Reduced Oil Consumption in the US is a Fantastic Development

Whatever the analyses might conclude - though Bloomberg typically does not say anything conclusive about why US oil consumption is sliding, beyond making some guesses - this is a great development. What is even more significant is the fact that a proper study of what is happening in the US, might have answers for the rest of the world, especially countries like India and China, where oil and gas use is on the increase. It is particularly interesting how Bloomberg are dismissive of nuclear energy, while China rushes ahead to build as many new nuclear powerplants as it can, and India tries to work with foreign nuclear powerplant suppliers and works at fighting its own anti-nuclear activists' propaganda. In any case, the US has a lot of knowledge that it could use to help the rest of the world become more efficient with how it uses fossil fuels. It will be interesting to see how this happens - some entrepreneur WILL take the challenge up in the years ahead.

China Leads Renewable Energy Race

The New York Times has this wake up call for the USA: Link But this could as well be directed at another country that needs to wake up and compete with China: India. While the Americans have a problem with cheap Chinese wind turbines coming up here, I think India needs to rejoice. A surplus in China will mean even lower prices - India imports a lot of turbines even now. It would be better to spend money on buying these from the Chinese than on spending India's hard-earned money on coal from China, Indonesia and Australia. In the long term, India would be less dependent on both the vagaries of pricing fossil fuels from other countries as well as on depleting supplies. This is an opportunity for Indians to not only work with the Chinese, but also to compete with them at the same time.

I hope someone in New Delhi is listening . . .

Oxford Analytica on Chinese Push into renewable Energy

When some of the best business analysts in the world - from Oxford, Cambridge, St Andrews and more form a consultancy, they would be expected to do a superb job of evaluating whatever they look at. And this analysis of the Chinese http://www.forbes.com/2009/11/16/china-beijing-renewable-energy-business-oxford-analytica.html?partner=daily_newsletter thrust into Renewable Energy is honest in what it speaks about in a way that is certain to be ignored - the Chinese have understood that RE is cheaper than fossil based energy and not just cleaner.

This deserves to be seen in India and other countries which are largely dependant on coal and which have to industrialize like China does. The implications and lessons are huge - apart from the idiotic Times of India and from halfwitted clowns who send me nonsense from it, there is increasing evidence from those with the money to invest in new sources of energy which are the cheapest ones to focus upon.

This would be a lesson that is well learned, whoever learns from it.

Positive Chinese Action on Renewable Energy and the Environment - Can India at Least Play Catch-UP?

It is always disheartening when a bunch of perennial whiners keep beating their breasts and wailing about supposed injustices meted out to them while doing nothing else. India's socialist politicians top the list of professional jokers who do this and they have ample support from the left wing sections of the Indian media in their public shrying. In the meantime, a country that India is wary of and talks about competing with, simply goes ahead and works hard to beat the rest of the world in implementing Renewable Energy projects while India keeps arguing with the rest of the world over why it does not want to move in this direction, leave aside the fact that half of the Indian money that goes overseas, goes to pay for fossil fuels that India sorely lacks, and, which after they are imported, only hurt Indians health-wise because they are basically filthy.

Forbes has this article about the Chinese thrust into the area of Renewable Energy: http://www.forbes.com/2009/09/01/china-environment-pollution-leadership-citizenship-innovation.html?partner=globalnews_newsletter Let there be no doubt about it - Forbes is a business magazine but it is also nationalist and wants the USA to lead the world in every area of activity possible. This article has a tone of regret over the USA's taking second place to China even where it does not explicitly mention this. Where this will leave India, is something that I shudder to think about - in the dirt, both literally and figuratively. I wish it were otherwise, but socialists are never good for anything other than whining. And, India's socialists are easily the world's leaders in doing this.

The Telegraph on China's Taking the Lead in Green Energy

I like this article in "The Telegraph," a Conservative British newspaper, a lot: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/6077374/China-powers-ahead-as-it-seizes-the-green-energy-crown-from-Europe.html As visitors here know, I like to check out articles in the mainstream media and discuss them here more than I do the blogs that I subscribe to, because the MSM has a wider reach as far as its message is concerned, though blogs are often more passionate about the subject of green energy, and they are also much faster in looking at developments in the field. However, there is a popular misconception among Renewable Energy supporters that Conservatives are not always in favor of RE. Earlier views suggested that religious groups were opposed to the idea, until churches in the USA, Muslim groups in several countries and Sikh and Hindu religious leaders in India all began to push hard on environmental issues and on urging their followers to look at RE. This Telegraph article is particularly interesting because it not only looks at the idea of grid parity, it also looks at dumping practices by the Chinese in selling solar panels to Europe and at the whole business as a profitable enterprise, not as some ideological aim.

