Micro-hydro: Power for new Generation

Navtej Kohli assuming that the era will come after few year when the people able to made small amount of power for its own use . Solar energy is the best means which make everybody to generate electricity for small use. Everybody knows about hydroelectricity power. But it seems very costly a person to generate power using water . But MicroHydro make it possible to generate energy for small use. Also the costing, maintenance also very low for making a MicroHydro plant .

Basically the term Microhydro related to the installation of hydroelectric power which can able to produce upto 100KW. The condition which is required for this plant is water rich area such as Remote Area Power Supply (RAPS). Some countries like Solomon Islands also generating and supplying small amount of power like 50kw with Microhydro.
It can be made with pelton wheel for high head and low flow water supply, for this installation just like small dammed pool just in the top of the waterfall which have several hundred feet of pipe leading to a small generator housing.
While making plan for installing low-headed MicroHydro plant its maintenance and mechanism are most important thing. Because low-headed system moves large amount of water and might be possible to be face encounter of surface debris. That’s why Banki turbine, a pressurized self-cleaning cross flow waterwheel, is often preferred for low-head microhydro power systems. Though less efficient, its simpler structure is less expensive than other low-head turbines of the same capacity. Since the water flows in, then out of it, it cleans itself and is less prone to jam with debris.
Most of the person considered Microhydro as complement photovoltaic solar energy systems because in many areas flow of the water rises in the winter season when the power of the sun are goes down.
Frequency stability
Many theories are behind what should be best frequency should be have for a ideal Microhydro system, but in the real scenario frequency of alternating current generated needs to match the local standard utility frequency. Usually controller valves the water supply to generate a constant frequency for motor and clocks. While taking normal controller under consideration, it is small programmable logic controller with custom program which use deadband to minimize valve motion such that valve wears out as slowly as possible, during water conservation.
A grid-linked system slaves its generator to the grid by measuring current, to assure that the power is always output, so the grid never drives the turbine. The usual scheme is to measure voltage across a shunt resistor on one of the phases. The external utility's grid controller provides precision frequency controls.
An independent system usually governs its long-term frequency from an external time standard. The hydropower's AC time may vary by several seconds per hour, but over many days, it doesn't vary at all. Traditionally a caretaker would compare a simple AC clock driven by the hydropower system to a shortwave clock broadcast and adjust the mechanical governor on the hydropower system until the AC clock read the same as the broadcast for a few minutes. Over time, the result would be good. With a modern PLC-based system, the caretaker can just set the PLC's clock periodically from a radio clock, say once per week. Some more-professional systems automatically set the controller's clock from a radio clock.

MicroHydro work Phenomenon

Rivers water are passed through settling basin to remove sediment which might be harmful for the turbine. After that water is make to flow into the Forebay Tank where it is directed downhill through a pipe called a penstock . After reaching at the bottom water drives specially made turbine to produce electricity.
Moreover Navtej Kohli appreciating MicroHydro system and want to make popular . Not only government but also private sector have to come up with new techniques for installing MicroHydro system which be low cost and low maintenance system.

Navtej Kohli redefining energy conservation!

ARE CURRENT ENERGY CONSERVATION MEASURES SUFFICIENT? Finds out Navtej Kohli.

“Alternative energy”, “recycling”, and “conservation” are terms that have become the buzzwords for the 21st century environmentalists. Although these solutions have long been seen as only hope to save our planet from the perils of global warming or other subsequent disasters, the sad news is – this isn’t really working!!

Reason??
The too much of management involved.

Let’s take recycling as a case in point. Did you ever imagine how many hours does it take to separate plastic, glass, aluminum and cardboard? Countries like Sweden and San Francisco where recycling is mandatory, people are either fined or jailed by the state for improperly sorting their recyclables. But despite of such strict laws in place, these superficial ‘buzzwords’ fails to fix the environment related problems.

Now imagine driving to a stinky receptacle, where people dump week-old pizza box into the cardboard bin or smashed can of beer into the glass container. Nightmarish…isn’t it? However, things would have been not as bad if people were not as careless as they are.

Recycling is not an easy call anymore. Given the large amount of money and government involved with recycling programs, it seems all the more useless to reprocess. And that’s not all! There is an additional set of costs involved in purchasing recycling trucks, hiring drivers for them, their maintenance and other petty expenses. Oh! And did I forget to mention the pollution caused by those ‘additional’ recycling trucks?

Another of those previously significant GREEN terms is Conservation. A word used or rather overused to alarm people that our planet is running out of natural resources. While being miserly with energy resources can be one solution to the problem, yet that’s not all we can do about it.

We have been devising ways to save energy since 1970, turning almost every stone to stay energy-rich. The researches on alternate energy, energy saving equipments proves that. But today, as we step into 21st century, this obsolete approach needs to be reworked upon. Our ever expanding energy needs demands an unconventional approach towards energy conservation. Things are required to be seen in a wider perspective now. The challenge is to discover an alternative that ensures boundless flow of energy without compromising on our standard of living. Nuclear power can be quoted as a perfect example here.

