Engineers For A Cause - Low-Cost-Renewable-Energy

Home >

Cost Renewable EnergyProject 03: Low

Outline of ProjectObjective: Devise, Implement, Operate & Maintain Low Cost Energy Solutions for Rural & Remote areas by adopting present Green Energy techniques and do research on new renewable energy sources. Benefit of Low cost, from effective energy management & techniques, must be transferred to under privileged people. Quality of Energy & intelligent use must be such that it will improve the eco-system.

SummaryThe scene of World Energy is not good and day by day cost of energy is going up and up. For example if you take Crude Oil / Coal prices, you will find a definite upward trend and steep rise in recent past. Even USA is also facing same problem because of their higher consumptions of Energy.

Graph 1: Graph of Crude Oil prices Graph 2: Graph of Coal prices

Page 1 of 21

14-03-2015https://sites.google.com/site/engineers4acause/home/low-cost-renewable-energy?tmpl...

https://sites.google.com/site/engineers4acause/home/low-cost-renewable-energy?tmpl...

Chart 1: Price Trend of Consumer Energy Products 1990 - 2011

Because of this, Villagers are getting energy on higher price. Cost of energy is new thing for mankind, in very recent past; man was getting support of natural resources like forest and oil seed production to fulfil energy need on negligible cost and efforts.

Same villager has the pressure of farming to deliver higher level of output hence requires mechanisation which needs energy to run. Irrigation has become necessity. Cost of fertilizer production is indirectly hurting them. Although, some Governments are giving substantial subsidies in agriculture but ultimately this subsidy delays some other development work.

Entertainment& Telecom Industry has grown very rapidly and electronics has become part of life; villager has to struggle for money for arranging these and the energy needed for them.

Lighting source was used from ancient time but Electric Bulb has changed the scenario. Now, Lighting has become an industry and everybody wants to illuminate their home and village for better work and daily routine.

Heating / cooling of home and spaces was done through natural free sources but because of new gadgets introduction it is very easy to warm or cool down a place. These gadgets need lot of energy and again same villager has to pay for it.

It is observed that development of automobiles and other transport options has increased the burden of villager. This also facilitates him for better reach to market but the ratio of benefit to expenditure goes on lower side.

For household, very basic need is energy for preparing and cooking food. In old days, Mother Nature was taking care of but now one has to purchase power and gadgets for better living.

Since last century, living standard has been changed a lot and because of this; energy becomes source of income for Giant Companies. Exploitation of non-renewable energy sources and very basic error of inefficient use of these sources made them vulnerable. So, the villager has to buy energy and consume it for living good quality life on higher prices. They find themselves in a loop of demand and supply, reduction of resources makes energy costlier and so on.

USA has a pattern of high consumption of energy hence their Lower Income group is spending as much as 72% of their income on Energy. It has doubled from the year 2001, 36%.

Developing Nations has a lower percentage of expenditure, against income, ranging from 3.5% (Kenya) to 12% (India). We want to restrict this expenditure to facilitate Under Privileged People. Our aim is to use renewable energy sources efficiently and achieve a cost pattern which will facilitate energy on 1/3rd of price compared to nonsubsidised open energy market prices.

Government subsidies are good for short term solutions but, we think, they are the biggest hurdle in development of renewable energy sources. When Governments give subsidies on current energy sources to masses; these lowered prices

Page 2 of 21



eases pressure on Research & Development of new sources and growth is hampered. It is well-known fact that Energy security can’t be achieved by giving subsidies.

Table 1: Shares of Rural Household Expenditure on Various Energy Sources

Chart 2: Energy Costs Percentage – USA Income groups

Threats of Energy Security,

Dependency on imported hydrocarbons Demand - Supply gap in electricity, coal Environmental Issues (Climate Change, Drought) Fuel Mix Diversity (Dependency on one major energy resource) Technical knowhow & expertise in planning Low energy efficiency in production, distribution and consumption Provision to affordable energy to all, especially the poor Energy price rise Disparity in per capita consumption of energy/ fuels Access to cleaner energy fuels Increasing monthly expenditure on energy fuels

Page 3 of 21



Engineers For A Cause Society (EFACS) has taken this challenge. We will devise solutions and implement them for cheaper energy. This will be only available for Non-commercial uses in Rural& Remote places. This outline will explain you how we will go about it.

