First day of the SANGAM 2008 (The NGO Summit at AOL)- went with the idea of volunteering but i ended up attending more workshops than volunteering. I heard the famous Vandana Shiva talk. And she is good, no doubt. But she went on one extreme, criticizing almost everything without offering many solutions. But she did give this wonderful Native Indian quote:
When all the trees have been cut down,
when all the animals have been hunted,
when all the waters are polluted,
when all the air is unsafe to breathe,
only then will you discover you cannot eat money.
when all the animals have been hunted,
when all the waters are polluted,
when all the air is unsafe to breathe,
only then will you discover you cannot eat money.
(Stop and cry now, before proceeding)
The title alludes to a concept (a cherished one) that unfortunately has ended it's stay in my heart. I refer to the use of non-conventional energy sources. Dr. Girish, one of the speakers at the 'Sustainable Utilization of Energy' workshop in the Summit killed it. And I'm glad he did. Not for me the fascination of Reva or solar lighting in my building any more.
Why, you ask, when all the world is talking about stopping the use of fossil fuels and go solar, go wind? Simple, more fossil fuel goes to make the current solar and wind systems than the amount they are able to offset. It will take more than 20 years of consistent use of a solar panel for it to generate the amount of electricity that would have been generated by the amount of fossil fuel that went to make it. And most solar panels don't last those many years nor are they used all the time.
Not only solar/wind, the electric cars that we 'would buy if we have the money' are also not efficient. Electric batteries that drive mechanical devices are less than 25% efficient - which means they use up more fossil fuel than normal petrol cars. Yes, 'we' don't pollute - but the power station that make our electricity are still releasing the fumes!
Shocked? I certainly was. I was really planning to look for a solar battery charged UPS for a single computer (or make one).
The culprit is entropy. There are various definitions of entropy including the simple 'measure of randomness in a system' but the one I like is - 'The amount of energy unavailable for work.'
Solar and wind are high entropy energies - Not enough is available for conversion - at least with current technologies.
Meanwhile, we are better using fossil fuels. Or using bio energy (walking/cycling) - will talk more about it soon.
