Sri Lanka should evolve a green energy missionto be achieved before 2030 - Dr. Abdul Kalam

30 June 2015 03:20 am - 0 - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

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Dr. Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam, an eminent scientist and engineer who has also served as the 11th president of India from the period 2002 to 2007 is a man of vision. Dr. Kalam is always been richly equipped with ideas aimed at the development of the country. He firmly believes that India needs to play a more assertive role in international relations. Making his presence as the keynote speaker at the International Symposium on Energy Challenges in the Knowledge Economy held in Sri Lanka on June 26, Dr. Kalam expressed his ideas on concepts such as Carbon neutral cities and most importantly the SAARC Energy Independence Platform: Livable Planet Earth.

Excerpts are as follows:

I am delighted to participate and address at the International Symposium on Energy Challenges in the Knowledge Economy, here in the beautiful city of Colombo. I am happy to know that this Symposium is organised by the Ministry of Power and Energy. Sri Lanka which envisages organising the scientific knowledge base for plan implementation and will provide the forum for Sri Lankan, invited foreign experts in the field to discuss, debate and share futuristic knowledge relevant to the challenges that the nation is facing in the evolving economy.

This is in line with the mega trend of our times, where steady supply of energy is being replaced by a new paradigm which recognises two fundamentally new energy transformations: replacing oil with electricity in transportation, and replacing high carbon, finite-supply of coal and natural gas with renewable wind, solar, marine, nuclear and biomass energies for electricity production. The objective of this symposium “is to facilitate a rich exchange of knowledge among energy policy makers, researchers, academia, and industry, who seek solutions to problems of energy economy, sustainability of sources, and effectiveness in energy use in the new economy.”

When we are all here together, discussing on sustainable future, I would like to share my views on the topic SAARC Energy Independence Platform: Livable Planet Earth.

I would like to share with you one important aspect of Energy Independence. 86 % of the total energy produced comes from fossil fuel; around 14% comes from renewable energy and nuclear sector. In this situation, it is essential to find innovative methods to reduce the consumption of the electric power from fossil fuel and increase the deployment of renewable energy systems.

In India, we are already working on adopting certain innovative methods to convert certain important segments for improving the efficiency of the electric power usage from fossil fuel and increase the use of renewable energy systems.

For example, India has 600 million mobile users, and 250,000 cell phone towers, who consumes nearly 2 billion litres of diesel for power. If we convert these installations into solar powered systems, we save about 1.7 billion dollars and offset 5 million tonnes of CO2 emission and gain carbon credit. Next, if we transform all our 600,000 villages where 700 million people live, into solar powered homes and street lights, we may offset around 60% of fossil fuel usage in that sector.

With this background of energy saving, in India I have been advocating to convert the cities into Carbon neutral cities, which has taken a momentum now. I may also suggest Energy Symposium Sri Lanka to adopt such experiences including transforming Colombo and other Sri Lankan cities into Carbon Neutral Cities, which will create a new momentum in this mission globally.

These are some of the innovative methods to reduce the consumption of fossil fuel usage and increase the deployment of renewable energy sources. I hope these steps will lead us towards achieving energy independence in a much faster way.

Sea Waves
I come from an island in Rameswaram, in the southern part of India and not far from here. I was born in Rameswaram, studied there and lived with full connectivity during the last seventy eight years. I was asking myself what my island has taught me? It was a great experience of sea travel, great experience of climbing over sandy hills, sailing in my brother’s thoni (fishing boat) and bringing boats full of seasonal tiny fishes. Buyers from many parts of India and Sri Lanka used to queue to obtain fresh fish on the sea-shore. Also I have seen a real life experience of how my father built a passenger sail boat of forty passenger capacity, part by part, with two expert carpenters (experienced boat builders). When this boat was launched on a Full Moon Day, it brought great joy to our joint family.

When I visited Iceland, which was well known for volcanoes and earthquakes, I could see that the islanders have learnt and evolved a lifestyle to live happily and meet the challenges whenever they occurred. This volcanic island is blessed with hot springs. The steam from hot springs is converted into electricity and the hot water is supplied for heating houses and buildings, through an integrated pipe-line network. The technology has been developed to make their lives adequately safe through the research efforts, for forecasting eruptions of volcanoes and occurrences of earthquakes well before they occur.

