Amulya K. N. Reddy

Barriers to Improvements in Energy Efficiency

The growing recognition of the potential energy savings available through improvements in energy efficiency has sparked an increased interest in the actors involved in implementing these improvements and the barriers that they can encounter. This paper identifies these actors and creates a topology for the various barriers that hinder their efforts to achieve better energy efficiencies at the very lowest level of the energy consumer to the very highest level of the global financial agencies. The analysis concludes that four essential factors will help facilitate the dissemination of energy-efficiency improvements: relying on combinations of measures for overcoming each barrier to energy efficiency; using combinations of measures at the strategic level; employing policy-assisted, market-oriented mechanisms and promoting technological innovation as a means for achieving improved energy efficiency.

An Ellipsometric Determination of the Mechanism of Passivity of Nickel

The capacity of nickel in acid solution have been followed by means of ellipsometry under conditions of potentiostatic control of the material at various points in the passivation current-potential diagrams and also with automated equipment which allows the recording of the ellipsometer reading under transient conditions. It is found possible to evaluate the refractive index, thickness, and light adsorption of the film at all parts of the process. The film begins to form at the first inflection on the current-potential diagram, but after the current reaches its maximum point, it does not change further in thickness. When the current begins to descend, there is a parallel rapid increase in the electronic conductivity of the film. Passivation arises from a critical increase in semiconduction of the film on the surface. The increase in electronic conductivity reduces the field available for the encouragement of anodic dissolution and transport through the film. Hence, dissolution ceases, i.e., passivity, occurs.

Substitution of energy carriers for cooking in Bangalore

An empirical study of energy carriers used for cooking in Bangalore reveals that with increases in income, firewood and charcoal give way to kerosene which in turn is displaced by LPG and electricity. This carrier substitution process can be modeled as an income-dependent competition between two technologies for adoption by the households. The carrier shifts for cooking have provided an empirical basis for the energy ladder concept, in which each step of the ladder corresponds to a different energy carrier and its associated appliance and the step up to which a household climbs the ladder depends upon its income. As society becomes more egalitarian, an energy ladder based on incomes should disappear. Thus, the real merit of the empirical and theoretical analysis of energy ladders presented here is that it serves as an excellent guide to policy formulation and intervention.

Rural energy consumption patterns - A field study

This paper is a condensed version of the final report of a detailed field study of rural energy consumption patterns in six villages located west of Bangalore in the dry belt of Karnataka State in India. The study was carried out in two phases; first, a pilot study of four villages and second, the detailed study of six villages, the populations of which varied from around 350 to about 950. The pilot survey ended in late 1976, and most of the data was collected for the main project in 1977. Processing of the collected data was completed in 1980. n nThe aim was to carry out a census survey, rather than a sample study. Hence, considerable effort was expended in production of both a suitable questionnaire, ensuring that all respondents were contacted, and devising methods which would accurately reflect the actual energy use in various energy-utilising activities. In the end, 560 households out of 578 (97%) were surveyed. The following ranking was found for the various energy sources in order of average percentage contribution to the annual total energy requirement: firewood, 81A·6%; human energy, 7A·7%; animal energy, 2A·7%; kerosene, 2A·1%; electricity, 0A·6% and all other sources (rice husks, agro-wastes, coal and diesel fuel), 5A·3%. In other words commercial fuels made only a small contribution to the overall energy use. It should be noted that dung cakes are not burned in this region. The average energy use pattern, sector by sector, again on a percentage basis, was as follows: domestic, 88A·3%; industry, 4A·7%; agriculture, 4A·3%; lighting, 2A·2% and transport, 0A·5%. The total annual per capita energy consumption was 12A·6 A± 1A·2 GJ, giving an average annual household consumption of around 78A·6 GJ.

An Indian village agricultural ecosystem- case study of Ungra village, Part II: Discussion

The observations reported in Part I of this paper are discussed in detail here. It has been argued that the agricultural village of Ungra is an open, dependent, land-humans-livestock ecosystem. Simple expressions have been derived for the carrying capacity of the ecosystem with respect to cereal crops, the pasture land-crop land ratio, the number of draught animal pairs, the human to draught-animal pair ratio and the human to cattle ratio. The agreement between the calculated and observed parameters has been taken as evidence that there is a rationale underlying the ecosystem. The energy aspects of the ecosystem, in particular draught power, and cooking fuel, have been discussed in terms of enhancing the productivity and/or self-sufficiency of the ecosystem. Some of the important limitations of the study have been identified in order to indicate the directions of recent work. It has been concluded that an understanding of the logic of village agricultural ecosystems should be the basis of rural development.

Energy for the new millennium.

