We must make our buildings including, residential, commercial, institutional and industrial—energy efficient and green by using renewable resources
JP Dubey
In September 2015, the UN General Assembly (UNGA 70) approved and adopted Agenda 2030 for Transforming the World to carry forward the work of Millennium Development Goals. It has 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Goal 17 is to “Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.” The objectives of this agenda are sustainability and making this world a much better place by 2030.
Two-thirds of global greenhouse gas emissions come from the energy sector. Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxides increase the Earth’s average temperature. To check the rising temperature of the Earth, a lot of efforts are put in to develop alternate power generation technologies. Like any new discovery, these experiments are very crude and costly.
India is now seriously challenging the hegemony of thermal power production, controlling more than two-third of the capacity. In hydro energy projects, we should not be surprised to see renewable energy becoming the main source and fossil fuels as the alternate source of power generation.
About 70 per cent of rural India still depends on burning biomass for cooking. Annually, 3 to 4 lakh women and children die in the country due to air pollution due to smoke. If we can move our rural households to well-planned and well-developed towns, we can provide them with assured and low-tariff power, not only for cooking and other domestic uses but also for running their mini and micro enterprises. Moreover, these mini and micro enterprises result in employment generation.
We must make our buildings including, residential, commercial, institutional and industrial—energy efficient and green. Government may set strict norms in this respect with regard to design, layout, building material etc. We may utilise passive solar heating, passive cooling,
natural ventilation flow, and daylight for significant reduction of delivered energy required to meet a building’s energy needs. Environmentally smart buildings make intelligent use of energy resources, while minimising waste.
India is a huge country of 1.3 billion people. The Government aims at achieving 40 per cent cumulative electric power capacity from non-fossil fuel sources by 2030 which at present is 30 per cent. Around 293 global and domestic companies have also committed to generate 266 GW of solar, wind, mini-hydel and biomass-based power over the next 5–10 years. The initiative would require an investment of about US$ 310–350 billion. The Government’s immediate goal is to generate two trillion units (kilowatt hours) of energy by 2019. This means doubling the current production capacity to provide uninterrupted electricity for residential, industrial, commercial and agricultural uses.
In terms of meeting its targets, as of March 31, 2017, wind power was more than halfway towards its goal, whilst solar power was below 13 per cent of its highly ambitious target, although expansion is expected to be dramatic in the near future. Bio
energy was 80 per cent above the mark, while small hydro power was already 85 per cent of the way to meet its target. Overall India was at 33 per cent towards meeting its 2022
renewable installed power capacity target of 175 GW. n