This particular piece also throws out the idea of competing - a very good thing in my opinion - with the Chinese as far as RE is concerned. While the USA slowly moves towards this sector pushed by hard-nosed businesspeople who have now turned green entrepreneurs, Europe has been ahead of the game for some time. Germany has several advanced solar panel manufacturers, the Scandinavians and the Germans have both been building wind turbines for sale all over the world, and the Spaniards and Portuguese have been busy harnessing the sun and the wind over their countries as the British work on harnessing the energy of the sea. Now, the Europeans have a wealthy competitor who may not always play by the rules, in China. This is still fine, I think, because the more solar panels the Chinese sell, the less fossil fuels are going to be used. In the long term, the Europeans are also certain to respond by raising the stakes from a technological standpoint - they do have some of the world's top universities and engineering brains. Count on them to look at raising the efficiency of their offerings in this area in order to beat the Chinese. For a long time, supporters of that biggest celebration of the harnessing of fossil fuel, Formula 1 racing, used to argue thyat competition improved the breed. Now, that is happening on a much larger scale and with a much wider scope, in the area of Renewable Energy. This blog is happily celebrating!

Energy Facts: India Vs China

Forbes has this interesting slideshow showing comparative energy consumption in India and China: http://www.forbes.com/2006/11/27/china-india-energy-biz-energy-cx_pm_1127energy_slide.html

While both the energy consumption and the impact that India makes on the world's environment is smaller than China's, the fact is that India's rapidly growing population and relative prosperity is causing problems. I do think, though, that the fact that India is relatively underdeveloped compared to China could actually be an advantage. This means that by focusing on conserving energy and investing in more efficient designs than the Chinese did during the crazy 1990s and the first eight years of the 21st century, India could lay the groundwork for a much more efficient energy utilization infrastructure for the future. The technologies are available and there are more being developed by the day as the many blogs on this subject show. It is a question of will now. China is changing its ways after beginning with a disastrously old-world approach. Will India start with a modern, high-tech approach to energy planning? Watch this space - this blog will keep an eye on what happens.

China Throws Down a Renewable Energy Challenge to the World

While it is currently one of the world's most heavily polluted countries and it needs to import over 90% of its oil, China has decided to act in a manner that needs to be applauded: http://seekingalpha.com/article/142617-china-becomes-global-green-leader-with-massive-solar-projects?source=yahoo I am grateful to Dr Mayraj Fahim for this link showing where South Asian countries, which enjoy the same climatic conditions and suffer from similarly high pollution, are lagging seriously behind. So, for that matter, is the USA where the only action forward seems to be Barack Obama's pious talk along with the constant and stale applause of his drum-beaters in the media and in the blogosphere. While well intentioned US plans like the Pickens proposals fall by the wayside, the Chinese seem to power ahead with their desire to insulate their country from the vagaries and whims of the oil producing nations and of oil traders and their manipulations.

Yes, China has coal - so does India, but the Chinese consider their coal reserves a finite asset. India has no hesitation in preserving some of its own coal reserves while it encourages massive environmental degradation in Indonesia, Australia, South Africa and elsewhere by mining for coal there and pollutes the air and the seas by shipping it back to India. And, though India has recently articulated a massive proposal to work on solar power, it is going to be difficult for it to do much as it is way behind China on the neccessary manufacturing infrastructure to produce solar and other RE equipment.

However, this is a situation that could be a wake-up call if you ask me. There is no reason why South Asian countries - and India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka etc all have excellent engineers and facilities with which to manufacture / develop renewable energy products. This could be the spark with which to ignite a powerful flame (well, yes, this is an inept simile) of Renewable Energy in South Asia. Our antions would be wealthier because of money saved, our air, water and soil cleaner, and our workers treated more humanely as they no longer have to work in near-slavish conditions in Arab countries.

Let's hope this competition is joined, and, at the soonest.

Will India Rise to This Chinese Challenge?

The New York Times reports a Chinese plan to lead the world in the building of electric powered cars: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/02/business/global/02electric.html The Chinese have a huge amount of money from their export oriented economy at a time when the rest of the world is not doing very well. They also have been looking at buying up some car companies in Europe - Austin Rover is already Chinese owned, for example. And while their local industry has been making rip-offs of popular western designs, this is, perhaps, the first sign that the Chinese are interested in focusing on a huge, new emerging market. Look at it this way - an electric car does not need an engine and this means no worries about emissions etc. The Chinese already manufacture a lot of cell-phone batteries etc for the rest of the world - exactly the kind of batteries that drive the expensive Tesla cars. And their labor, already cheap, is now going to be even cheaper with huge numbers of workers out of jobs in the various Chinese export mills in that country's coastal South. So why not use these workers to build and flood the world with cheap electric transportation?

