Greening of wastelands: Renewables: for energy security and autonomy:

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Greening of wastelands:

It is proposed to carryout the programme of greening of wastelands encompassing three components:

1/ Exchange on innovative experiences from farmers in semi arid conditions in Rajasthan and exchange of information with Mali and more generally with the Sahara and Sahel Observatory based in Tunis.

Part 1. Exchange on innovative experiences from farmers in semi arid conditions in Rajasthan and <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Mali and more generally with the Sahara and Sahel Observatory based in Tunis.

There are many innovative experiences in semi arid conditions but ,most of them are not very well known. There are also failures which can tell what not to do or how to do it differently.

From academic side there has been also interesting work done which deserves to become more accessible for users and for decentralized cooperation for instance between communities, cities and localities. As a first step the participants propose to set a net work and to put the information on a website.

To become a member of this network participants must propose at least one of preferably more interesting proposal likely to be useful for farmers and or for decentralized cooperation..

Hereafter are some suggestions:

Local veterinary medicinal plants for livestock ( University of Rajasthan)
Information about fruit or forage trees like She Nut, Yeheb, Prosopis cinerera etc..;
Use of plants to improve health such as alfalfa given to children …(Mrs Beena Mathur in Jaipur)
Opuntia inerma for forage and honey production
Halophytes (like Salsola, Atriplex Haloxylon ) to produce additional fodder to increase milk production etc.

SPRI , INRA , OSS will submit a first set of proposal

2/ Protein and Energy production for livestock in semi arid conditions

Part 2: Protein and Energy production for livestock in semi arid conditions

Milk and meat production could be increased very much by having a better diet for animal, in particular during the dry season. This requires higher yield in protein and energy production.

To increase yields it is generally necessary to first increase organic content of soils either by adding manure or by introduction nitrogen fixing species.

These plants may be used directly as fodder or indirectly through processing and optimal combination of different raw material in plants producing feed for animals.

Amongst the species which should be tried and compared are

Niebé in Africa
Luzerne or alfalfa, clover
Moringa, Stylosantus hameta, Yeheb
Amaranthus ( which is not a nitrogen fixing species but which produces high amounts of protein per hectare ( to be specified )
Wild sunflower etc…

3/ Bioenergy production in semi arid conditions, in particular from Jatropha curcas and Calotropis procera.

Part 3: Bioenergy production in semi arid conditions,

in particular from Jatropha

Some agriculture waste material can be used either for fodder or for bioenergy after specific conditioning in the form of pellet or briquette from grass and shrubs (Elephant grass, Wild sunflower, etc…)

Annual house hold energy consumption in India:

S No	Fuel type	Physical Units			MTOE
		Rural	Urban	Total	Rural	Urban	Total
1	Firewood and chips (Mt)	158.87	18.08	176.95	71.49	8.13	76.62
2.	Electricity (BkWh)	40.76	57.26	98.02	3.51	4.92	8.43
3.	Dung cake (Mt)	132.95	8.03	140.98	27.92	1.69	29.61
4.	Kerosene (ML)	7.38	4.51	11.89	6.25	3.82	10.07
5.	Coal (Mt)	1.20	1.54	2.74	0.49	0.63	1.12
6.	LPG (Mt)	1.25	4.43	5.68	1.41	5.00	6.41
	Total

National Sample survey Organisation, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Govt of India. (NSS July 1999-June 2000).

All India installed generating capacity:

S.No	Energy Source	Installed capacity (MW)	Percentage of total mix (%)
1.	Coal	76298.88	52.78
2.	Gas	14716.01	10.18
3.	Diesel	1201.75	0.83
4.	Hydro	36033.76	24.93
5.	Nuclear	4120	2.95
6.	Renewables	12194.57	8.44
7.	Total	144564.97	100.00

(Data as on 31^st March 2008 Source: www.cea.nic.in)

Renewable Energy sources (RES) include small hydro project, Biomass, Gasifier, Biomass power, urban and Industrial water power and wind energy.

30 percent of the primary energy consumption in India still comes from non-commercial energy sources like firewood, agricultural waste and dung cakes. In 2000, the primary source of cooking energy was firewood and woodchips or dung cakes for 86 percent of rural household. In urban areas as well more than 20 percent of all households rely mainly on firewood and chips. Only 5 percent of the households in rural areas and 44 percent in urban areas used LPG, Kerosene is used by 22 percent of urban households and only 2.7 percent of rural households.

In the country side Jatropha may be a good candidate for producing straight vegetable oil which could used in the country side in local indian engines.

But long term engine experiences with such liquid biofuel are still lacking . SPRI will try to get more information on this issues in India

Jatropha may give different yields according to agronomical treatment ( irrigation fertilizing eztc..) But from an economical point of view these yields deserves to be compared to other options and other crops.

In particular irrigation and fertilizing may appear to be appropriate only if the oilcake can be valorized as fodder for animals . This requires a proper detoxification which is not possible to today but which may become feasible in the future .

