Green Technology-A Revolutionary

Approach to save our Planet

First Author Name: Mr Ashesh Kishore Bhattacharya

Designation: Assistant Professor
Address: IILM Academy of Higher Learning, Lucknow.
Mobile Number: 9651013057
Email Id: asheshkishor@yahoo.com

Second Author Name: Ms. Shruti Mitra

Designation: Assistant Professor
Address: IILM Academy of Higher Learning
Mobile Number: 8004037332
Email Id: mitraashruti@gmail.com
 Green Technology-A Revolutionary Approach
to save our Planet
Abstract:
Green Technology is the technology that enables
environmental sources of power including
renewable and ultra clean energy sources. Green
Technology includes but is not limited to
1. Solar Power
2. Wind Power
3. Fuel Cell Technologies
4. Small Scale hydropower
5. Solar Power
6. Geothermal Power
7. Bio Fuel and Biomass
India is facing an unprecedented concern over
rising energy prices and their impact on our
economic competitiveness. With the increase in
population and increase urbanization there is a
huge need for other alternative sources of energy.
The challenge of ensuring a sound energy future
is tremendous, but so are the opportunities.
Innovation, fostered by visionary
entrepreneurship and private sector investment,
can lead the way to addressing India’s energy
and environmental challenges while spurring
new technologies and the growth of entire new
industries.
Keywords: BTU, emission, polysilicon,
reforestation,
I. Introduction-An Insight
The effect of Global warming on the Indian
Subcontinent vary from the submergence of low
lying islands to the melting of glaciers in Indian
Himalayan Region. Statistically it is proven that
the Himalayan Glaciers are actually shrinking
and within 50-60 years they will virtually run out
of producing water levels that we are seeing
now. India is the fourth largest polluter in the
world and only 32% of Indians profess to know
about the climate change as compared to 75% in
Brazil, 59% in China and 94% in United States.
Today’s innovation economy is already
beginning to meet this challenge. Increased
world demand is driving innovators and
entrepreneurs to invest in and develop new
energy solutions. As world demand spurs rapid
growth in markets for new, cleaner energy
technologies and nations commit to investment
in energy innovation and increased efficiencies,
innovators are responding with a range of green
energy solutions. Corporations, too, recognize
that clean energy solutions are not only the right
thing to do but make sound business sense.
Energy efficiency, sustainable development and
environmental awareness are means of driving
competitive advantage, lowering costs and
providing value to consumers in a marketplace
that is increasingly valuing these investments.
Programs that reduce power demand, waste and
inefficiency are driving corporate cost savings
across industries. It’s from the Kyoto protocol
that brought attention of the world on the effect
of the constant emission of the GHG or the
Green house Gases on the environment and how
our planet is doomed if steps are not taken
immediately to stop these emissions. The need
for clean sources of energy was thus felt for the
first time on a global level. The Copenhagen
Summit which was held from 7th -18th December
2009 at Bella Centre in Copenhagen was a sequel
to the Bali summit where a a framework for
climate change mitigation beyond 2012 was to
be agreed there. This summit somehow could not
produce the desired results; still there was a lot to
learn from it.
Section (II) of this article analyzes the need of
Green technology in the Indian Context. Section
(III) describes the market of Green Technology
and its possible usage in India. Section (IV) lays
out the challenges faced by India in adopting
these technologies. Finally in section (V) we try
to find out a proper solution for these challenges
face by our country.
II. Green Technology- Need of
the hour
Global Warming [1] can cause:"A significant
slowing of the ocean circulation that transports
warm water to the North Atlantic; - Large
reductions in the Greenland and West Antarctic
Ice Sheets; - Accelerated global warming due to
carbon cycle feedbacks in the terrestrial
biosphere, and - Releases of terrestrial carbon
from permafrost regions and methane from
hydrates in coastal sediments."
