Report - Switch on, smoke off: Reducing emissions from diesel generator sets

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Op-Ed - How to build a battery big enough to solve the world’s energy problems

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Op-Ed - This disaster relief nonprofit is pioneering a clean energy alternative to noisy, polluting generators

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Journal Article - Evaluating alternative technologies to diesel generation in India using multi-criteria decision analysis

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Pollution Masks in Kathmandu

Only 10 years ago, donning a face-mask in Kathmandu meant a few odd things—you were a doctor, an invalid or just fussy. But in that short decade, face-masks have gone from quirky accessories to vital appendages. Today, everyone—pedestrians, motorists and cyclists—are covering their faces against life threatening airborne particulates. Increasingly, living in Kathmandu has also meant constantly struggling to keep it out of your lungs. The deteriorating air quality inside the Valley, due to a host of reasons—ranging from vehicular emissions to industrial fumes and forest fires—have increased the health risk associated with regular exposure to dangerous levels of air pollution. In turn, it has also given seed to a thriving market for face-masks that promise to keep its users safe. But how effective are they? “Masks are no longer an option but has become compulsory in current day Kathmandu,” says Sailendra Dongol, who commutes the city on his bicycle. 

An active member of the Kathmandu Cycle City (KCC), a group of cycling enthusiasts aiming to make Kathmandu an environment-friendly cycle city by 2020, Dongol believes that cyclist are particularly susceptible to prolonged exposure to Kathmandu’s air. Earlier this year, having tried several anti-pollution masks available in the market, Dongol finally settled on the newly-launched Totobobo mask. Now six months and hundreds of grey filters later, he finally believes he has found a mask that protects him from harmful pollutants, particularly PM 2.5 and PM 10. The Singapore-manufactured Totobobo masks are made from silicon and rubber and are advertised as being ‘leak-proof’. They have two valves placed with interchangeable, activated charcoal filters in each valve, and can be changed depending on the need and desired level of protection. 

The face-mask with ‘N92’ designated filters means that they can block at least 92 percent of very small particles when properly fitted, while the N96 is effective in filtering 96 percent of the small fine particles and microbial agents that otherwise easily pass through the normal cloth and surgical mask commonly in use in the city. According to Nelson Labs, an independent testing centre in the US, “N95 respirators are used to filter contaminants such as dust, fumes, mists, as well as microbial agents including tuberculosis bacteria and flu virus. They are certified to filter greater than or equal to 95 percent of all challenged particles free of oil and greater than 0.3 microns in size, much smaller than the PM2.5 microns, the key pollutants that can directly enter inside the lungs.” The Nelson Labs has certified Totobobo with 99.85 percent effectiveness.

Read the full article @ Kathmandu Post

Unique - A Horse Carriage with Air Conditioner in Kolkata

In a city where tram employees turned a ramshackle Raj-era relic into a cool ride, here's another doit-yourself innovation that's uber-cool — an air conditioned horse carriage.

The DIY guy is Sujit Sil, who owns six horse carriages and let his imagination gallop wild one particularly sultry and sweaty day . "I am always game for doing something unique. I wanted to ramp up the decor of my coaches with intricate wooden work, like the ones you see in Varanasi and Lucknow. During my research I came across coaches in England and Switzerland," he told TOI. The Queen has one. Why shouldn't the former Raj capital have one, too? 

Sil scoured the city and found a craftsman to transform his coach, a Victorian-legacy , into a "royal landau carrier", fitted with a 0.75-tonne air conditioner. Turning an open carriage into an insulated, see-through coach wasn't easy, of course. Sil charges Rs 10,000-15,000 a night depending on the distance. He has to factor in the cost of a diesel generator and maintenance of the landau and AC.

Read the full article @ the Times of India

Power Consumption Peaking in Delhi Due to Heat

The city is battling the scorching sun with residents staying indoors and switching on the air-conditioners. It is just mid-April, but power consumption in the Capital has already crossed the 4,300 MW mark.

List of Power Plants Supporting Delhi

Outages have already started in residential areas with many people saying they were not informed about the power cuts. If the heat and power demand keep surging at this rate, experts say that peak demand may cross 6,000 MW by June or July. The highest power demand Delhi has met was 5,925 MW on July 15, 2014.

With this, the Capital became one of the largest consumers of electricity, surpassing the demand of all North-East States put together, besides Mumbai, Kolkata, Bihar and Odisha.

“The highest power demand this season was 4,343 MW at 3:20 p.m. on Saturday, which at 42 degrees Celsius has been the hottest day of this year so far. On Sunday, the demand was 4,170 MW,” said a power official.

Diesel Generators Power 60% of Cell-Phone Towers in India !!

