In the era of global warming and carbon credits, there is need for credible information and guidance in managing assets. Enzen Global Solutions is one such knowledge provider in all energy solutions. As its chief executive Satheesh Kumar says, the need is for more knowledge penetration. As power is an essential utility, the need is for commercial independence, and not just technical or operational expertise. “We have to move from activity-based approach to outcome-based approach,” he notes.
In power transmission and distribution, the losses range from 20 to 70 per cent. The “distribution challenge” is to guarantee standards of services. An environment policy can’t be in isolation but holistic and look at optimisation of resources, Enzen believes.
Ms Uma Rajarathnam, environment head of Enzen, spoke to Deccan Herald on the way to address global warming:
What measures can we take to cut our carbon footprint without letting go economic growth?
Energy conservation, cleaner technologies to reduce emission and augmenting energy generation from potential renewable energy sources including energy from waste are important measures that we can take to cut our carbon emission without affecting our economic growth.
Efficiency can be increased in power generation, transportation, industrial production and domestic consumption. Expected potential energy saving from industries is in the tune of 15,000 MW. Large scale industries in India are aware of energy saving benefits and are trying to save energy. Construction industry is one of the potential sectors where considerable energy saving can be achieved through the use of energy efficient building materials, design improvement to reap solar lighting, heating and passive cooling.
Over 1 lakh villages and about 2.3 crore households below poverty line have remained unelectrified. Expansion of connectivity will require corresponding expansion in power supply. There is an opportunity to use renewable energy sources such as solar, wind and biomass for power generation.
What are the clean technologies we can look to for reducing emission?
Clean coal technologies such as fluidised bed boilers and advanced circulating bed fluidised bed boilers can be promoted for power generation.
Hybrid vehicles and battery operated vehicles can reduce emissions from transport sector.
Ethanol and bio diesel can be promoted in the transport sector.
There is a huge opportunity to promote clean technologies in small and medium scale industries. Uses of fly ash in brick making, promoting gasifier based thermal applications are few examples.
Were there any progresses under Kyoto? What difference has it made?
Agreements under Kyoto protocol are important steps towards controlling the rise of greenhouse gas emissions. Clean development mechanism (CDM) under the Kyoto protocol acts as an incentive for developing countries to take action to reduce greenhouse gases while achieving sustainable development goals. China, India and Brazil are preferred destinations for investment in carbon emission trading under clean development mechanism.
As of today, among the 839 CDM projects registered with the United Nations Framework on Climate Change Convention (UNFCCC), 288 projects are in India, accounting for a global share of 35%. Worldwide investments aim to generate more than one billion tonnes of certified emission reductions (CERs) by 2012.
Indian enterprises have already committed investments to generate more than 379 million tonnes of CERs. Energy efficiency projects; renewable energy generation and energy from waste offer great opportunity. More than 200 million tonnes of agricultural waste is produced in India, which can generate about 50,000 MW of electricity.
