As Delhi Chokes Under Pollution, Bawana Gas Power Plant Lies Under-utilised.

Delhi along with large parts of Northern India has been choking under severe pollution since 2010. Every year the politician, who ever is in power, pledges to reduce pollution levels. Every year the tax payer invests thousands of crores in the name of pollution control. Nothing happens.  In 2018 I happened to investigate  the causes of air pollution in detail and wrote a piece for the think tank ORF about the directionless effort that placed responsibility on too many and actually led to accountability for none.   Delhi’s Toxic Air : Anyone Responsible  ?

The Government had then made yet another high powered committee where scientists and bureaucrats started passing the buck without any actionable output. Two more years passed since and the air quality has worsened.

On Monday the 11th of November 2020, a decade after the acute air pollution problem surfaced in Delhi, the Air quality dipped to show that PM2.5 particles ( 100 times thinner than human hair ) exceeded 1000 ug/cubic metre. These particles consist of dirt, smoke, dust from factories, farms, construction sites and severely affect the upper respiratory tract causing, asthma, breathlessness and even lung cancer. 

In 2019 Bloomsbury published my book India Emerging : From Policy Paralysis to Hyper Economics where some of the key reasons for Delhi’s pollution was discussed. Here is one of them 

Extract - Chapter 6 Opportunity to Build Oil Infrastructure Lost: High Taxes Hurt the Consumer Pg 74

While  Delhi chokes under  smog  each winter, Delhi’s gas power  plants—270 MW  Indraprastha  Power  Generation Co Ltd (IPGCL) unit  at  Pragati Maidan and 1500 MW gas station at  Bawana— lie  underutilised due  to lack of natural  gas. As a  matter  of fact, the generation  of  these  stations,  set  up  at  a  cost  of  over  ₹5,000  crore,  never even exceeded  50%  because  agreements for  buying  of  gas were  not completed. The  Bawana gas project  was set up with a lot of fanfare  by the  Sheila Dixit government  around a decade  ago. Politicians then promised to the people  that  with this massive  investment  Delhi will  have  clean air  and will be  self-sufficient. It  will not  have  to depend on dirty coal power from NTPC in Badarpur in the  heart  of South Delhi to meet the  power needs of the  city. 

But, those  politicians have  gone  and the  new Aam Aadmi Party ( AAP) ministry at  Delhi and the  Modi government  at  the  centre  have  not taken an initiative  to augment  gas supplies to run the  Bawana utility at its full capacity. 

When I talked to V. Kumar, additional general manager, Solar & Gas of the  IPGCL Bawana project, he  told me  that  domestic gas supply is insufficient  and imported gas is unaffordable. Production of natural gas has fallen by nearly 40% from 52,219 Million Metric Standard Cubic Metres  (MMSCM) in  2010–2011 to 31,897 MMSCM  in  2016–2017. Figure  6.3 gives the  details of the  steady fall in production of natural gas since  2011.  So,  the  IPGCL  plants  have  worked  far  below  capacity.  The unavailability  of local gas  and the high  cost of imported gas  is  to blame for the underutilisation of plants. The  distribution companies (discoms) will not  buy expensive  power  from  imported  gas. So,  IPGCL  has  not  entered into a  contract  to buy expensive  gas, immaterial  of the  fact  that  the  capital is high on health hazard. 

Creation of Database on E bikes & Scooters

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Need Data Associates for Creation of Data Base on E bikes & Scooters