China and India are sitting on vast stocks of coal,
which push the amount of their emissions above
those of older polluters in the west. India being
the fourth largest polluter in the world has global
pressure on reducing its emission satndards. The
developed world has become accustomed to
ever-increasing levels of material consumption.
Cutting carbon emissions is therefore
inextricably linked with wider questions of the
pressure on all natural resources, land and water.
India is growing at a phenomenal rate and
requires more energy and water supplies to meet
the need of its burgeoning population.
To ensure India will have adequate energy and
water supplies in the future…
1. To predict where India’s population will level
off. Assume India’s population is going to peak
at around 1.3 billion people. This may be
somewhat underestimating reality, but
everything that follows can be proportionately
increased based on higher population projections.
2. To determine how many units of energy
(expressed in millions of BTUs per year), and
how many cubic meters of water per year, on
average, are required to sustain the lifestyle for a
citizen of a fully industrialized nation. Currently,
on average, each Indian citizen consumes 25
million BTUs of energy per year and consumes
not quite 500 cubic meters of water. In the
European Union, which provides a useful
comparison, the average energy consumption is
well over 150 million BTUs per citizen per year,
and just over 500 cubic meters of water.
It is safe to assume India will employ more
energy efficient “leapfrog” technologies as she
industrializes, meaning that it will not be
necessary to achieve increases in per capita
energy consumption all the way to the levels of
the Europeans. This is also a safe assumption
because much of Europe’s energy consumption
is required for heating during their much colder
winters.
Example: Let us assume that India’s per
capita energy production will need to get to at
least 50% of that currently enjoyed by
Europeans. Taking into account projected
population increases, this means India’s total
national energy production per year will need
to quadruple from 25 quadrillion BTUs per
year to 100 quadrillion BTUs per year.
India’s water production per person would not
have to increase, but overall supply will still
need to keep pace with population growth,
meaning India will eventually need to divert 667
cubic kilometers of water per year, up from 500
cubic kilometers per year today. Bear in mind
that abundant energy leads to abundant water,
since a cubic meter of seawater can be
desalinated for a mere two kilowatt-hours. [2]
It is important to emphasize that as India
generates more energy, more uses for water will
be required. India is challenged not only to
redistribute water on a national scale, but also to
use water much more efficiently. When forests
are regrown, more tigers and other wildlife may
survive. Equally important however is the role
forests play in increasing water supplies. One
often overlooked but decisive contribution to
water supply and storage is through reforestation.
India has lost about 90% of her forest cover.
Watersheds need to be reforested everywhere,
and when they are, the springs will flow again,
and the water tables will rise. Forests moderate
heat, they increase cloud formation and rainfall,
they protect topsoil, and they nourish aqua firs.
Do you want more fresh water? Then reforest
India. Not only on the land, but just offshore, has
reforesting needed to be a priority for India. The
best way to protect India’s coast from tidal
surges is to replant the mangrove forests.
Mangrove deforestation has occurred on a
massive scale worldwide, and can be reversed
simply by planting more mangroves.
Most projections of India’s future energy
supplies are almost completely reliant on
increasing conventional energy production, and
they are also far too low. An interesting side note
is that India’s most ambitious plans for nuclear
power don’t amount to more than about 3% of
India’s projected energy production. India cannot
plan to simply double energy production, they
must quadruple it. To do this, conventional
sources (including nuclear power) are not
sufficient. A breakthrough is required, and that
breakthrough is almost here.
 III. Market of Green
Technology and Its possible
use in meeting the energy
requirements of India
a) Photovoltaic Cells or Solar Electricity
[3]: There is only one source of renewable energy
that can quickly get built and installed and can
produce 50 quadrillion BTUs or more per year,
and that is solar energy, photovoltaic energy in
particular. India needs a photovoltaic array on
every rooftop. Today photovoltaic cells, in the
whole world, produce at most 10 gigawatt-years
of electric power per year, which at 3,416 BTUs
per kilowatt-hour, equates to only .3 quadrillion
BTUs. Given worldwide energy production is
over 400 quadrillion BTUs, photovoltaic power
today is a drop in the bucket. But that is about to
change.