Abstract The evolution of thinking about energy is discussed. When the authors began collaborating 20 years ago, energy was typically considered from a growth-oriented, supply-side perspective, with a focus on consumption trends and how to expand supplies to meet rising demand. They were deeply troubled by the environmental, security and equity implications of that approach. For instance, about two billion people lack access to affordable modern energy, seriously limiting their opportunities for a better life. And energy is a significant contributor to environmental problems, including indoor air pollution, urban air pollution, acidification, and global warming. The authors saw the need to evolve a different perspective in which energy is provided in ways that help solve such serious problems. They argued that energy must become an instrument for advancing sustainable development—economically viable, need-oriented, self-reliant and environmentally sound development—and that the focus should be on the end uses of energy and the services that energy provides. Energy technological options that can help meet sustainable development goals are discussed. The necessity of developing and employing innovative technological solutions is stressed. The possibilities of technological leap-frogging that could enable developing countries to avoid repeating the mistakes of the industrialized countries is illustrated with a discussion of ethanol in Brazil. The role foreign direct investment might play in bringing advanced technologies to developing countries is highlighted. Near- and long-term strategies for rural energy are discussed. Finally, policy issues are considered for evolving the energy system so that it will be consistent with and supportive of sustainable development.

An Indian village agricultural ecosystem- case study of Ungra village, Part I: Main observations

Abstract The South Indian agricultural village of Ungra (population-932, households-149, total area-360·2 ha) has been studied as an ecosystem, with special emphasis on the production of biomass and its utilisation by humans and livestock. Following a description of the methodology used, this first part of the paper reports the main results of the ecosystem study. In particular, a quantitative report is given of the land use and cropping patterns, the above-ground plant biomass productivities, the disaggregation of the plant biomass into various components, the utilisation of these components, the food consumption by human beings and livestock, the materials and energy flow through the ecosystem, and its imports and exports.

The design of rural energy centres

Need-oriented, self-reliant and environmentally-sound development demands that the design of rural energy centres proceeds step-wises from energy consumption patterns to energy needs to technological options to selection of energy sources and devices to integration of these sources and devices into a system. The procedure is illustrated with Pura village as a concrete example. There is first a description of Pura’s energy consumption pattern, and its energy needs and energy resources. In the absence of a rigorous methodology for solving the fundamental problem of designing rural energy centres,viz., given the energy resources and requirements, what is the optimum way of harnessingi energy sources with the aid ofj devices to achievek energy-requiring tasks?, a heuristic approach based on second law efficiencies is used. The result is a design for a rural energy centre for Pura. The first phase of such a centre involves a community-scale biogas plant to meet the energy needs of cooking, domestic electric illumination, and pumping domestic water, in addition to providing organic fertiliser and producing rice husk ash cement. The Pura exercise is used to formulate several principles of rural energy system integration,viz., mixing, cascading and combining of sources, spatial task integration and time-sharing. Finally, the general problem of designing rural energy centres is mathematically formulated. The formulation highlights important data gaps which must be filled before rigorous rural energy system designing can be achieved.

The Electrified Interface

The situation inside an electrolyte—the ionic aspect of electrochemistry—has been considered in the first volume. The basic phenomena involve ion-solvent interactions (Chapter 2), ion-ion interactions (Chapter 3), and the random walk of ions, which becomes a drift in a preferred direction under the influence of a concentration or a potential gradient (Chapter 4). In what way is the situation at the electrode-electrolyte interface any different from that in the bulk of the electrolyte? To answer this question, one must treat quiescent (equilibrium) and active (nonequilibrium) interfaces, the structural and electrical characteristics of the interface, the rates and mechanism of change-over from ionic to electronic conduction, etc. In short, one is led into electrodics, the newest and most exciting part of electrochemistry.

Studies in biogas technology. Part IV. A novel biogas plant incorporating a solar water-heater and solar still

A reduction in the heat losses from the top of the gas holder of a biogas plant has been achieved by the simple device of a transparent cover. The heat losses thus prevented have been deployed to heat a water pond formed on the roof of the gas holder. This solar-heated water is mixed with the organic input for ‘ hot-charging ’ of the biogas plant.A thermal analysis of such a solar water-heater ‘ piggy-backing ’ on the gas holder of a biogas plant has been carried out.To test whether the advantages indicated by the thermal analysis can be realised in practice, a biogas plant of the ASTRA design was modified to incorporate a roof-top solar water-heater. The operation of such a modified plant, even under ‘ worst case ’ onditions, shows a significant improvement in the gas yield compared to the unmodified plant. Hence, the innovation reported here may lead to drastic reductions in the sizes and therefore costs of biogas plants.By making the transparent cover assume a tent-shape, the roof-top solar heater can serve the additional function of a solar still to yield distilled water.The biogas plant-cum-solar water-heater-cum-solar still described here is an example of a spatially integrated hybrid device which is extremely cost-effective.