Conference on Energy Innovations for a Sustainable World
Abstract of Paper: For ICAE 2012 Conference
Conference Topic: Energy Systems and Efficiency Improvement / Transport
Title: DISRUPTIVE GREEN TECHNOLOGIES: ELECTRIC BIKES AND
SCOOTERS COULD SOON OUTSELL FOSSIL FUEL VERSIONS
Author: Sandip Sen
THE BACKGROUND SUBJECT :
 China is producing a mammoth 24 million electric powered bicycles annually.
 China’s e bike population of 120 million is five times the number of cars on Chinese roads.
 China has also several electric scooter and bike models that have a cruising speed of around 30 mph and are used for city driving by its citizens.
 The e bike and e scooter revolution is partly due to new breakthrough development in transmission and Lithium battery technology besides several policy initiatives taken by the Governments around the world.
 China accounts for 90% of the global e bike market largely due to Government policy and incentives
 Norway, Finland, Sweden, Germany, Denmark and the US have already a steady domestic demand for electric bikes.
 German, Japanese, American and Indian manufacturers are also readying great products in this e scooter and electric bike segment.
 PURPOSE OF RESEARCH : The Paper will attempt to study Chinese and other global markets from the point of market analytics, policy analytics and technology analytics.
 PRINCIPAL RESULTS : The trends of the past years will be be tabulated for both electric powered as well as fossil fuel segments
 MAJOR CONCLUSIONS : Electric powered vehicles could outsell fossil fuel units below 100 cc in the next 5 years

Disruptive Green Tech that could topple the fossil fuel apple cart

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Follow our post in Entrepreneurs Community Online and learn about disruptive green technologies that could topple the fossil fuel apple cart.

Boycott COP 17: Support Funding Disruptive Green Technologies

Can Cloth Bags Make A Comeback To Oust Plastics ?

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Many years ago, in the sixties and seventies the cloth bag or the proverbial ' jhola ' would rule the world. That was when we were young and long before petrochemical companies flooded the market with cost effective PVC that made the production of plastic bags cheap. I will not blame Dupont or Reliance for flooding the market with variations of Poly Vinyl Chloride PVC , Polypropylene PP or food grade plastics or any other variations  because like any commercial industry they responded to the market demand. After the seventies consumer demand rose globally as Asia's billions joined the millions of  Americans and Europeans as the empowered global consumer.

How Credit Risk Singes Bond Markets : Danger for Forest Bonds

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This is the first of a series of articles promised to Sean Kidney panelist and Melissa Tupper Communications Director of WWF Forest and Climate Initiative to furnish information on the working of global bond markets and risk from market volatility. It tries to explain briefly how the market behaves and the risks associated  that many other reputed publications like  the NYT, Bloomberg, Guardian perceive

A bond is a debt instrument between a borrower and an investor. A bond can be issued to finance short term, medium or long term credit needs .The interest rates and yields from bonds usually vary as per market sentiments and the borrower’s reputation. Bond market operations have become volatile during the last decade after the introduction of securitized credit derivatives in the market by Wall Street Banks. A credit derivative        (CDO/CDS) is a security whose value is derived from the credit risk underlying a bond. As soon as a bond is issued in the market, there is a risk that (i) the borrower may default on its interest (ii) the borrower may want interest restructuring (iii) the borrower may default on repayment of debt (iv) the borrower may want repayment restructuring (v) the borrower may go bankrupt.

Meghalaya's living bridges A lesson in sustainability

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An excellent video on an eco-friendly  bridge built by the Khasi tribes in Meghalaya  in north east India and a excellent snotr video at You tube.
This is a living example of how people find their own solutions to the  difficult challenges that  nature often presents to mankind. What a pity that neither the India Government nor one of the thousands of well funded NGO's or the  development organizations in India have not thought of studying the project and  and aiding and emulating the same in dozens of  such mountain streams across India and the world. The development projects like these would be low cost and sustainable and would help the indigenous people of the state of Meghalaya for whom communication is an arduous task. today .
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WWF Not Aware of Bond Market Volatility

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Attending the Webinar on Forest Bond  of  WWF on the 29th. gave me the feeling that WWF is perhaps not aware of the  1) Business Need of raising Forest Bonds and 2) The Business Risk Associated with the Bond Markets. The WWF panelists were all environmentalists or biologists who were looking for funds to stop deforestation of forests. The funds assessed by them was of the order of $17 billion to$33 billion each year and since most of the forests exist in  the less prosperous Southern Hemisphere and Governments have been tardy to put up the funds for their upkeep, they asked next plausible source  the investment Bankers of how to raise the funds

