Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
and China have lagged far behind. India ranks
fi fth in terms of exploitable hydro-potential in the
world. According to CEA (Central Electricity
Authority), India is endowed with economically
exploitable hydropower potential to the tune of
1,48,701 MW (KPMG
2007
).
As hydropower has been tapped and used for
grid purposes, small hydropower will be focused
on in this discussion, as small hydropower has
small-scale applications which would benefi t the
energy deprived. In India, small hydro plants
have a capacity of 25 MW or less and are further
subdivided into micro (100 kW or less), mini
(between 100 kW and 2 MW), and small (between
2 and 25 MW). Large hydropower is not covered
in this chapter. Small hydropower plants (SHP)
can be set up on rivers, canals, or at dams and are
fl exible in terms of installation and operation.
These projects are considered environmentally
benign, particularly when compared to large
hydro plants with storage reservoirs, which can
cause habitat destruction and community dis-
placement (Palsh
2002
). These projects are in
fact even compatible with use of water used for
irrigation and even drinking water. The cost of
SHP projects depends on where they are set up,
i.e., the location and the site's topography.
MNRE has estimated the potential for small
hydro in India at 15,384.15 MW for 5,718 pro-
spective plant sites published in MNRE's 2010-
2011 Annual Report, which notes that efforts to
identify additional prospective sites are ongoing
in both the public as well as the private sector
(MNRE Annual Report
2011
). The estimated
potential for small hydro in India also suggests
that it can make a signifi cant role in India's power
supply, especially in remote areas where alterna-
tive supply solutions face lots of challenges. For
these reasons, the further development of small
hydro is one of the focal areas of MNRE that
wants to concentrate on reducing the capital costs
and enhancing the reliability, plant load factors,
and average plant lifetimes. The Indian govern-
ment's aim is that at least 5,000 MW of capacity
is added from small hydro projects in the next
10 years and is supporting small hydro deploy-
ment through capital subsidies and preferential
tariffs. As of December 2012, a total of
3,496.14 MW of grid-connected small hydro-
power has been installed, contributing about
13.11 % to India's total grid-interactive renew-
able power (MNRE
2012
). Most of the potential
is in Himalayan states as river-based projects and
in other states on irrigation canals. Out of this
potential, about 50 % lies in Arunachal Pradesh,
Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, and
Uttarakhand. In the plain regions Chhattisgarh,
Karnataka, Kerala, and Maharashtra have a size-
able potential. Continuous efforts are being made
to identify new potential SHP sites. The ministry
is providing fi nancial support to the states for
identifi cation of new potential sites and prepara-
tion of a perspective plan for the state for devel-
opment of small hydro projects.
2.5
Geothermal
Geothermal is energy generated from heat stored
in the earth or the collection of absorbed heat
derived from underground. Immense amounts of
thermal energy are generated and stored in the
Earth's core, mantle, and crust. Heat from the
Earth or geothermal—Geo (Earth) + thermal
(heat)—energy can be and is accessed by drilling
water or steam wells in a process similar to drill-
ing for oil. Geothermal energy is an enormous,
underused heat and power resource that is clean
(emits little or no greenhouse gases), reliable
(average system availability of 95 %), and home-
grown (making us less dependent on foreign oil)
(EAI
2013
).
Geothermal resources range from shallow
ground to hot water and rock several miles below
the Earth's surface and even farther down to the
extremely hot molten rock called magma. Mile-
or-more-deep wells can be drilled into under-
ground reservoirs to tap steam and very hot water
that can be brought to the surface for use in a
variety of applications. The provinces, although
found along the west coast in Gujarat and
Rajasthan and along a west, south, west-east-
northeast line running from the west coast to the
western border of Bangladesh (known as
SONATA), are most prolifi c in a 1,500 km stretch
of the Himalayas. The resource is little used at
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