My question here is where does this leave India? The most that India has had to boast about s far as cars are concerned is about the Tata Nano - a cheap car with an internal combustion engine that is certain to clog the already terribly crowded Indian roads and pollute the air over India even more. Tata have access to advanced electric car technology through their acquisition of a Norwegian company and they do sell electric Indicas in Europe. Unfortunately, they cannot sell these in India thanks to the lousy state of affairs vis a vis power generation in the country. With as much as eight hours or more of power cuts a day in every major Indian city (and, most probably, worse conditions in the rural areas) where on earth are Indians going to charge their electric cars even if they buy them? Another area where China seems set to beat India hollow if you look at the massive deficiencies in Indian infrastructure . . .

Or wait! If - and this is a big "if" considering Indians' penchant for government jobs or the new magic destination - software industry and call center jobs - some Indians could find that they have some entrepreneurial spirit, then there are major avenues for marketing renewable energy products in the country. Small wind turbines and solar water heaters and solar roofs and windows, advanced buildings which help save on cooling / heating costs as the case may be, larger-scale projects that woudl take the algae in shit carrying "rivers" like the Adyar and the Cooum in Chennai, for example, and convert the algae into biofuel, sewage-treatment plants that would use methane to generate power and so on. The technology is available and has been for years. Even in these recession-hit times, money is available to work on the smaller projects, at least. Perhaps, and this is a big "perhaps" like the "if" that came earlier in this post, someone is thinking about doing something about this in India at the moment. I daresay that whoever does his job right could become the next Ambani or Tata or whatever you want to call him. There has to be more than a little potential in making life more comfortable for at least the 300 million strong Indian middle class. And as this huge group does well, life will improve for the 700 million poor Indians makinf life even better.

Will India rise to the challenge? I, for one, hope that it will . . .

When are We Going to See this on the Ganges?

Treehugger has this story about a Chinese project to clean up one of that country's polluted rivers: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/01/chinese-tower-cleans-river.php When last I remembered, the most polluted river in the world happened to be India's holiest - the Ganga. I remember Indian politicians from Indira Gandhi down claiming that they were going to clean it up. Forty years on, little, if anything, has happened other than ever louder claims being put forward as is done in India's Parliament and State Assemblies especially as far as the environment is concerned. My friend Mohan and I have discussed the sorry state of a much smaller "river" that runs through our home town - the Couum on this blog earlier.

I wonder if this is a time for the Govt of India to seriously get off their collective haunches and look at converting the filth that goes into the rivers into a valuable resource - which it most certainly is? The huge amount of sewage that goes out into India's rivers could be processed into biogas and used as a fuel and the slurry left behind processed into fertilizer. India imports crude oil as a fuel and also buys natural gas for its huge fertilizer industry. And the politicians have not bothered to look closer home for the resources that are directly available.

Hopefully, these days when the country keeps talking about competing with China, it would look at the better things that the Chinese are doing and not just emulate the worst that comes out of that country.

As China Plans the World's Biggest Solar Project, Indians Stand and Gape

EcoGeek has this piece about the Chinese planning a 1 GW Solar Photovoltaic project combining thin film and silicon cells: http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/2420/83/ This is, by far, the biggest project of its kind in the world and twice the size of the next sized one planned for San Luis Obispo in California. And what is India doing? Check the IL&FS website and the Delhi Dunderheads are out tendering for an extension to the Neyveli Coal Fired Powerplant. You might think that Tamil Nadu does not receive any sunlight at all and that it is possibly something like the dark side of the moon if you give the Indian establishment any credit for common sense. The problem is that the imbeciles do not have the slightest clue of what to do to wean themselves from the vampire-like hold that the Middle East and the world's coal producers like Indonesia, Australia and China have on them. It is almost as if the Indian establishment would rather see itself bleed to death and voluntarily at the hands of those who supply it fossil fuels to satisfy the nation's addiction to them. It is also as if the smell that defines Indian cities these days - the smell of rotting sewerage and untreated vehicle exhausts - is as addictive to the Indian planners as the smell of a drug is to an addict who smokes it.

Once again, the Indians are certain to be left looking like jokers while the Chinese power ahead. The tragedy is that this is going to happen even as India has the world's finest engineers, people more than capable of doing what the Chinese are doing - and then some.