The total installed capacity as on 30.04.08 is given in the following table:

1. Total installed capacity	MW (mega watt)	Percentage
Fuel:	MW (mega watt)	Percentage
Total Thermal	92,156.84	64.6
Hydro	35,908.76	24.7
Nuclear	4,120.00	2.9
Renewable	11125.41	7.7
Total	1.43,311.01	100.00
2. Rural electrification
No of villages (Census 1991)	593,732
Villages electrified	488,169
Electrification % age	82.2 %
3. Overall electrification (REC Annual report.
Household electrified	60.18 million (43.5%)
Household yet to be electrified	78.09 million (56.5%)
Total number of household	138.27 million.
Source:www.powermin.nic.in	RES=Renewable Energy Sources include: Small hydro, biomass, gasifier, biomass power, urban and industrial water power and wind energy.

State wise installed power capacity: MW (mega watt):

State	Area	Thermal	Nuclear	Renewable	Total installed power capacity.
Maharastra		13692.28	852.06	5276	19820.40
Andhra Pradesh		7632.38	37.41	4199.78	12163.57
Karnataka		3757.09	199.90	4987.34	9229.33
Tamil Nadu		6925.37	657.39	6220.35	14697.11
Gujarat		8596.89	825.00	2008.20	11430.09
Utter Pradesh		7294.47	203.72	1836.47	9334.66
Madhya Pradesh		4312.51	92.88	3483.86	7889.27
Rajasthan		3774.03	469.00	2042.92	6285.95
Uttarakhand		301.05	16.28	2060.90	2378.23
Bihar		1846.59	0.0	123.40	1969.99
Meghalya		28.05	0.0	260.03	288.08
Tripura		165.35	0.0	78.01	243.36
Andaman and Nicobar		60.05	0.0	5.35	65.40

There is huge shortage of electricity in India at the moment coupled with very limited access to electricity especially in rural areas. The Planning commissions Integrated Energy Policy report makes the following projection (assuming an annual national growth rate of 8.0 % ) for electricity demand in India for the coming years.

Projections for electricity demand at 8 percent growth rate:

Year	Power (billion kWh)	Peak demand(GW)	Installed capacity (GW).
2006	761	1-8	153
2011	1097	158	220
2016	1524	226	306
2021	2118	323	425
2026	2866	437	575
2031	3880	592	778

Various possible scenario have been worked out for supplying the amount of electricity forecast to be required. Thermal power is still expected to supply the major bulk of the power, thereby greatly increasing fuel requirement. Fuel requirement for future electricity generation as per one scenario with 8 % annual growth rate are shown below:

Scenerio for future electicity generation at 8 % annual growth rate:

Year	Electricity generation (Billion kWh)	Amount supplied by thermal power ( based on coal, natural gas and oil in Billion kWh	Fuel requirements: Coal (MT)	Natural Gas (BCM)	Oil (MT)*
2003	592	498	318	11	6
2006	711	577	337	12	6
2011	1026	812	463	19	8
2016	1425	1029	603	33	9
2021	1981	1521	832	52	12
2026	2680	2050	1109	77	14
2031	3628	2828	1475	119	17

* Includes secondary oil for coal based generation.

Going by the past record, these anticipated capacity addition may not materialize in their entirety. As against target of 41,110 MW of conventional capacity addition in 10^th five year plan (2002-07), India managed to add meagre 21,094.6 MW. Constrains such as lack of availability of indigenous coal and natural gas supplies and problems with importing coal and natural gas could be additional factors in under realization of the above planned capacity.

Renewables: for energy security and autonomy:

A WISE compilation:

Indias GDP of US Dollar 1103 billion makes it 12^th largest economy of the world and with 9.4 percent growth of GDP in 2006/2007, Indian economy is one of the fastest growing economies of the world. Energy is the basic engine of economic growth. Electricity generation in India has been phenomenonal Growth of electricity generation in India has been phenomenal. From a miniscule 1360 MW in 1947, installed capacity for electricity generation grew to 1,44,564.97 MW at the end of the 10^th five year plan by 31^st March 2008. Out of this 64 % is thermal, 25 % hydro, 8 % renewable power and 3 % nuclear. With accelerated economic growth and increasing population we are facing serious peaking capacity shortage . Capacity addition is also falling short with achievements of 10^th plan being only 50 percent of the target. The inability to achieve targets is not just a case of laggard implementation or red tapism. There is real and serious resource constraints also.

Fossil fuels: In terms of energy fossil fuels involve the burning of coal or hydrocarbon fuels, which are the remains of decomposition of plants and animals. There are three main types of fossil fuels : coal, petroleum and natural gas which are used in steam power plants combustion which heat water to create steam which in turn runs the turbine to generate the energy. However fossil fuels are non renewable sources of energy which will eventually decline in production and become exhausted. Burning fossil fuels leads to pollution into the atmosphere. Some of the by-products such as carbon dioxide are heat trapping gases which contribute to the greenhouse effect through radiative forces leading to global warming, stronger storms, and rapidly increasing costs of adverse weather. Other pollutants including sulphur dioxide are present in acid precipitation.

Nuclear energy: It this the heat produced by the reaction of uranium inside a nuclear reactor is utilized to produce the steam. The reactor uses uranium rods the atoms of which are split in the process of fission, releasing a large amount of energy.