Sun, wind, and biomass : India's path to a sustainable future / Prem Shankar Jha, Michael B. McElroy.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Jha, Prem Shankar, author.

McElroy, Michael B., author.

Series:

Oxford scholarship online.

Oxford scholarship online

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Energy policy--India.

Energy policy.

Renewable energy sources--India.

Renewable energy sources.

India--Economic policy.

India.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (310 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, [2025]

Summary:

This text presents a comprehensive guide to India's pursuit of a clean energy future, exploring the economic and health benefits of transitioning from fossil fuels to renewable resources.

Contents:

Cover

Half Title

Title Page

Copyright Page

Foreword

Acknowledgements

Contents

Figures

Tables

1 Introduction

There are no one-size-fits-all solutions

Land and the human factor

An asymmetry of objectives

Notes and References

2 India's Goals and Constraints in the Battle against Global Warming

The origins of ethno-federalism, and how a nation state was built without war

Arrival of the Europeans and the beginning of colonisation-how one of the earliest and richest human civilisations became one of the poorest

How India became a late starter in industrialization

Fossil fuels and industrialization

The tentative beginning of liberalization

3 The Crisis of Unemployment that India Cannot Evade

Developing countries face a more difficult task-India's twin crises of growth and employment

India's crisis of unemployment

4 The Crisis in Agriculture: a) In Dryland Farming

Impact of global warming

Fragmentation of holdings

5 The Crisis in Irrigated Farming: End of the Green Revolution

The Green Revolution, double cropping, and soil exhaustion

The end of the Green Revolution

Soil salinity and waterlogging

Rice stubble burning

Diversification into horticulture

6 Coping with Air Pollution

EPCA: CSE study of causes

Insights from the COVID-19 pandemic

The wrong target

Exploration of other uses

The NITI-CII trials

Captive power

Paper

Bio-CNG

Crop residue gasification

7 India's Current Energy Consumption and Projected Demand

Structural change in the economy

Projected energy consumption

Arresting climate change may not provide sufficient motivation

Extreme weather events-beginnings of change.

India's first report on the impact of global warming

Wind and solar photovoltaic power

8 Where Is India on the Road to Renewables?

The rapid growth of SPV power

Why has CSP failed in India?

Wind power generation

Policy hurdles set up by competing parastatal organisations have slowed growth in solar power generation

Transport fuels

Chasing ethanol as a green fuel

Ethanol from molasses

The shift to food crops

The hunt for cellulosic ethanol

A leap in the dark

A Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles (FAME) programme has been taken up by the Indian government

Process heat for industry

9 India's Wind and Solar Power Potential

Wind

Solar

Estimating the power obtainable from wind

Estimating the usable energy obtained from the sun

10 Potential for Green Hydrogen in India: Green Versus Grey Hydrogen

Production of hydrogen: differences in costs and types of electrolysers

Momentum grows in the world for a green hydrogen future

India joins the bandwagon

Green hydrogen from biomass

11 How Far Can India Go in Replacing Fossil Fuels by 2050?

Projections of India's future energy requirement

Energy for transport

Energy in the residential, commercial, and agricultural sectors

Energy in the industrial sector

Summing up

Future hourly demand for electricity

Four model scenarios for 2050

Results

Concluding remarks

12 Biomass Gasification Can Complete the Journey to a Net Zero World

Gasification and the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis: the basics

Two major hurdles-transport costs and unstable markets

India's potential for generating biofuels and hydrogen from biomass

Black liquor

Rice husk and bran.

Bagasse and sugar cane residues

Municipal solid waste

13 Correlating Decarbonization with Population Density and Economic Need

How much of India's renewable energy potential can be realized?

The availability of land

Solar power potential

Wind power potential

14 Combining Decarbonization and Economic Growth to Open a New Future for the Rural Poor:: 1. What Solar and Wind Energy can do:

The contribution that wind turbines can make to economic growth and employment

Solar and wind power generation have been seen as ends in themselves, not as means to an end.

Finding the land for solar and wind projects

The potential of SPV power to generate incomes and jobs and its impediments

Royalties on the coverage area of wind turbines can have an equally important impact on rural poverty

15 Combining Decarbonization and Economic Growth to Open a New Future for the Rural Poor: Biomass gasification could be the answer

Two-stage biorefineries

Social benefits from two-stage biorefineries

Coking coal for steel plants

Increase in family income for median farmers

For marginal farmers cold storages could be the salvation

Impact on rural incomes

Impact on rural employment-a simplified model

The menace of drugs

Extrapolating from Punjab to India

16 Summing Up: The Path to Net Zero and Human Survival

Shifting the locus of development from cities to rural areas

Potential economic impact of solar and wind power generation on GDP

Impact on employment

Two-stage biomass gasification: the way to harness crop residues

Employment-generating potential of biomass

The multiplier effect of import reduction on national income and employment

Notes and References.

Appendix Annexure 1 Earth: A Dynamic Planet, Fuelled by the Sun, Shaped by Life and by Tectonic Forces that Determine the Properties of its Surface

Appendix Annexure 2 Emergence of Humans as a Force for Global Change

From tribe to society

Appendix Annexure 3 Perspectives on the Changing Composition of the Atmosphere

Appendix Annexure 4 Perspectives on Earth's Changing Climate

Understanding the historical climate trend

Impact of anthropogenic climate change

Weather is becoming more extreme

The circulation of the global atmosphere is changing

Climate change and air quality implications for India

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

Description based on online resource and publisher information; title from PDF title page (viewed on March 27, 2025).

ISBN:

0-19-894476-4

0-19-894474-8

OCLC:

1511804047