Photovoltaic manufacturing relies on supplies of
polysilicon, which have never been reliable. But
there are new designs that require far less silicon
or no silicon at all. These next generation
photovoltaic cells are called “thin skin,” a catch-
all term describing several technologies which all
use a far thinner coating of photo-electric
material. There are companies claiming to have
this technology all over the world, including
India.
It is vital that photovoltaic technology be the top
priority of India’s alternative energy research and
development community, as well as for
investment in manufacturing. There is no other
plausible way to produce, within a decade, a
quantity of energy sufficient to lift the Indian
economy to sustainable prosperity. Even if the
thin film breakthroughs don’t occur, India should
invest in polysilicon manufacturing for the
production of conventional crystaline
photovoltaics. Even at current costs,
conventional photovoltaics make long-term
economic sense, and the greatest cost to their
manufacture is energy, which can be produced
by photovoltaics themselves. Conventional
photovoltaics now have an energy payback of
20+ to one.
Other than photovoltaic, solar electricity via
solar-thermal arrays is surprisingly cost-
competitive and space-efficient. The space-
efficiency of solar energy collection units
(electric and thermal) enables decentralized
energy development. Alternative technologies in
general support the design of each home or
building being adapted to collect and store solar,
wind, or even geothermal energy.
b) Biofuel-jatropa mirabilis [4]: Biofuel
crops make sense as a supplemental fuel, not as a
comprehensive energy solution. Biofuel crops
can be grown in arid regions where any crop is a
welcome bulwark against desertification, and
biofuel will eventually be extracted from
virtually all municipal waste, but under no
circumstances should a forest be cut down just to
grow biofuel.
c) TATA NANO EV Electrical Vehicle [5]:
Tata Motors shows its Nano Electric Vehicle to
European audience at the Geneva Auto Show. ...
"It will seat four individuals comfortably in its
spacious interiors, which the Tata Nano is known
for. It will have a predicted range of up to 160
km and an acceleration of 0-60 kmph in under 10
seconds. Tata Motors continues its innovative
approach with the Tata Nano EV, using super
polymer lithium ion batteries, as in the Tata
Indica Vista EV, which provides superior energy
density to conventional batteries. "
d) TATA BP Invest [6]: “Tata and BP link
up for major solar investment in India”.
... "The Tata BP Solar board expects the total
investment required to achieve the plant’s full
designed potential of 300MW to be in the order
of US$300 million by 2010, generating a sizable
number of jobs directly and many more
indirectly. This investment will ensure Tata BP
Solar, already a leader in cell manufacture and
the design of solar solutions, retains its position
as the largest manufacturer of solar PV products
in the Indian sub-continent. "
e) GM Spark- Electric Car [7]: GM is
planning to sell an all electric small car in India .
“... all-electric Spark will go on sale next year in
India ... GM parners with Reva Electric Car Co.
... Plug-in Spark can be re-charged at any
standard socket in India, requiring no new
infrastructure. That’s what are limited sales of
other alternative-energy cars in India so far...."
f) Solar Powered Rickshaw [8]: India has
lots of gas and diesel powered rickshaws ... these
emit significant quantities of pollution ... there is
work to outfit rickshaws with batteries and an
electric motor. These cost close to 3 x the cost of
a traditional rickshaw but the government may
offer loans to help offset the cost differential.