Demand & SupplyNow take an Energy requirement study and understand our methodology of work. We are taking Indian example to only understand the solution. EFACS will work for entire world’s rural & remote places for Energy independence.

Since, Household consumption can be studied in Urban & Rural prospective, we can take this as a case study and make a model for our approach.

A) According to survey conducted by Government of India and World Bank for household consumption of Electrical Energy, following are the findings –

Table 2: Population of Appliances in household in Millions (%)

Converting above ownership into demand of energy,

Table 3: Per capita energy consumption in household in KWh/year (1), Percentage distribution of Appliances (2) & Total Energy in GWh/year (3)

Take the Scenario of Year 2011; Indian Rural & Urban Electricity requirements sums up on 198807 GWh/year and that to 166.7 KWh/year/person and this requirement will go 3 fold in next 20 years of time.

Since transmission and other losses are about 35% of generation requirement, at Power Station Bus Bars, as on today, are 225 KWh/year/person, which is 268389 GWH/year for Domestic supply.

Present Production capability of different Electric Power Generation plants in total is about 164950 MW which comes to 1444862 GWh/year. Only 19% of electricity is consumed for Household power.

Total power deficit of Indian requirement against production is about 12031 MW (9.8%) in peak hours of 2011. So, if we make energy plan for Household or Domestic supply, this deficit will be over, 9.8% deficit against 19% in domestic use.

Page 4 of 21



So our first target will be to generate Electricity or Energy for Households so that we can reduce this burden from the actual generation of energy. The surplus energy can be utilized for other sectors like Agriculture& Industry.

Secondly, we must make individual villages as independent units for production & consumption of energy. Again, if operation is not economical, we may combine villages and make a cluster where we can implement our Low Cost Energy module. Here, we will not attend energy needed by industries & commercial establishments, only basic need for household, agriculture & transportation energy will be fulfilled in rural areas.

B) For Agriculture, Indian energy needs will be as below,

Table 4: Energy demand on average cultivated area

Since, Mechanisation of farms is going to be more rapidly in recent future, we may correct above figures with the same as domestic consumption over the period of forecasting.

C) For Rural transportation, Indian energy needs will be as follows,

Total Consumption of fuels in Year 2010 – 68366000 TOE = 795134.56 GWh = 50% in transport = 397569.28 GWh

Rural Consumption assumed to be 50% of Total Transport share 198763.64 GWh = 238.1 KWh/year/person of rural population

Assuming the same trend over years, 5.6% incremental need of energy for Transportation in

Year 2006 171.4 Year 2016 304.7 Year 2021 390.1 Year 2026 499.3 Year 2031 638.1 KWh/year/person of rural population

In summary, we will target basic 3 sectors of Rural Energy viz Rural Domestic (household) + Community, Agricultural and Transportation

Table 5: Total energy requirement of rural areas, figures in KWh/year/person

As we had derived the demand, now discuss available Sources of energy with us,

Table 6: Sources of energy

Page 5 of 21



Page 6 of 21



Page 7 of 21



Page 8 of 21



Page 9 of 21



Page 10 of 21



From above, EFACS will prefer following options to work upon, highlighted Energy sources are considered renewable, not a list of priority.

Table 7: Options selected and their mix, in original unit of measurement (UOM) for quantity, forecast done by percentage than derived quantities

If you study above table carefully you will find that we planned substantial reduction in Fossil & Fissile Fuels. They are replaced by Renewable energy sources or by better fuels like Syngas. Also, these modified fuels have to be phased out slowly because they are better than Petro-products but still dangerous for eco-system.

It is a well known fact that not any single method of renewable energy generation is capable of fulfilling demand at large. Only Biodiesel generation through Algae route is capable to produce such volumes to replace Petro-products and it is safe because Carbon is recycled through Photosynthesis in Algae.