Some areas, in fact, saw power cuts that stretched for over four hours. “Last year, people were informed at least a day before a scheduled outage. We ourselves could track the same on websites of the State load despatch centre and discoms. But now, we can only see the outages that have already happened,” said Vivek Khanna, a resident of Mayapuri, which saw a power outage of two hours due to a “breakdown” in the area’s distribution network.

Health Burden of Air Pollution from Coal-Fired Power Plants in India

Areas that saw power cuts over the weekend include Shiv Vihar, Tagore Garden, Ambedkar Nagar, Janakpuri, Panchsheel Park and Madhu Vihar, among others. Shiv Vihar faced the longest power of four hours. While discoms maintained that there was no power cut due to shortage of electricity, they said that on many occasions outages occur due to repair work or breakdowns due to excessive load.

What's Polluting Delhi's Air?

The city, meanwhile, is likely to get some respite with a dust storm and thunderstorm in the forecast for Monday - see the forecasts @ www.indiaairquality.info

Ten Things About Power in India (BBC)

As India copes with a massive power breakdown for a second successive day, some interesting facts about the country's power situation to chew on:

• India has an installed capacity of more than 170,000 megawatts, up from a mere 1,362 megawatts at the time of Independence in 1947

• The majority (around 60%) is generated from coal and lignite, while just under a quarter (about 22%) is hydro-electric

• Despite its soaring energy needs, India has one of the lowest per capita rates of consumption of power in the world - 734 units as compared to a world average of 2,429 units. This is nothing compared with say, Canada, (18,347 units) and the US (13,647 units). China's per capita consumption (2,456 units) is more than three times that of India.

• The low per capita consumption is despite the fact that the power sector has been growing at more than 7% every year.
• Homes and farms are consuming more power today than industries and businesses. Industrial consumption has actually dropped from 61.6% in 1970-71 to 38% in 2008-2009.

• India has suffered consistent power shortages since Independence in 1947. Peak demand shortage is more than 10%, whereas the overall energy shortage is more than 7%.

• Sixty-five years after Independence, only nine states - Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Goa, Delhi, Haryana, Kerala, Punjab and Tamil Nadu - of 28 have been officially declared totally electrified.

• India remains perennially energy starved despite 15% or more of federal funds being allocated to the power sector. Bankrupt state-run electricity boards, an acute shortage of coal, skewed subsidises which end up benefiting rich farmers, power theft, and under-performing private distribution agencies are to blame, say experts. There is no shortage of money, and the problem, as the Planning Commission admits, is more "in the delivery process [than] in the system".

• Transmission and distribution losses have leapt from 22% in 1995-96 to about 25.6% in 2009-2010. The states with the worst losses are Indian-administered Kashmir, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh. The best performers: Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

• India's first power generation company was the private Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation (CESC) started in 1899. The first diesel power plant was set up in Delhi in 1905. The first hydro-electric power station was set up in Mysore in 1902. At the time of Independence, about 60% of India's power sector was privately owned. Today, about 80% of the installed capacity is in the hands of the government. Private companies own 12% of the capacity.

Emissions Inventory for Pune

Annual emissions for the base year 2010 are estimated at ~36,600 tons of PM10, ~16,600 tons of PM2.5, ~3,600 tons of SO2, ~127,500 of NOx, ~438,000 tons of CO, and ~13.4 million tons of CO2.



DOM = domestic; TR = transport; RD = road dust; WB = waste burning; CON = construction; QR = quarries; BK = brick kilns; GS+IND = generator sets and industries




Gridded vehicular emissions inventory for PM2.5 is presented below.



For full details, visit the SIM-air Working Papers Series.

Air Pollution Sources in Pune, India

A recent study has shown that brick kilns, stone quarries and diesel generators contribute to a city's pollution level in a major way. Even though kilns and quarries are located on the outskirts, the pollution travels towards the city. Article published in Times of India (Pune) on December 29th, 2011



The study 'Urban air pollution and co-benefits analysis in India' was carried out in six cities, including Pune, in 2011. Conducted by New Delhi-based independent research group UrbanEmission.Info, the aim of the study was to better understand sources of air pollution.

In case of pollutant particulate matter PM 10 (10 micrometre or less in size) in the city, it was found that around 47% of PM 10 is contributed from road dust, nearly 17% from vehicles, close to 13% each from brick kilns and rural bio-mass cooking/ kerosene use and almost 7% from generators and industry. In case of PM 10, all six cities exceed the annual ambient standard of 60 ug/ m3 (micrograms per cubic metre).
The study was initiated with support from the Climate Works Foundation (USA) and the Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation (New Delhi). The research group used the SIM-Air (Simple Interactive Models for better Air quality) family of tools for the study. The tools help establish a multi-pollutant emissions inventory and involve rapid assessment.