Goldman Ropes In WWF to Turn Forest Into Commodities

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Crafty Wall Street Banker Goldman Sachs is not  satisfied with inducing volatility in oil, spiking the metal trade or corn and wheat and shorting the Euro-zone Bonds. Now it has roped in The World Wild Life Fund and plans to involve it into co-promoting forest bonds. Strictly the Forest Bonds is not being floated by Goldman Sachs but by an a company called Climate Bonds Initiative but has  the blessings of the Wall Street Banks who usually  like to devise such instruments staying at the background.   Turning forests into commodities is no new concept for big Banks. What is new is that in all possibility the WWF unaware of the pitfalls, has been roped in the deal.

A Geothermal Quick fix.... Climate Change's Doubtful Solutions !

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Geothermal mining or tapping volcanic reserves for energy has one of the  highest sulfur and carbon based emissions. Right ? How is it then entitled to Climate Change funding !!!
Climate Change Skeptics have a long standing  grouse, that proponents of environmental clean-up have very often expensive and fanciful solutions that are in no way conducive to the common citizens pocket. A Green environment has its costs,but they must be legitimate and should give some definitive returns in the long run.
The Kyoto accord which is now in shambles was all about energy producers profiteering through Carbon trading and had no mechanism to ensure that they will put up renewable energy plants .

 In all fairness it must be admitted that climate skeptics were partially right. The Kyoto Protocol and 10 years of Carbon Trading thereafter showed that the carbon emission levels in the two dozen nations who signed the accord had gone up instead of coming down. The fault lay with the structure of  EU ETS giving free Carbon credits to polluters without basic bench marking and allowing these polluters to make money on the excess carbon credits available with them. It was like giving the polluters a free hand to trade in Carbon Credits without restricting the permits issued as per a stringent global benchmark.

Now the energy companies ( read oil majors,mining giants and utilities) are again up to new tricks to negate the flow of investment into renewable energy. The new toy for diverting and wasting public funds earmarked to stop climate change is called Geo- engineering. The projects include geo-thermal mining which is extracting energy from volcanic formations, an extremely  theoretical concept with limited returns capability that could  take decades to mature but will lock up funds worth millions of dollars earmarked for genuine renewable energy projects.  

Is Pakistan Creating Mini Nukes For The Afghan Battlefield?

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As per a Reuters report Pakistan is creating an arsenal of 60 Km ( 36 mile)  surface to surface NASR missile   that could be armed with nuclear war heads for short distance engagement. The missile has been successfully tested a month ago and is ready for deployment. D.G. Kimball the executive director of the US based Arms Control Association says  "Pakistan's development and testing of nuclear-capable short-range missiles is a destabilizing and potentially dangerous development".

                                        The  Hatf IX NASR Missile being test fired by Pakistan
                                          ( Source Pakistan Military Video Stills from Reuters)

Pakistan's standard  retort is that it is a safeguard against Indian capability, though India has no stockpile of small nukes, nor need for such a deterrent. The key range for an optimum strike from India  in case of a India Pakistan war fare will be more likely 800-1000 miles, because it would be a convenient distance to target all off Pakistan from a  few hundred miles within Indian territory. Similarly Pakistan would need a range of  2500- 3000  miles penetration to cover major Indian cities and a 800-1000 mile range to easily cover India's capital New Delhi. So why is Pakistan creating the small capacity missiles for nukes ? ....

Double Strike Of Quake And Tsunami Cripples Japan's Safe Reactors

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There are some things beyond engineering design. The  Tsunami that followed the massive 8.9 scale earthquake was one of those. Japan especially the city of Sendai and Miyagi was prepared for an earthquake of  9.0  in the Richter scale, 1000 times powerful than the one which rocked Haiti last year and 8000 times more than that which turned Christchurch to rubble a month ago. Fifteen years ago a powerful earthquake that had brought down high rise buildings and over bridges  killing 5000 people in Japan made them rebuild and redesign the earthquake prone areas and Sendai as the hub was best prepared for such a calamity.