We want to increase fuel mix diversity for independence of energy. We don’t want to be dependent on single major fuel or source to achieve fuel security and better management. Although, dealing number of technologies posed a challenge to us but we are confident to achieve it efficiently and effectively.

Technological developments and research will generate new and efficient processes and source. We will evaluate our approach every 3 years to incorporate feasible solutions.

Since all the sources may not be available in every rural & remote cluster, we will discuss our model on a typical village specifically. The village is selected randomly hence it is required to conduct a small survey to understand its features and energy need. This is the same village where we had already conducted survey for tiny farm equipment feasibility report.

Village: Jhambalvadi, Post: Kumbhargao, Taluka: Patan, District: Satara, Maharashtra, IndiaCo-ordinates: 17.2216813, 74.0117544

Number of Household: 54

Approximate Population: 350 (50% live in nearby big cities) Projected Population, 2031: 400 pax

Public Buildings: 1 school + 1 dispensary

Area of fields attended: 12 hectare

Length of internal roads: 1.5 km

Total Energy need, 2011: KWh/year Projected Energy need, 2031: KWh/year

Present Energy Price without subsidy: INR`/year (US$/year) Projected Price, 2031:

The village Jhambalvadi is situated within vicinity of Wind Farms. Companies are establishing number of Wind Mills there, within 2 to 5 km radius. Village is falling in Energy map of Wind Power potential. Also, there is a seasonal small river and a

Page 11 of 21



manmade lake with catchments of surrounding hills and forest. River is flowing around 5 months in a year and Lake was made for irrigation, having all around year holding of water, but not succeeded.

Agriculture is the only work. Place is having minimum soil depth due to rocky nature of terrain. Farmers are taking 2 crop/year and having average output. Generally Rice, Maize, Wheat, Groundnut, Soyabean and Pulses are grown. Since irrigation project has failed, rain water is only hope. Average size of farm is such that irrigation through pumps is not economical.

On Energy front, village is well connected with Electricity Grid. There is Petrol & Diesel Pump, around 6 km away. Wood, Charcoal & Coal Depot is also nearby. Cooking gas is available but its depot is around 12 km away. Kerosene is distributed through public distribution system on monthly basis. Cow dung & Agriculture waste is also burnt for cooking and hot water.

There are two community building, one is School and other one is Dispensary. Roads are illuminated with streetlights and a Water Supply facility is built for drinking water supply.

This village of approximate 50 houses will need Energy for following typical works:

Table 8: Typical usage of energy, Source of Energy and feasibility in village, Jhambalvadi, India, form of survey

Page 12 of 21



Page 13 of 21



Table 9: Summary of Basic Energy usage in a typical village

Category Type Year 2011 Year 2030/31

Household

Farming

Industrial

Community / Transport

Others

TOTAL

Table 10: Available Energy sources in Village Jhambalvadi, India, form for survey

SolutionFrom above tables, it is clearly shown that we have developed a system of Energy distribution in mainly 3 categories, Electricity, Petroleum Products & Coal or Firewood. Now look at a scenario below.

When a village woman wants to utilize a water heater for family, she will utilize 5.5KWh of electricity to warm water for her family of 5 persons. She will get this electrical energy by completing following steps,

1) Coal has to be mined and transported to Power Plant

2) Coal has to be burnt in boiler and steam has to be generated

3) This steam has to pass through Turbine to generate shaft power

4) This shaft power goes to generator and produces Electricity

5) This electricity is transmitted through network of distribution grids and reaches feeder of village

6) From feeder transformer electricity reaches to the point of use and heat is generated

So basically what we need is generation of heat not the electricity. By all this jugglery, we lost much of energy against efficiency at each stage.

Thermal efficiency of such Coal based power plants is about 33%, line losses in transmission is about 35% and efficiency of electric water heater (Geyser) is about 86%. So, to supply of 5.5KWh to that woman, you should have 6.39KWh on feeder, 9.83KWh on Power Plants Bus Bars & whooping 29.79KWh on Boiler side. It is equivalent to 25614.79Kcal which comes from around 4.5kgs of Steam Coal.