Sarath Guttikunda, founder of UrbanEmissions.Info and developer of the SIM-Air family of tools, who was in the city recently to deliver a talk organised by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), said that a majority of the 400 brick kilns located in the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) areas add to the pollution level in Pune city and that the central parts of Pune city are the most polluted. There is use of light- and heavy-duty vehicles in and around the brick kilns too adds to pollution.

"Diesel generators sets used in hotel, apartments, hospitals and markets is a new source contributing to pollution. Diesel generator sets are a common sight in most parts of the six cities and are a significant source of pollutant emissions and green house gas emissions,'' he said.

Guttikunda, who is also an affiliate associate research professor at the Desert Research Institute, Reno, USA, pointed out that the pollution from fossil and bio-mass fuel usage at brick kilns is a growing problem in most cities. Burning of fossil and biomass fuels releases significant amounts of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and particulate matter. These emissions have an immediate affect on the ambient air and human health.



In Pune, most of the brick baking is conducted as a pile with no chimney to support to movement of the burning emissions, whereas in Chennai, the same process is supported with a chimney, which allows for release of emissions at a higher altitude, the study states.

Besides the brick kilns, stone quarries are a common sight in these cities. At one stone quarry area in Pune, it was observed that on a daily basis around 500 truckloads of stone, black boulders and murum are extracted and transported to various parts of the district and the state. The health risks associated with constant exposure to the dust particles in these areas is under study. Also, quarry locations account for the re-suspension of dust due to crushing and handling of rock and emissions from the truck movement and use of diesel generators, he said.

The study with recommendation for the city is now submitted to the PMC. PMC's environment officer Mangesh Dighe said he has received the study and will now look into the recommendations as well as the model.

Panasonic Introduces Efficient Air-Conditioners in India

today..
From Mr. Lalloobhoy Battliwala

Looks like Panasonic introduced a new air-conditioner in the Indian market. It's supposed to be more efficient and I suspect the 'inverter' means it probably has a battery in there to cope with short outages. Since many Indian rich also have their generators - because of outages - distributed generation is already a fact of life. And given the inefficiencies in the Indian power network, and the availability of pilfered kerosene at low prices, running high-efficiency air-conditioners on own generators looks like a winner.

And a perfect solution for rural electrification (farmhouses of the rich). Even solar PV.

Diesel Generators Power 60% of Cell-Phone Towers in India !!

Link to the article on February 9th, 2011 in Mail Today India.

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Diesel- guzzling cell phone towers are green demons
By Mail Today Science Bureau in New Delhi

THE much- celebrated mobile phone boom is taking a heavy toll on the country’s environment. As much as 200 crore litres of diesel are burnt and thousands of tonnes of carbon emitted every year to power mobile telephony towers spread all over the country to keep you connected.

Waking up to this environmentally unfriendly side of the phone industry, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has initiated a consultation process to help the sector go green. Telecom towers and base stations form the backbone of any network.

India has around 3.1 lakh towers, of which 70 percent are located in rural areas where gridconnected electricity is not available. As a result, 60 percent of the towers are powered by diesel generators which produce a total of 5.3 million litres of carbon dioxide every year. The total carbon emission is estimated to be around 5 million tonnes due to diesel consumption and 8 million tonnes due to power grid connected towers.

Telecom companies spend about ` 300 crore every month on diesel. Towers and related equipment such as base stations and backhaul equipment account for the bulk of the power consumption for any telecom operator.

The tower sites consume 65 percent energy, while the core network accounts for 21 percent. The use of renewable sources of energy such as solar and biomass, better network planning and sharing of infrastructure by different operators could substantially reduce the carbon footprint of the industry, TRAI has suggested in a consultation paper.

The move from diesel to solar and other alternate sources of energy will result in a reduction of 5 million tonnes of carbon emission as well as a savings of $ 1.4 billion ( ` 6,350 crore) in operating expenses for telecom tower companies, the paper says.

The regulator has suggested a system of carbon credits for the telecom sector. It says moving to renewable energy sources could generate millions of carbon credits that could offset operational costs on the towers.

However, environment action group Greenpeace feels that the approach suggested by the telecom regulator is flawed. “ In the absence of emission assessments and standards, the promotion of false solutions like carbon credit and offsetting is designed to retard the sector’s inclination to undertake measures to mitigate emissions,” said Mrinmoy Chattaraj of Greenpeace. Before initiating a carbon credit policy, telecom companies should be made to declare their greenhouse gas emissions.