Section 1. Introduction

Section 1
Introduction
U. Aswathanarayana
Each country has to figure out its own energy portfolio, consistent with its endowment
of energy resources, and employing technologies, which are economically viable and
socially equitable, and have minimal adverse impacts. The unacceptable degradation
of environment through the use of fossil fuels could only be mitigated by the decou-
pling of economic growth from energy demand, and reduction in the use of fossil fuels.
Improvements in the energy economy are sought to be accomplished through greater
energy efficiency, greater use of renewable and nuclear power, CO2 Capture and Stor-
age (CCS) on a massive scale, and development of carbon-free transport. The author’s
book, “Energy Portfolios’’ (Taylor & Francis, 2009) provided the knowledge base to
facilitate countries making informed choices in regard to energy sourcing and energy
technologies to achieve a job-led, low-carbon economic growth.
As this volume was being processed for printing, the world experienced a catas-
trophic economic meltdown in the second half of 2008. The reckless and unsustainable
lending processes of the US banks triggered the subprime mortgage crisis. On Sept. 15,
2008, Lehman Brothers with assets of over USD 600 billion filed for bankruptcy – the
largest bankruptcy filing in the US history. This had a profound domino effect. Invest-
ment and commercial banks suffered huge losses, and many went bankrupt. There
were reverberations round the world. There was a sharp drop in international trade,
rising unemployment and slumping of commodity prices.
All the countries, rich and poor, were urgently in need of finding ways and means
of getting out of recession. The adoption of Renewable Energy Technologies (RETs)
constituted a win-win situation, as renewables are not only green and job-generating,
but most of them do not get depleted when used. The author’s latest book, “Green
Energy: Technology, Economics and Policy’’ (Taylor & Francis, 2010 July) is useful to
2 Green Energy Technology, Economics and Policy
the countries to decide upon the actual mix of RETs, and timing of the policy incentives,
depending upon the local biophysical and socioeconomic situations. All RETs are
evolving rapidly in response to technology improvements and market penetration. The
deployment of RETs has two concurrent goals : (i) exploit the “low-hanging’’ fruit of
abundant of RETs which are closest to market competitiveness, and (ii) developing
cost-effective ways for a low-carbon future.
Renewable fuels, such as wind, solar, biomass, tides, and geothermal, are inex-
haustible, indigenous and are often free as a resource. They just need to be captured
efficiently and transformed into electricity, hydrogen or clean transportation fuels. In
effect, the development of renewal energy invests in people, by substituting labour
for fuel. The renewables have hardly any carbon footprint, and do not require
environmentally-damaging mining and transport. For these reasons, “green’’ energy
should be considered as the energy of the future. That said, the most important
challenge facing the renewables is to bring down their costs.
Though the Copenhagen Accord did reiterate adherence to the goal of limiting global
temperature rise to 2◦ C by 2050, the assessment of UNFCCC is that because of the
inadequacy of the mitigation efforts, the temperature rise is likely to be 3◦ C by 2050.
This is a serious matter. M.S. Swaminathan drew attention to the implications for India
of a 1◦ C rise in global temperature. There would be an annual loss of about 6 million
tonnes of wheat production, worth USD 1.5 billion, and gross loss of about USD 20
billion to the farmers.
The volume is addressed to the delineation of the ways and means of using technol-
ogy, economics and policy to provide clean, reliable, secure and competitive energy
supply. China and to a lesser extent India, have shown how exactly this could be done.
China has emerged as the largest maker of wind turbines and the largest manufac-
turer of solar panels in the world. It is building the most efficient types of coal power
plants. China today has 9 GW of nuclear power. It is preparing to build three times
more nuclear power plants in the coming decade as the rest of the world put together.
Renewable energy industries have created 1.12 million new jobs in 2008. China’s top
leadership is intensely focused on energy policy – it created a National Energy Commis-
sion which is a kind of “superministry’’ headed by Prime Minister Wen Jiabao himself.
New York Times makes a prescient observation that just as the West has been depen-
dent on Middle East for oil, it is destined to be dependent on China for renewable
energy technologies.
The purpose of the book is to elucidate Green New Deal models, whereby the twin
objectives of job generation as a way of promoting economic development, and mitiga-
tion of climate change impacts through low-carbon technologies, are achieved through
the harnessing of the transformative power of technology. Energy science and technol-
ogy are sought to be linked with energy economics and markets and energy policy
and planning. This is sought to be accomplished through public – private partner-
ship in the prosecution of Innovation Chain (Basic Research → Applied Research &
Development → Demonstration → Deployment → Commercialization).
Denmark shows the way for developing a low-carbon economy through innovative
application of energy technologies. Denmark gets bulk of its electricity from coal.
During the last twenty years, the greenhouse gas emissions were reduced by 14%.
While the energy consumption remained unchanged, GDP went up by 40%. Denmark
is the most energy efficient country in Europe. Energy tax revenues are ploughed back
Introduction 3
to industry to subsidize environmental innovation. Renewable resources, particularly

wind power and biomass, provide 30% of Denmark’s electricity. A country of just
five million people has some of the leading wind, biofuel, heating and cooling and
efficiency companies in the world. Energy technologies constitute 11% of Denmark’s
export.
Climate change could also be mitigated “by pushing the envelope of the possible’’.
The Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel, is working on a win-win paradigm in this
regard. Instead of CO2 emitted to coal-fired power plants being a nuisance, it could
be harvested by “super-algae’’ farms located near the plants to yield 30 times more
“green’’ crude. “Solar’’ nanostructures “painted’’ on the exterior of the buildings and
cars can help harness sunlight and destroy pollutants in the air.
An event took place in San Jose, Calif., USA, on Feb. 24, 2010 (WE) which is likely
to have a profound effect on decentralized electricity production all over the world
when K.R. Sridhar, an Indian American, unveiled a “Power plant in a box’’. The
“Bloom Box’’ is a fuel-cell device, consisting of a stack of ceramic disks with secret
green and black “inks’’. These disks are separated by cheap metal plates. The “Bloom
Box’’ can covert air and nearly any renewable and fossil fuel (e.g. natural gas, biogas,
gas from paddy hisk or agricultural waste, coal gas) into electricity by electrochemical
process. Since no combustion is involved, there will be no emissions, vibrations or
smell. Unlike solar or wind energy, which are intermittent, Bloom technology would
be able to provide electricity 24 × 7. Though the presently available Bloom Energy
Server has a capacity of 100 kW, Bloom Box of 1 kW capacity, costing about USD
3 000, would be available in 5–10 years to provide clean, reliable and affordable
electricity to individual households.
The volume covers the following five themes: (i) Renewable Energy Technolo-
gies (RETs), (ii) Ways and means of making RETS competitive, (iii) Reduction in
the CO2 emissions and improving the efficiency of supply-side energy technologies,
(iv) Reduction in the CO2 emissions and improving the efficiency of Demand-side
energy technologies, and (v) A Green New Deal – Ways of mitigating the adverse con-
sequences of climate change, while alleviating poverty. Quo vadis? deals with where
do we go from here.

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Section 1

to industry to subsidize environmental innovation. Renewable resources, particularly

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