This means overall efficiency of this system is about 18.46% which is much much lower than a Gas Stove (30 to 40%) or Firewood Stove (30%) whereas Gas Fired Geyser is giving efficiency of 83%. Solar Water heater is extremely effective; we may get 7KWh/m2.

Now it is clearly shown that village woman has to buy 29.79KWh of energy to do job of 5.5KWh that means she has to spend approximately 6 times more on energy.

Here we have seen example of inefficient use of energy. EFACS will strike on all the Energy Management Techniques and do research & Development of methods & equipments which will give High Efficiency and better Environment protection.

What will EFACS do to achieve this?

Page 14 of 21



1) Try to make use of basic energy needed for the work, say for above example, we will use heat generated from Renewable energy source directly, not from long loop of electric energy

2) Try to reduce STEPS of converting energy from one to another & transmission losses

3) Try to make Equipments which uses basic energy directly, like we don’t need Electric Power to run a Fridge which is actually a mechanical device. We will develop a tiny engine to fit in Fridge to run compressor & all heat cycle components. Further to this, if we have source of heat cycle we will utilize that instead of engine to reduce one step more (Eliminate compressor based design)

4) Out of the box thinking, not necessarily in line of majority but the effective methods whether liked or not

5) Develop a consensus among people to use community cooking, washing, storage, heating & cooling etc to get better efficiencies

6) Stringent solutions to keep energy sources alive and environment healthy

7) Development of Modular Energy Kits to tap energy from sources available in rural and remote areas

8) Make cluster independent on Energy Sources

etc

In conjunction to the above, another option is the use and storage of surplus renewable energy.

Interestingly, majority of renewable energy sources are very much available in remote and rural areas. Smart use of them will solve the problem. Why smart? Because, one should be very attentive and make use of every opportunity to tap the energy and store it for peak hours or peak season of energy usage.

Say for example, if a small river is available and flowing only in rainy days of 4 months, we should make use of this opportunity. Install a small hydro-power project. Although, in rainy days demand of energy is minimum but the energy generated can be stored and will be used in peak season of summer. This will enable us to reduce peak load fluctuations on small grid of cluster.

Storage of Electricity in large volumes is impossible in older days. Flowing water is available in rainy season but not in summer when it is needed the most. Wind Power is very much dependent on weather, and it can’t be stored. Same case is for Ocean energy and Solar Energy. Once we lost the opportunity of available energy of these, it is lost for forever.

Now a days, Energy storage systems has been developed to solve this problem. One of the solutions is Compressed Air, other is Storage of water on high Places (head) and another is Molten Salt etc. Effective use of such methods can smoothen demand & supply of load shed in long & short time durations.

The effect of Standby energy storage system is explained here in following chart for a day load scenario

Figure 1: Simplified electrical grid with energy storage

Page 15 of 21



Chart 3: Simplified grid energy flow with and without idealised energy storage

Reduction in peak load burden can reduce substantial generation cost. A rough estimate by US Engineers shown that if burden is reduced by 10% can reduce cost by US$35 Billion/year. Transferring this benefit to the rural consumer will affect positive on our goals.

Page 16 of 21



Local Generation and distribution of Power can reduce substantial Transmission and Distribution (T&D) losses by around 15 to 25%. Due to technological developments, it is now possible to tackle pollution issues locally. In earlier days, power plants were established to generate power at centralised place to get more efficiency and for better pollution control. But now more efficient plant and equipments available to increase efficiency in small power station also.

A Landfill Gas (LFG) based Power Plant of 250 kW to 1 MW can give up to 44% of Thermal efficiency. The Coal Fired Power Plant has efficiency of 30 to 35% and a combined cycle hybrid power plant may attend efficiency of 45 to 50%. But both of these are fossil fuel based hence pollution and ash handling is a problem. A Typical data sheet has been shown here for better understanding with schematic diagram of whole system.

