Hope invariably comes from fresh thoughts. Twenty summers ago, India had no choice other than to reform its economic policies. What began as a crisis, it eventually created new opportunities almost in every sector of India’s economy and raised the aspiration of people. Driven by renewed hope, the economy graduated to a new orbit of growth leaving behind its past—pathetic GDP growth rate of 3.5 percent forever.
The effervescence of new energy reflected in the variety of products that swarmed the market. It satisfied the new generation of consumers and thereby created new segments of market. However, with the rise in population and increase in production of goods, the consumption of energy too went up. The threat of global warming and its consequence—climate change loomed large on the horizon.
While the economy continued to grow, paradoxically, the existing systems of energy production, primarily from coal and gas, showed the inevitable—the law of diminishing returns. Exploring new reserves of coal became a hurdle, as the mining of coal cannot be at the cost of the environment. Importing of coal from Australia and Indonesia would not be viable for long, as these countries would raise the price of coal for export. Like all good things in life, the party can’t go on forever.
But the rising demand-supply gap of energy that the country faces could turn out to be a blessing in disguise. The alternative could be exploring and seeding green power. “The old wisdom of generating power from water with minimum annoyance to the surrounding areas is all set to be back,” says an enthusiastic analyst working with an energy consulting services company.
A report on Indian power sector analysis suggests that India is rated as one of the top three countries for renewable energy investment. Apart from Solar, Wind and Biomass, the writing on the wall is in favour of Hydro power. The reasons are obvious. It is clean, which means it has the potential to reduce carbon foot print. On the top of it, hydro power is cheap, requires minimum maintenance and would give the much needed comfort of energy security. In Canada, there are examples of hydro power which have been running for more than 70 years.
There are two votaries of hydro power: one in favour of big dams, which play a multi-purpose role and the other, is run-of-the-mills projects. Despite the shining example of Bhakra Nangal in Punjab, which play multi-purpose role from storing water, generating power and irrigation, the big dams are notorious in submerging huge tracts of land, displacing large local population and disrupting fragile ecosystem endangering rare species of flora and fauna. The track record of rehabilitation of the displaced is equally bad.
The flavour, therefore, has shifted to the no-frills, which in essence are single purpose projects. Called run-of-the-mill projects, they would only generate electricity and are carried out in regions with a lot of slopes. Water from a stream running through a mountain is made to fall on a turbine and the water is put back into the river. As a result, the original flow of water is maintained and the surroundings are not disturbed. The displacement of population is significantly less. “Not more than 100 families are displaced in this kind of projects,” says an analyst working with an energy consulting services company. A typical run-of-the-mill mini hydro power plant could be anything between 90MW and 100MW. But it could also be as low as two to three MW and go up to as high as India’s largest plant currently under construction at Teesta, which is expected to generate 1,200MW. What’s interesting, the run-of-the-mill is an old thought in a new era, which would help the economy to grow without driving the displaced population to penury and damaging the ecosystem.
The history of micro hydro power plant in India is more than a century old. The first hydropower station was a small hydro power station of 130 KW commissioned in 1897 at Sidrapong near Darjeeling in West Bengal. The old wisdom is back—with a new hope and fervour.
The effervescence of new energy reflected in the variety of products that swarmed the market. It satisfied the new generation of consumers and thereby created new segments of market. However, with the rise in population and increase in production of goods, the consumption of energy too went up. The threat of global warming and its consequence—climate change loomed large on the horizon.
While the economy continued to grow, paradoxically, the existing systems of energy production, primarily from coal and gas, showed the inevitable—the law of diminishing returns. Exploring new reserves of coal became a hurdle, as the mining of coal cannot be at the cost of the environment. Importing of coal from Australia and Indonesia would not be viable for long, as these countries would raise the price of coal for export. Like all good things in life, the party can’t go on forever.
But the rising demand-supply gap of energy that the country faces could turn out to be a blessing in disguise. The alternative could be exploring and seeding green power. “The old wisdom of generating power from water with minimum annoyance to the surrounding areas is all set to be back,” says an enthusiastic analyst working with an energy consulting services company.
A report on Indian power sector analysis suggests that India is rated as one of the top three countries for renewable energy investment. Apart from Solar, Wind and Biomass, the writing on the wall is in favour of Hydro power. The reasons are obvious. It is clean, which means it has the potential to reduce carbon foot print. On the top of it, hydro power is cheap, requires minimum maintenance and would give the much needed comfort of energy security. In Canada, there are examples of hydro power which have been running for more than 70 years.
There are two votaries of hydro power: one in favour of big dams, which play a multi-purpose role and the other, is run-of-the-mills projects. Despite the shining example of Bhakra Nangal in Punjab, which play multi-purpose role from storing water, generating power and irrigation, the big dams are notorious in submerging huge tracts of land, displacing large local population and disrupting fragile ecosystem endangering rare species of flora and fauna. The track record of rehabilitation of the displaced is equally bad.
The flavour, therefore, has shifted to the no-frills, which in essence are single purpose projects. Called run-of-the-mill projects, they would only generate electricity and are carried out in regions with a lot of slopes. Water from a stream running through a mountain is made to fall on a turbine and the water is put back into the river. As a result, the original flow of water is maintained and the surroundings are not disturbed. The displacement of population is significantly less. “Not more than 100 families are displaced in this kind of projects,” says an analyst working with an energy consulting services company. A typical run-of-the-mill mini hydro power plant could be anything between 90MW and 100MW. But it could also be as low as two to three MW and go up to as high as India’s largest plant currently under construction at Teesta, which is expected to generate 1,200MW. What’s interesting, the run-of-the-mill is an old thought in a new era, which would help the economy to grow without driving the displaced population to penury and damaging the ecosystem.
The history of micro hydro power plant in India is more than a century old. The first hydropower station was a small hydro power station of 130 KW commissioned in 1897 at Sidrapong near Darjeeling in West Bengal. The old wisdom is back—with a new hope and fervour.
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