RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES (22ETC15E)

INTRODUCTION

ENERGY

Energy is the capacity of a physical system to do work. It is denoted by ‘ E’. The standard unit is
joules.

Energy comes in two basic forms:

Potential Energy is any type of stored energy. It can be chemical, nuclear, gravitational, or
mechanical.
● Gravitational energy is the potential energy held by an object because of its high position
compared to a lower position. In other words, it is energy associated with gravity or
gravitational force. For example, a pen being held above a table has a higher gravitational
potential than a pen sitting on the table.
● Chemical energy is stored in the bonds between the atoms in compounds. This stored
energy is transformed when bonds are broken or formed through chemical reactions.
● Nuclear energy is the energy released during nuclear fission or fusion, especially when
used to generate electricity.

Kinetic energy: The kinetic energy of an object is the energy that it possesses due to its motion.

● Thermal energy is the internal energy of an object due to the kinetic energy of its atoms
and/or molecules. The atoms and/or molecules of a hotter object have greater kinetic
energy than those of a colder one, in the form of vibrational, rotational, or, in the case of a
gas, translational motion.

Energy can be classified into several types based on the following criteria:

● Primary and Secondary energy

● Commercial and Non commercial energy
● Renewable and Non-Renewable energy

➢ Primary energy sources Primary energy sources are those that are either found or stored in
nature. Common primary energy sources are coal, oil, natural gas, and biomass (such as wood).
Other primary energy sources available include nuclear energy from radioactive substances,
thermal energy stored in earth's interior, and potential energy due to earth's gravity.

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RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES (22ETC15E)

➢ Secondary Sources Derived from the transformation of primary energy sources -Ex. petrol,
that derives from the treatment of crude oil, Electric energy, obtained from the conversion of
mechanical energy.

World energy use and reserves of energy resources

World energy production and Consumption:

The total available global energy about 80% is contributed by the primary energy sources such as
oil, coal and natural gas. Remaining 20%is contributed by all other sources that include the
nuclear and the renewable energy sectors. The global production of primary energy was
equivalent to about 10 billion tonnes of oil (BTOE). New energy sources and resources are being
explored continuously all over the world. The projected total energy supply for the year 20l0 is
about 11.5 BTOE. It is expected to reach 13.7 BTOE by 2020. The global energy sources
available (in per centage) is listed in Table below. The world energy reserves of primary sources
(as on 2003) are as follows:

Coal: Global coal production stood at 7700MToE as on 2015.Global coal production fell by 4%
when compared to historical data. China accounted for a larger share with about 46%, other
Asian countriesabout 17%, OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation andDevelopmeut)
countries about 25%.

Oil: Global oil production stood at 4300 MToE as on 2015. Global oil production increased
rapidly (3.2%). Middle east accountedfor about 32%, Euope and Asia about 16%, America about
9% compared to historical data. The global proven oil reserve was estimated to be 1147 billion
banels by theend of 2015 (one barrel of oil is approximately 160 litres). Saudi Arabia had
thelargest share of the reserve with almost 23%. It is estimated that India has a very small portion
of the world oil resources, at about 760 million tonnes (MT). India is producing about 33 MT oil
per year as again a demand of 110 MT per year (1 tonne is about 6.5 barrels).

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RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES (22ETC15E)

Gas: Global natural gas production stood at 4000 billion cubic meter (bcm) as on 2015. The
Russian Federation had the largest share of the reserve with almost 27%. India has estimated gas
reserves of about 920 billion cubic metres, and is producing about 32 billion cubic metres per
year. That means the indian gas reserves may last about 30 years, at the same production levels.
The global primary energy consumption at the end of 2015 was equivalent to 9740 million
tonnes of oil equivalent (MTE).

The primary energy consumption for some of the developed and developing countries, and the
total world are shown in Table below.

Consumption: The developed countries attributed to high energy consumption as compared to

developing countries. 80% of the world population lies in developing countries. Their energy
consumption amount is only 40% of the world’s total energy consumption. Industrialized
countries/people use 4-5 times more than world average energy consumption & 9 times more
than the average of the developing countries. Primary energy consumption is projected to grow at
an average annual rate of 2.7% between 2001-2020. Global energy consumption was 9425 MToE
as on 2014. Oil accounted for 40%, Electricity about 18%, natural gas about 15%, Coal about
11%.