Figure 2: LFG Power Plant Scheme

Table 11: Data sheet for LFG Power Plants

Following may be the energy distribution by form,

Table 12: Form of Energy, required to fulfil energy need of sample village

Page 17 of 21



From above table it is clear that variety of form is limited. It is very much needed that for such a low variety we control the energy use points (like every kitchen in village a point of use). For this we must adopt a collective approach of Community usage of energy. Some of the examples discussed here,

Shaft Power: Say for example, Threshers are used to remove husk from seed. Basically it uses shaft power (Mechanical Power). If the villagers go for individual machines they will need more machines which will be utilised for less time. If they decide to buy it for common use, resources to produce more machines will be reduced as well as the generation points become one only so better to control and maintain. Secondly, we may also put a SHAFT POWER STATION; everybody will use that to produce their goods / services. An interchangeable coupling or universal coupling can be developed to facilitate this.

Heat: Say for example, People can cook commonly on stove or oven or cooking range. Discipline has to maintain for better output of the system. Here, Individuals may go for their dishes but point of use will be one. A Village timetable will give maximum utilisation of equipments and better efficiency. Same way, Hot or Cold - Water production& Goods Storage may be done in community culture.

Transport: It is well-known fact that community transport is much more economical and effective. Cities are habitual to use such like City Buses, Metro-trains etc. Also, goods have to be transported on community basis. We must develop this culture in rural areas also. Main problem is availability of such transport, lower density of population and far distances between destinations. We have to tackle such issues and do Research & Development on Rural transport (Development of a vehicle which will take optimum passengers and goods simultaneously). Frequency& destinations must be matched with survey and a timetable derived from it. This will give better fuel efficiency and reduction in per capita transport energy.

Losses due to energy conversion are great, so use of basic energy is the best option. For this we must develop products in such a way that they convert energy into work in minimum steps of conversion. Best example is Water Wheels, why to use electricity if we have energy from flowing water. Few of such arrangements discussed here,

Vertical Axis Wind Mills can directly be used for irrigation & water supply (running the pump on shaft power). They can be used to run many of shaft powered equipments like Threshers, blowers, fans, desert coolers, freeze, air-conditioners, mixer& grinder, flour mill and washing machines etc directly. A home may install about 1 small wind mills of 1 kW can produce a work load of 4000 kWh in a year. A family of 6 members needs 2000 kWh of energy for completing all mechanical works. Hence, it is very much needed to redesign our equipments to suits generation, we must restrict model power of any equipment to maximum of 1 kW not more than. This may increase time taken for completing a work but for betterment of livelihood it is nothing.

Photo 1: Vertical Wind Turbines

Energy management is the key factor in success of this project, hence, we will take this responsibility to implement project through our experts and make use of manpower available from our second project “Low Cost Farm Equipments” which will run a Bank of Farm Equipment. We will also consider concept of green buildings in completing project “Low Cost Housing”.

Majority of such projects start with energy audits and planning of locally devised solutions. Here audit is not limited to consumption side of energy but we will expand it to generation side also to identify & quantify available resources for energy at locations.

Page 18 of 21



Energy security of locality must be done with consideration of following points, Energy sources

Those are diverse

In sustainable quantities

At affordable prices

That support economic growth

That assists in poverty alleviation measures

That does not harm the environment

Taking note of shocks and disruptions

Our philosophy is that reduction in energy use is the reduction in burden on family that means reduction in energy price.

We will work under following methodology,

1) We will adopt 1 village from every country according to our priority, randomly selected.

2) We will conduct Energy Audit and find out available energy Sources and consumption patterns

3) We will plan a Energy forecast and decide feasible percentage use of renewable energy sources with distribution network & safety systems

4) Discuss this plan with villagers and take all necessary permissions

5) Convince villagers to work on models and community energy usage

6) Take active participation of villagers for devising solutions, installations, production and successful running of plants and distribution systems

7) We will produce / build required plants& equipments or purchase it from others, installation and commissioning done, resources will be provided by villagers

8) Proper load shedding plan made and a storage of energy built

9) Phasing out conventional energy by available renewable energy after starting installed plants

10) Run the whole model for at-least one cycle (year) and find out total pricing model

11) Give training to villagers for further running and maintaining energy systems

12) Invite people of other villages of district to see our model in operations, explain them advantages and disadvantages

13) If other villagers wants

a. We will help them from outside to build & run their own energy plants & distribution system

b. We will adopt their village and build the system as we did in first village

c. 50:50 venture where we will manage the system and villagers will arrange the required resources