What it was not prepared was for  Tsunami that followed. As the tectonic plates clashed 26 kilometers below sea, and the Eurasian plate moved 50feet grinding over the Pacific plate it  raised the sea level and unleashed a tremendous surge. It created a giant wave several hundred mile wide that rose over 10 meters and rolled in at the speed of a  cruising jet engine moving off the runaway before takeoff. When  the waves hit Miyagi and Sendai it also short circuited the electrical systems of the Fukushima nuclear plant closing the reactors automatically as a safety measure.

Japan Struck After Disasters Hit Australia, New Zealand

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The Pacific has never been the quietest place on planet earth. 
 Yet the intensity and rapid fire Pacific disturbances show that like it or not, nature is hitting back at manmade civilizations like never before. 3 major natural calamities struck the Pacific belt during the last three months that destroyed life and property worth billions and made headline news the world over. 

The Bogey Of Peak Oil

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Wall Street Banks and hedge funds speculating in oil futures are once again driving oil prices higher despite the fact that there is no demand surge. The latest bogey of Peak Oil was raised  through a badly interpreted Wiki leaks document that stated that Saudi reserves may be 40 % lesser than originally stated. It was fortunate that the person who was supposed to have made that statement promptly denied making such a statement and clarified that extractable reserves are separate from the discoveries and are conservatively stated by Saudi Aramco at 270 billion barrels ,but indeed could be higher due to new horizontal drilling technology.

Was Amazon Drought & Aussie Floods A Nature Cycle Shift

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Though I will not blame it on human consumption induced climate change or global warming, the ominous signs of the nature cycle shift is in the air. No, I am not talking of the cataclysmic rainfall followed by floods in Queensland  and Northern Australia early this year or the snow storms that raged across Europe and the northern hemisphere from North America to  China . I am in fact talking of the  depleting Amazon rain forests due to the droughts of 2005 and 2010 that have killed billions of trees over thousands of acres along the parched tributaries of the giant river.  Here below and above are some telling pictures of how it looks now that one of the biggest tributary Rio Negro has turned into a dried out river bed and the forests have turned into grasslands

The dried out river banks which are miles wide at most places and stretch for hundreds of miles after the 2010 drought.

Acres of  rain forests have disappeared and have been replaced by grasslands in the Amazon

Brazil's Rio Negro is a major tributary of the Amazon and a home to an ecosystem that  supports millions of plant and animal species. The 2005 and 2010 droughts dried out parts of the river and killed billions of trees
Researcher Simon Lewis in Science magazine wrote that according to a few models the quick and successive droughts in the Amazon basis is a freak phenomenon and could be due to changes in the temperature level in the Atlantic that has occurred due to man made warming.

Researchers also say that the drought and the death of billions of  trees within months would not only affect the  capability of a large part of the  Amazonian rain forest  to act like a carbon sink, but that it could eventually become a carbon source leading to increased global emissions.  Applying the techniques of  extrapolation researches feel that the mass destruction of trees due to the two drought could have added 8 billion tonnes of carbon to the atmosphere and thus caused further global warming that could bring about greater and more severe droughts in the future

Why India Needs Nuclear Power

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We supporters of green technologies are normally also anti- nuclear and are often skeptical of proliferation.The reason we are anti-nuclear is because of dangers both during the running of the plant and the disposal of nuclear waste. This especially because for the people who are involved in case of any accident the consequences can be traumatic.So how is it that we are supporting  nuclear power plants, when it comes to India. Why the double standards? What is so special that we make an exception and think that Indian nuclear plants can be supported ?

“Climate change issues cannot be addressed by asking the poor to cut back on consumption. You can’t get 90 per cent of carbon dioxide reduction by telling them to reduce their nutrition levels. You can’t have a just world by asking them to use less energy,”  Bill Gates said at Davos in his reply to U.N. Chief  Ban Ki-Moon's plea to all nations to cut their energy consumption.  Gates was batting for poor nations like India who do not produce adequate energy needed to feed and educate its poor.