" ... Soleckshaw ... can either be pedaled or run
off of a 36-volt battery that is charged every 45
miles from a solar charging station ...
prototype ... seats three and has electric lights, an
FM radio, four mobile phone chargers, and can
travel at 12 and a half miles per hour. ..."
g) TERI- Lighting A Billion Lives [9] : The
Energy and Resource Institute or TERI is
committed to bring light into the lives of many
more people in India and around the world by
displacing kerosene and paraffin lanterns with
solar lighting devices, and providing
opportunities for livelihoods both at the
individual and village level. The campaign
started with illuminating more than 200
households in Kakdwip, a small town in southern
West Bengal in the year 2008. Today, it has
touched lives across 200 villages, benefiting
more than 10000 households.
h) Energy carrier of the Fumeless Future
[10]: Hydrogen has the highest gravimetric
energy density of any known fuel, and is
compatible with electrochemical and combustion
processes for energy conversion without
producing carbon-based emissions. However, the
common industrial methods for producing
hydrogen, like steam reformation of natural gas
or splitting water with electricity, release carbon
dioxide and other greenhouse gases as by-
products.
Therefore, TERI initiated a project aiming to
develop insight and direction in an innovative
way for hydrogen production utilizing natural
dark fermentative organisms, and to develop an
anaerobic fermentation process to produce
hydrogen from different carbon resources.
In the present work, dark fermentative hydrogen-
producing anaerobic bacteria consortia, with the
potential to produce molecular hydrogen, were
isolated successfully from river bed sediments. A
variety of studies were then conducted on these
consortia.
The dark fermentative approach of bio-hydrogen
production utilizes microbial cultures containing
bio-catalysts which have high turnover rate, high
degree of oxygen tolerance, and can efficiently
produce hydrogen in a continuous manner.
Moreover, this approach has dual benefits -
production of clean energy; and waste reduction
since these microbial systems can utilize cheap
organic substrates and waste biomass.
g) Speed Breakers can generate
Electricity [11]: An amateur innovator in
Guwahati has developed a simple contraption
that can generate power when a vehicle passes
over a speed breaker. Kanak Gogoi, a small time
businessman, has developed a mechanism to
generate power by converting the potential
energy generated by a vehicle going up on a
speed breaker into kinetic energy. The
innovation has caught the eye of the Indian
Institute of Technology (iit), Guwahati, which
will fund a pilot project to generate electricity
from speed-breakers.
The idea is basic physics. Gogoi has welded five-
metre-long metal plates into the speed-breaker
instead of the conventional bitumen-and-stone-
chip rumble strip. The plates are movable and
inclined with the help of a spring-loaded
hydraulic system. The fulcrum-attached plates
are pushed down when a vehicle moves over
them and bounce back to original position as it
passes.
"When the vehicle moves over the inclined
plates, it gains height resulting in increase in
potential energy, which is wasted in a
conventional rumble strip," Gogoi says. "When
the plates come down, they crank a lever fitted to
a ratchet-wheel type mechanism. This in turn
rotates a geared shaft loaded with recoil springs.
The output of this shaft is coupled to a dynamo
to convert kinetic energy into electricity," he
explains.
IIT Guwahati has evaluated the machine and
recommended it to the Assam ministry of power
for large scale funding. A K Das, a professor at
IIT's design department says it is a 'very viable
proposition' to harness thousands of mega watts
of electricity untapped across the country every
day.
"A vehicle weighing 1,000 kg going up a height
of 10 cm on such a rumble strip produces
approximately 0.98 kilowatt power. So one such
speed-breaker on a busy highway, where about
100 vehicles pass every minute, about one kilo
watt of electricity can be produced every single
minute. The figure will be huge at the end of the
day," he said.
The Assam power ministry is expected to back
the IIT pilot project.
IV. Challenges in the
Implementation of Green
Technology
There are several factors that hinder the entrance
of green technology--intellectual property rights
concerns, financing issues, technical know-how
of the putative recipients, complementary inputs
and institutions to cultivate technologies, small
producers catering to local markets, and trade
barriers--solutions to the green technology
dilemma could theoretically target one or many
of these factors.