Coal: Global coal consumption fell by 1.8% compared historically. This was accounted by US
by a decline of 12.7%.China of 1.5%.India recorded an increase in coal dependence by about
5%.

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RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES (22ETC15E)

Oil: Global Oil consumption grewby 1.9 million barrels/day (nearly 1.9%) as compared to
historical data. US accounted for increase in 1.6%,, China about 6.5%. India about 8.1% with an
exception ofJapan which recorded a decline ofabout 4%.

Natural Gas: Global natural gas consumption grew by nearly 1.7%. lran accounted for 6.2%,
China about 4.7%, US about 3%.Meanwhile, few countries recorded largest volumetric decline
including Russia (5%) and Ukraine (21%).

Conclusion: Developed countries are consuming more energy with energy demand continuing to
grow strongly. Renewable sources will gain importance. and energy system will become more
complex rapidly. Energy efficiency is crucial in dealing with demand outstripping supply.
Investments should be huge with focus on the requirement of solid ecological arrangements.

Energy production and Reserves in India

India has a good resource of both commercial and non-commercial energy sources. The
commercial sources include fossil fuels, water power and nuclear power. The non-commercial
sources are fire wood and agricultural wastes.

Coal: The coal production in india in 1950 was about 35MT per year, which has increased to
about 220 MT/year in 1990, and 414 MT/year in 2006. Thus the production has increased by
about 12 times in a span of 50 years. India has a good reserve of coal. It is estimated that the
coking and non coking coal reserves together is about 84000 MT.

Oil: the production of crude oil in india in 1950 was about 0.25 MT, which increased to about 33
MT in 2003. The low production in fifties was due to non-discovery of proper crude resources.
However, it increased in late sixties due to crude oil discoveries in Assam and Gujarath. In
seventies it was further increased with better resources in the western coast of india. The present
day reserves of crude oil are estimated around 760 MT. It is believed that, an estimated reserves
of about 1000MT of crude is available both on the eastern and western coasts of india. 3. Natural
Gas: It is estimated that the useful natural gas reserves in indiaareabout 920 billion cubic metres
(2003 estimates), which are derived along withcrude oil. India is producing about 32 billion
cubic metres of natural gas per year. At this production rates, the Indian gas reserves may last
about 30 years.

Water Power: In India, a major contribution of the power generation comes from water power.
Initially, it was about 40 percent of the total power generation (1980). Now it has steadily
reduced, and is about 2.5% of the total power generated (by 2006). It is estimated that the total
water power reserve in our country are about 150000 Mw (2006), out of which only about 32000
MW water power is being utilised. That means only about one-fifth the potential of hydro power

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RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES (22ETC15E)

is utilized, and a large amount of hydro power is yet to be developed. Hence, about 80% of the
water power reserves are still available for use in India.

Nuclear Power: India has established its capability to design, build and operate nuclear power
plants on its own. It has come out its dependence for nuclear technology on the Russian and
Western countries. The present installed capacity of nuclear power plants is about 3300 MW, and
consists of two Boiling Water Reactors and twelve Pressurized Heavy Water Reactors. These
reactors contribute to about 3% of total power generated in the country. Eight more reactors, with
a total capacity of 3420 MW, are under construction at different parts of the country. The main
nuclear fuel is uranium and the estimated reserves of this fuel are about 60000 tonnes in India

Environmental aspects of energy utilization

Pollution:

Air: India is burning more fossil fuels and biomass than it has at any other time in the past.
Releasing more pollutants, including fine particulate matter and sulfur and nitrogen oxides, into
the air. Deteriorating air quality in growing urban centers is becoming an alarming issue for
India' Estimated that life expectancy, as a result, is reduced by 3.2 years for each person living in
these areas.

Land: Welfare of India's rural population is closely linked to the amount of land they have
available for productive use. Land acquisition for public or private enterprises wishing to build
infrastructure, from roads and railways to power plants and steel mills, is therefore an issue.
Legislative changes introduced in 2013 introduced stringent procedural requirements for land
acquisition.
Some of the measures include
❖ Defining compensation payments and
❖ Rehabilitation and resettlement benefits
❖ Need to secure the consent of 80% of affected families in the case of land acquisition (70%
for acquisitions by public private Partnerships)

Water: High rates of population and economic growth, along with highly inefficient patterns of
water use in the agricultural sector, are putting severe strain on India’s water resources. With
renewable water resources of some 1,130 cubic metres per capita in 2013, India has now passed
the defined threshold for “water stress” (1700 cubic metres per capita). This has major
implications for the energy sector: more than 70% of India’s power plants, for example, are
located in areas that are water stressed or water scarce (WRI, 2014) and India’s warm
temperatures and the poor quality coal used in the bulk of its power plants add to their cooling
requirements.