Keep your Kids Pollution Safe - Navtej Kohli

A child's risk of developing allergies increases by up to 50 percent from pollution caused by traffic, a rate that increases the closer the child grows up next to major roads, a new study says.

Navtej Kohli Blogspot features the report:

The findings, published in the June issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, revealed significant links between the distance to the nearest road and asthmatic bronchitis, hay fever, eczema and allergic sensitizations.

Pollution and allergies have been linked in previous studies, but the association was often attributed to socioeconomic factors, not the distance from major roads.

Oil on fire - Navtej Kohli

Navtej Kohli Blogspot brings some more recent news on rising Crude Oil Prices

Retail gas prices and crude oil futures reached record highs Monday amid a backdrop of Mideast tensions and dollar concerns, but crude ended the day lower.

The national average price for a gallon of gasoline climbed to $4.086, according to a daily survey by motorist group AAA. That was up 0.7 cent from $4.079 the previous day, and eclipsed the previous mark of $4.08 set June 16.

Gas prices have risen 2.9% in the last month and are almost 38% higher than where they were a year ago.

Meanwhile light, sweet crude for August delivery settled down 21 cents at $140 a barrel after earlier setting a trading record of $143.67 a barrel, 50% above the price at the end of 2007.

Despite the pullback, oil prices remain consistently over $140 a barrel.

Global Destabilization on the cards - Navtej Kohli

Climate change likely to trigger global destabilization, report says!

Navtej Kohli brings his own analysis...

U.S. intelligence agencies presage illegal immigration, ethnic violence, humanitarian crises and national security issues during the next two decades, all thanks to Global Warming.

According to the recent report Global warming may instill a series of destabilizing effects all over world, causing aforesaid crisis.

Climatic fluctuations and rising global temperature could further rock the already fragile regimes around the world putting more national security challenges before United States.

Existing problems such as poverty, social tensions, environmental degradation, ineffectual leadership and weak political institutions are also speculated to worsen in the next 20 years.

The effects could be most harsh in sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle Eastern and Central and Southeast Asian belt. Less rainfall and hot weather could halve the agricultural output in some regions of Africa, warns the report.

"We judge that economic refugees will perceive additional reasons to flee their homes because of harsher climates," Fingar said. "Many likely receiving nations will have neither the resources nor interest to host these climate migrants," who might be carriers of infectious diseases.

Overall, as many as 50 million additional people could be at risk of hunger by 2020, and as many as 1.2 billion people could suffer from water shortage.

Nevertheless, developed nations may fare better with an anticipated increase in agricultural production. But other problems like growing immigration pressures are likely to tighten its grip on US economy.

The report goes without global warming's latent effect on terrorism.

Lift Ban on Drilling

Navtej Kohli blogspot updates on rising oil and gas prices.

Bush urges to lift ban of offshore drilling

President George W. Bush will call on US lawmakers today to pass legislation lifting the ban on offshore oil drilling.

"With gasoline now over four dollars a gallon, tomorrow he will explicitly call on Congress to also pass legislation lifting the congressional ban on safe, environmentally-friendly offshore oil drilling," Dana Perino (White House spokeswoman) said.

The announcement came just hours after Republican presidential candidate John McCain called for the federal government to scrap its 27-year-old moratorium on offshore oil drilling.

His demand tapped into voters' anxiety about sky-high fuel prices but his Democratic rival, Barack Obama, dismissed it as "political posturing" that would not help gas prices and might do much to ruin the coastal environment.

Perino said the president had long pushed Congress to expand the United States' domestic oil supply but blamed Democrats for blocking any action.

"The president believes Congress shouldn't waste any more time," she said, while adding that he "is not taking any executive action tomorrow."

Some more Global Poverty Facts by Navtej Kohli

Navtej Kohli brings some more sad and unfortunately true statistics:

1. Rural areas account for three in every four people living on less than US$1 a day and a similar share of the world population suffering from malnutrition. However, urbanization is not synonymous with human progress. Urban slum growth is outpacing urban growth by a wide margin.

2. In developing countries some 2.5 billion people are forced to rely on biomass—fuelwood, charcoal and animal dung—to meet their energy needs for cooking. In sub-Saharan Africa, over 80 percent of the population depends on traditional biomass for cooking, as do over half of the populations of India and China.

3. Indoor air pollution resulting from the use of solid fuels [by poorer segments of society] is a major killer. It claims the lives of 1.5 million people each year, more than half of them below the age of five: that is 4000 deaths a day. To put this number in context, it exceeds total deaths from malaria and rivals the number of deaths from tuberculosis.

4. 1.6 billion people — a quarter of humanity — live without electricity

5. The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the 41 Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (567 million people) is less than the wealth of the world’s 7 richest people combined.

6. For every $1 in aid a developing country receives, over $25 is spent on debt repayment.

7. 20% of the population in the developed nations, consume 86% of the world’s goods.

8. A mere 12 percent of the world’s population uses 85 percent of its water, and these 12 percent do not live in the Third World.

Read more interesting facts on Navtej Kohli Rediffblog