A 'concrete' idea for stubble burning
Burning the generated straw in a closed system like a cement kiln, where the exhaust gas adheres to pollution norms, can significantly curb the woes of stubble burning. Every kilogram of rice produced implies 0.7-1.4 kg of rice straw, which means 4-8 million tonnes of straw being burnt on the fields in Punjab and Haryana collectively. The straw can produce as much as 50-100 petajoules (PJ) of energy. This can be used in cement kilns to meet the thermal energy demand for producing cement.
Modeling of Solar and Biomass Hybrid Power Generation—a Techno-Economic Case Study
Solar power plants are expected to play a significant role in India’s power sector. The country plans to achieve an installed capacity of 100 GW by 2022. However, in a stand-alone mode, solar power plants are not able to deliver a consistent power supply, as per the demand requirement, to Electricity Supply Companies (ESCOMs). This is mainly because of the nature of intermittency associated with solar energy.
Developing a Comprehensive Emission Inventory for Bengaluru
CAPS is developing an emissions inventory for Bengaluru by estimating the emissions load from different sectors contributing to air pollution and analysing the spatio-temporal distribution of the emissions load. The emission inventory will estimate emissions from various sources in the airshed area of Bengaluru (60 km X 60 km).
The study has the following key objectives:
Maintenance - An underrated piece in the solar energy puzzle
The maintenance aspect of solar installation is currently a shy topic and not adequately discussed. To make solar energy a success story, we must embrace its nature completely and support it the right way to make it a sustainable solution. Even a simple step such as cleaning the modules the right way could support a bigger idea of an effective clean energy solution.
How deeply should think tanks engage with public for influencing policy?
This article is a summary of a conversation amongst a few members of the South Asian Comms Platform, an informal group of communicators who share experiences in an effort to learn from one another.
Solar Energy Integration
This chapter covers the integrated analysis component of the program, which provided a critical resource to help define the optimal research agenda. This work includes assessing the solar resource across the various climate zones in India and a coupling of this to the technology roadmaps in India and the United States. The analysis was coupled with mapping optimal site selections for diverse applications of photovoltaics (PV) and concentrated solar power (CSP) from village power to national grid.
Sustainable Photovoltaics
The chapter discusses the three distinct themes of the largest set of projects in SERIIUS.
The way out of the mess on road
The public transport system is the most effective way of reducing the number of vehicles as well as emissions.