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RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES (22ETC15E)

Global climate change could exacerbate these stresses. Around 90% of India’s water withdrawal
is for use in agriculture and livestock, often extracted by tube wells powered from the grid and
drawing from groundwater reserves. Subsidized electricity tariffs for agricultural users and a lack
of metering have led to hugely inefficient consumption of both electricity and water. In 2010,
more water was withdrawn in India for agricultural use alone than for all purposes in China. A
number of national and state-level initiatives have sought to encourage more efficient water use,
via metering, tariff reform (linked to more reliable supply) and changes to agricultural practices.

Plans to introduce more efficient equipment, including solar powered groundwater pumps, while
relieving some pressures on the grid, could reduce incentives for water conservation unless they
are accompanied by the introduction of systems that use water more efficiently, such as drip
irrigation networks.

Carbon-dioxide emissions: India’s CO2 emissions can be seen through two lenses. Calculated
on a per-capita basis, emissions are extremely low, standing at just one-quarter of China’s and the
European Union’s and one-tenth the level in the United States (Figure 1.8), while India also
accounts for only a small share of cumulative historical GHG emissions. On the other hand,
India is the third-largest country in volume terms of CO2 emissions in the world, behind only
China and the United States. Heavy dependence on coal for power generation and the use of
inefficient subcritical plants to burn it push up the carbon intensity of India’s power sector to 791
programmers of carbon dioxide per kilowatt-hour (g CO2/kWh), compared to a world average of
522 g CO2/kWh.

RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCE PRODUCTION & RESERVE

These sources include wind energy, solar energy, biomass and biofuel, small hydro
resources,geothermal energyetc. The mankind’s have started the use of these sources recently,
hence they are known as non- conventional energy sources.
The share of these sources in the world's electricity generation is around 3% in2011. The use of
wind power is increasing at an annual rate of 20% with a worldwide installed capacityof 238,000
MW at the end of 2011, and is widelyused in Europe, Asia, and the UnitedStates. Since 2004,
photovoltaic’s passed. Wind as the fastest growing energy source, and since 2007 has more than
doubled every two years. At the end of 2011 the photovoltaic (PV) capacity worldwide was
67,000 MW, and PV powerstations are popular in Germany and Italy. Solar thermal power
stations operate in the USA and Spain, and the largest of these is the 354MW SEGS power plant
in the Mojave Desert. The world's largest geothermal power installation is the Geysers in
California; with aerated capacity of 750 MW Brazil has one of the largest renewable energy
programs in the world, involving production of ethanol fuel from sugarcane, and ethanol now
provide 18% of the country’s automotive fuel. Ethanol fuel is also widely available in the USA.

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RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES (22ETC15E)

India’s non-conventional sources

Grid based: As of June 2011, the Government of India was successful in deploying a total of
2051.05 MWcapacityof grid based renewable energy 14550.68 MWof which was from wind
power, 3105.63 MW from small hydro power, 1742.53 MW from bagasse cogeneration, 1045.10
MWfrombiomasspower, 39.66 MWfromsolarpower(SPV), and the rest from waste to power.

Off-grid: As of June 2011, the total deployment total deployment of off-grid based renewable
energy capacity was 601.23 MW Of these, biomass (non-bagasse) cogeneration consisted of
316.76 MW, biomass gasifier was 133.63 MW; waste to energy was 73.72 MW. SPV
systems(less than 1 kW) capacity was 69 MW, and the rest from micro-hydro and wind power.
As was the case for the world, in India also, wind energy is the main contributor. India has the
fifth largest installed wind power capacity in the world. In 2011, wind power accounted for 6%
of India's total installed power capacity, and 1.6% of the country's power output. Suzlon is the
leading Indian company, in wind power, with an installed generation capacity of 6.2 GW in
India.

RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES

A plenty of energy is needed to sustain industrial growth and agricultural production. The
existing sources of energy such as coal, oil, uranium etc. may not be adequate to meet the ever
increasing energy demands. These conventional sources of energy are also depleting and may be
exhausted at the end of the century or beginning of the next century. Consequently sincere and
untiring efforts shall have to be made by the scientists and engineers in exploring the possibilities
of harnessing energy from several nonconventional energy sources.

The various non-conventional energy sources are as follows:

1. Solar energy
2. Wind energy
3. Energy from biomass and biogas
4. Ocean thermal energy conversion
5. Tidal energy
6. Geothermal energy
7. Hydrogen energy
8. Fuel cells
9. Magneto-hydro-dynamic generator
10. Thermionic converter
11. Thermo-electric power.

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RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES (22ETC15E)

Application

Rural residential and community lighting, TV, radio and telephony:

Over 50 million households are served by small-hydro village-scale mini-grids.

10 million households get lighting from biogas.
1.1million households have solar PV home systems or solar lanterns.
10,000 households are served by solar, wind and diesel hybrid mini grids.
There are 200k household wind generators in China.

Rural small industry, agriculture, and other productive uses: Up to 1 million water pumps
are driven by wind turbines, and over 20,000 water pumps are powered by solar PV.
Up to 60,000 small enterprises are powered by small-hydro village-scale mini-grids.
Thousands of communities receive drinking water from solar PV powered purifiers and pumps.

Grid-based bulk power: 48,000 MW installed capacity produces 130,000 GWh per year
(mostly small hydro and biomass, with some geothermal and wind).
More than 25 countries have regulatory frameworks for independent power producers.

Residential and commercial cooking and hot water: 220 million households have more
efficient biomass stoves. 10 million households have solar hot water systems. 800,000
households have solar cookers.

Transport fuels: 14 billion liters per year ethanol vehicle fuel is produced from biomass. 180
million people live in countries mandating mixing of ethanol with gasoline.

Economics of renewable energy system

In 2011, the global investment in renewable power and fuels increased to a new record.
Significantly, developing economies made up 35% of this total investment. In addition, the
whole period 2004-2017 has witnessed a remarkable increase in investments in renewables,
either in different sectors, or for different technologies, in different countries with different
economic systems, as illustrated in the following figures. However, recent years have seen
investments in renewable energy in the power sector stagnate. Yet, renewable power generation
capacity continued to be installed at record pace mainly thanks to continuously falling
technology costs. Notable trends for 2018 were that investments continued to be geographically
more widely spread, with 29 countries now recording USD 1bn or more in investments (25
countries in 2017), and an additional 14 countries exceeding USD 500m. 2018 also marked the

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RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES (22ETC15E)

fourth year in a row, where investments in developing countries were higher than in developed
countries.

Barriers for renewable energy

Renewable energy technologies (RETs) continue to face a number of barriers. However, the
major challenge is mainly economic, as the issue of renewable energy technologies' costs is vital
and central for the prediction of how rapidly the current energy transition will be taking place.
The costs include: infrastructure investment, day-to-day operations, market costs of supply and
the environmental costs of the different energy sources

Therefore, the debate remains mainly focused on the economic and financial perspectives,
particularly on the cost-effectiveness of renewable energy technologies, and the possible various
economic incentives to promote renewables globally in terms of: regulatory design and
affordability

While by 2014 the world was getting about 80% of its electricity supplies from fossil fuels, that
percentage has gone down 3.5-4% only within 3-4 years. In 2017/18 fossil fuels contributed
approximately 76.5% to the global electricity supply, reflecting the rise in the global renewables'
market

The cost advantage that fossil fuels used to have over renewable energy sources has been
decreasing recently, with some renewable technologies (Solar PV, wind, hydropower) already
competing fossil fuels directly on the financial frontier. Furthermore, renewables' costs are
expected to decline even further, and those of fossil fuels will incline. The following two figures
show that -while on one hand- the oil prices are on the rise during the 2000s, on the other hand,
investments in renewables are on the rise during the same period, thus reflecting its
competitiveness against oil in recent years.

References:

1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_energy_resources
2) https://www.iea.org/reports/world-energy-outlook-2022
3) https://www.investindia.gov.in/sector/renewable-energ
4) https://www.eea.europa.eu/

Mangalore Institute of Technology & Engineering Department of Mechanical Engineering