickshaws
run on this new fuel. CNG use has greatly reduced vehicular pollution in the city.

NUCLEAR ENERGY
Nuclear energy is known for its high destructive power as evidenced from nuclear weapons.
The nuclear energy can also be harnessed for providing commercial energy. Nuclear energy
can be generated by two types of reactions:
(i) Nuclear Fission: It is the nuclear change in which nucleus of certain isotopes with large
mass numbers are split into lighter nuclei on bombardment by neutrons and a large amount of
energy is released through a chain reaction.
(ii) Nuclear fusion: Here two isotopes of a light element are forced together at extremely
high temperatures (1 billion °C) until they fuse to form a heavier nucleus releasing enormous
energy in the process.