A few days before the Copenhagen summit
Prime Minister of India Dr. Manmohan Singh
said “We are committed to ambitious and time-
bound outcomes that will increase energy
efficiency of our economy, the share of clean
energy including nuclear power in our energy
mix, and our forest cover.” But he added, “We
will do more if there is global support in terms of
financial resources and technology transfer.”
This is the bone of contention in the case of
developing countries meeting emission
standards. Hunger, poverty and disease are more
urgent problems for developing countries like
India to tackle than emission norms. Therefore,
India’s stand has been to do more on climate
change if developed nations lend a helping hand
by way of financial support and technology.
To reach the reduced levels of emission a
country like India needs to use green technology
on substantial scale. This is not possible unless
the developed countries share their know-how
and technology so that India can work towards a
cleaner, greener country. However, the need for
proactive action from the national and state
governments is needed to tackle the problem of
climate change. In cities like Kolkata, where auto
rickshaws blatantly violate pollution norms and
the government dithers on bringing them to
book, the road ahead seems treacherous. There
should also be a consensus among nations that
developing countries receive the transfer of
‘green technology’ at reduced prices so that they
can manage their emissions more efficiently.
More technical support should be provided by
the developed nations for increase Research and
Development activities in the developing
countries.
One more step that can be taken is to bring non-
governmental global exchanges that bring
together domestic firms, venture capitalists, and
technology holders in a forum that reduces
information asymmetries and transaction costs,
promotes agreements to the extent of resources
and technologies that can be bestowed without
infringing upon the IP rights of others, and
matches technology with uses and settings for
which their implementation serves aggregate
social utility most efficiently. For example, New
Ventures India is a program seeking to facilitate
green technology investment in India. Its genesis
was premised upon bridging the gap between
small and medium sector private businesses and
the investor community by "providing innovative
entrepreneurs with management training,
business advisory services, professional
mentoring and access to capital and
markets." The program achieves this goal by
providing mentoring opportunities to
entrepreneurs to erase the learning gap by
connecting them to potential investors, and by
creating a network of investors in order to foster
the creation of completely new green enterprises.
V Conclusion:
There is a huge need for implementing Green
Technology in India. With the increase in
population and urbanization the demand for
energy and fresh water is will go up. The total
dependency on conventional sources of energy
will lead to acute energy and environmental
crisis. Thus the need for alternative sources of
energy is very necessary in order to meet the
growing energy demands.
Besides that there is a global concern over the
emission of green house gases. Countries like
India are facing heavy pressures worldwide to
reduce the emission levels. India is
experimenting with Green Technology as an
alternative source of energy, among which Solar
power, Nuclear Power and Bio Fuel are the most
popular ones. India is trying to develop its
technical know how in order to improvise on
these technologies.
However India is plagued with more serious
problems like hunger, terrorism, poverty etc. It
does not have enough funds and expertise to
develop Green Technology. Hence it would need
the help of developed nations to implement these
technologies to save energy and save our planet.
The Challenges and Opportunities both are huge
and it must be our endeavor as a nation to put
Green Technology into practice and make more
people aware about it.

References and Books:

1. 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference; Wikipedia

2. Indigenous research on green technology lags - Economy and Politics - livemint_com (Last visited on 25 feb
2010)
3. http://www.ecoworld.com/water-supply/technology-sunlight-indias-green-future.html
4. Press Release, IBM, IBM Survey: Consumers Will Pay More for Environmentally Friendly EnergyOptions (Dec.
13, 2007), http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/22947.wss (last visited Oct. 28, 2008).
5. http://bit.ly/cYGevy (last visited on Feb 2010)
6. Green Technology India Archives magazine 2010.
7. Green Technology India Archives magazine 2010.
8. Green Technology India Archives magazine 2010.
9. TERI's Lighting a Billion Lives-The Energy and Resource Institute.(Last visited on Feb 2010)
10. TERI's Lighting a Billion Lives-The Energy and Resource Institute. .(Last visited on Feb 2010)
11. www.greensnapper.fi. (Last visited on Feb 2010)