UN body issues 20million Carbon Credits for controversial projects

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Italy and some energy firms have once again stalled EU ETS CDM reforms and managed to get 20million carbon credits issued by UNFCCC panel for controversial projects under EU scrutiny. The projects mainly located in China and India and funded by Italian companies are suspected of adjusting plants to produce more of potent greenhouse gas hydrofluorocarbon-23 (HFC-23) and then destroying it.

The Italian Government holds stake in two HFC -23 projects, while Italian energy major Enel  holds stake in six others projects. Italy permits 15% of its Carbon reduction from Carbon offsets and heavily depends on  HFC-23 which is a waste by product from manufacturing refrigerants.  

Largest OffShore Wind Power in UK

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There are many critics of offshore wind  farms citing that the installation cost is overpowering and the power generation is sketchy ....which means "no wind, no power". However as we enter the Hybrid generation era, this form of power has become one of the great possibilities and capable of  providing clean energy at an affordable cost.

We say at an affordable cost because this nascent technology developed is going through its first stage of evolution when the land based plants have started moving offshore doubling the generation capacity and providing better wind consistency to power grids uniformly at all hours. The problem will be further solved when the offshore floating plants take root that can be much more stable for round the clock generation and commercially viable once they start getting installed on floating platforms at high seas away from the coast.

Several times this year turbines at German wind farms generated so much power that consumers were paid to consume electricity  in order to balance the grid as per a Bloomberg Report earlier this year. The  report goes to say that Germany has since 2002 added 22,000 KW of wind power, as a result of which 7.5% of total generation in Germany ( which incidentally has nuclear power as an option it no longer uses) is from wind energy today. The current challenge for Germany is to stabilize wind power, not to produce it, something it will be able to achieve when offshore wind farms move further ( 30 to 50 miles ) out into the sea.

Whereas European plants are way ahead in tapping offshore wind power, especially in the North Sea , and China is setting up several such plants, the scene in the US and the rest of  Asia however shows little  or no development. India for example today has the top wind power manufacturers setting up plants in the country but no pro-active policy on offshore wind power as a result of which 4 projects are still far from the starting block, despite having a 6000 mile coastline

Offshore Oil Threatened : Fights Offshore Wind

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Over the last three years British wind farms in the shallow waters of the North Sea has been one of the biggest success stories of renewable energy. The fact that the sea bed around UK and Netherlands is not deep for miles makes it possible for windfarms to set up bases away from the coast line. This in turn helps get stable wind pressure round the clock that helps generate power consistently which can be fed continuously to the grid.

Only Honesty Can Stop Climate Change, Not COP16

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OK,you are getting ready to pack your bags again. After 5 fruitless meetings from March to August at Bonn and the October meets at Tianjin China where you all pushed the paper files back and forward, you are once again getting ready for the Climate Change mega event at Cancun?

What for? Oh! it's the COP16 annual jamboree at Mexico. The climate change monologues of not the deaf, but rather the daft. Why do I call it so ? Perhaps because it lacks a clarity and honesty of purpose. Well any uninitiated "Baboso" would also tell you the same at Cancun too because of the obsolete agenda of discussion at COP 16 that makes little sense today after the Copenhagen fiasco. Ask yourself and other participants of COP 16. Are you really contributing to the cause of stopping climate change. Have not 16 years of unsatisfactory progress been able to open our eyes. Should not the agenda of COP16 be changed   and a positive action plan be drawn out for clean energy ?

Is Cancun Climate Change Conference Relevant ?

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Is a climate change conference relevant today without a roadmap of change? The change to renewable energy substituting the fossil fuels of today? It is high time that the COP conferences get less vague and drop the political posturing and start having more definative objectives in harnessing resources for alternative energy.
Come December it is time for the annual jamboree on Climate Change. The COP 16. This time it is Cancun in Mexico. Though the hoopla is much lesser than the COP 15 Conference at Denmark, there have been 5 meets already to settle the agenda. The preliminary discussions once again have been controversial and contentious. Little was achieved at the three meets at Bonn Germany or the two meets later in China.