14) We will not supply energy to Industries and Businesses within the vicinity

15) We will not do major import of conventional energy, although complete elimination may not be fruitful. Care should be taken to make locality independent on its own energy sources

16) Conventional energy sources will be used for standby or emergency services as much as possible

17) After managing handful systems on district level, we will expand our services to all the districts of the province and then country

18) Techniques used must be simple, eco-friendly, easy to operate and maintained by local villagers

19) Generated Energy will be available according to priority of use

Page 19 of 21



I. Life saving & hospitals for Humans

II. Life saving & hospitals for Animals

III. Water supply

IV. Cooking

V. Farming

VI. Education

VII. Lighting

VIII. Public Transport

IX. Goods Transport

X. Household

XI. Recreation& entertainment

Etc

20) We will work with following technologies, not a priority list

a. Sugar Cane / Maize Alcohol

b. Oil Seed – Bio Diesel

c. Algae – Bio Diesel

d. Algae – Hydrogen

e. Tesla Coil (R&D)

f. Magnetic Turbines (R&D)

g. Recycling garbage

h. Wind Power

i. Micro-hydro Power

j. Solar Power

k. River / Sea current or wave (R&D)

l. Geo-thermal

m. Biomass & Biogas - Digestion

n. Synthetic Gas – Steam reformation

o. Synthetic Fuel - Fischer Tropsch Process

p. Tiny Nuclear Reactor

q. Cold Fusion (R&D)

r. Osmotic Power (R&D)

s. Ocean thermal energy

Etc

21) Management will be under the Bank which will be operational for Low Cost Tiny Farm Equipments

22) Economics of the operations will be maintained by logics of Society, Low profit will give lower priced equipments hence reduction in capital cost of projects. Resources are available with little investment hence overall price reduction can be achieved.

23) Since sanitary and sewage system& Garbage collection in villages will give us resource of energy, we may take this activity from Panchayats or local government body.

24) Co-operative society working with Bank will look after distribution, monitoring and payments for energy usage by individual family. Co-operative will also look after the employment generation and its replenishment

Page 20 of 21



25) In case of Cold Fusion & Tiny Nuclear Reactor techniques, Government authorities must be involved and proper security of plants must be ensured

We will start adopting villages and clusters from start of year 2016, till that time we will work on R&D of new efficient equipments and product range accordance to our philosophy of least steps on energy conversions.

Second interesting field, where we should put our efforts, is numerous claims from all over the world by scientists / engineers for inventing so called free energy or energy multipliers. We should make list of such claims, document it and do necessary R&D to make them viable (or dump them if they claim wrongly) for use in our approach of low cost. They may be proved to be improving efficiency of system and if at all multiplying will reduce the cost.

Survey result of sample village will give complete idea. We will update this outline once the survey results are available and complete planning has been done.

We hope you had understood the concept & approach. Your valuable inputs are very much needed to improve them, kindly comment.

ConclusionCollective approach and proper designing & planning of solutions will ease the pressure of energy cost on Rural & Remote areas. Enhancing the Energy security can only be achieved by

Promotion of renewable energy

Promotion of energy efficiency

Promote R& D on Energy Generation, Use, Policies & Dissemination

Nuclear Energy option

Behavioural Change

Diversifying Supply Sources

EFACS has to work very hard on the fronts of community usage of energy since it has been forbidden since last century. Secondly, keeping lower project cost will be a challenge for us.

We can achieve following targets by the year of 2031 –

1) Half a million energy independent clusters across the globe

2) Installed capacity of 120 MTOE or 5000 PJ or 1400 BKWH of energy sources

3) Carbon Saving of 300 million tons / year

4) Achieve overall >50% efficiency in generation as well as in consumption side

We have to plan a Rural Transport Research & Development project along with new designing and production of different products to suit our concept of minimum energy conversion steps for everyday life.

Let us work together to make this planet a happy home of every living creature.

Page 21 of 21



Government & Nonprofit

Engineers For A Cause - Low-Cost-Renewable-Energy