Leading to Energy Independence
As you are aware, there is a continuous depletion of fossil-material-derived oil, gas and coal reserves as predicted by World Energy Forum. Also, there is a continuous fluctuation of cost of crude oil. In fact, presence of oil in a nation and business of the oil is becoming the liability to the oil nation instead of prosperity, for the reasons of changing geo-political dimensions. It led to many wars which the world is witnessing so far. This changing scenario has made me to think of Energy Independence. Inequality in the per capita consumption of power, leads to unsustainable development. Hence for every nation, it is imperative to achieve Energy Independence.

The world consumes more than 91 million barrels of petroleum per day. Collectively as a world, we are not only paying for the cost of fuel, but also paying for the continuous environmental degradation. The solution to these problems is achieving energy independence by framing an integrated policy and action for climate change mitigation and energy.

Let me share some thoughts about the global energy independence vision by 2030, which is just 15 years away.

Energy Independence Vision 2030
The Energy Vision 2030 has to be three dimensional. First, is to ensure affordability in access to quality energy for all. Second, is to ensure that the dependence on depleting fossil fuels is minimised thereby giving stability to the energy supply. Third, it has to be balanced against the environment aspect, by stressing on development of green energy thereby giving cleanliness in our energy.

The Energy Independence Vision has to be global in its implementation and a priority of all nations in the world.

1.Improving energy efficiency in industrial, transport, residential and commercial sector to reduce the energy demand growth rate by 50%.

2.Dependence on fossil fuels as primary energy source to be brought under 50%.

3.Replacement of petroleum as a primary fuel source for transport by less carbon emitting or completely carbon neutral renewable fuels. This would require an urgent thrust on research, development and deployment of solutions such as solar, wind, hydro, biofuel, nuclear and other forms of green energy

4.Reducing the nett emission per unit energy consumption to half of the current rate, which means from the current 1.3 Kg of CO2 per Watt of power per year to less than 0.65 Kg of CO2 per Watt of power per year.

5. Promoting distributed energy systems from small sizes for the domestic use to mid sizes in the few Mega watt range for the industrial use using solar, bio and wood gasification and other locally relevant forms of renewable energy resources.

6. Promotion of roof-top based solar power generation and thereby make every household self-reliant in its energy requirement.

7. International collaboration on promoting green energy development methods with a seamless flow of ideas and technologies.
Green energy missions for Sri Lanka

Historically there has been a distinct correlation between energy availability and economic prosperity of a nation or a society. In the future, the emerging trend is that there is also a strong bond between quality of energy and environment. Keeping this in mind, I would like to suggest the following missions which can be taken by the government and private sector of Sri Lanka.

Missions for World Green Energy Platform

Sri Lanka should evolve a green energy mission to achieve before 2030 for graduating from fossil fuel to renewable energy particularly terrestrial solar power. This can be especially realised using roof-top solar power generation in the 4 million homes in the nation. Sri Lanka receives abundant solar radiation throughout the year and hence the scope for solar power generation is significant.

a) Sri Lanka can be a partner in India’s sustainable development and they can be spread to Sri Lanka through the model of PURA (Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas).

b) India is busy in establishing a sustainable development system, particularly for the development of 600,000 villages through PURA. The employment generation and also clean power and clean water generation will be the focal needs. Definitely, Sri Lanka can be a partner in India’s sustainable development and they can be spread to Sri Lanka. It is indeed economic proposition related to green technology and application.

c) India has launched two ocean sat to study dynamics of sea and atmosphere linked. Scientists, Technologists, and Strategists of both countries can plan and build jointly an ocean satellite between India and Sri Lanka. This ocean sat can be a research system for planning the execution of green nation, green atmosphere linking to oceans of our regions.

d) I visualize both our nations investing in research and development mission for green home, green fuel, green transport system and above all a green habitat for the millions of millions of people. This can come about also as a strong academic tie up between the nations.

e) Sri Lanka can pioneer the work on developing bio fuel from coconut oil to power the transportation sector. India has been working in this domain for quite some time with some breakthroughs. Recently, an experiment proved to produce 760 litres of bio fuel from 10,000 coconuts which can replace diesel in standard cars. The cost of generating this coconut bio fuel is expected to be about half a dollar per litre. I am sure scientists from Sri Lanka and India can work together on such a large scale mission given that Sri Lanka has an abundance of coconut.

I am sure that Energy Symposium Sri Lanka will certainly succeed in its clean energy mission and creation of green jobs. The present climate change consideration is posing a great challenge to the society as a whole and I am confident, collectively we will find innovative solutions to the global problems through the SAARC Energy Independence Platform.

I am sure with our collective vision and action we ensure prosperity without poverty, peace without fear of war and a happy place for the lives of all citizens of the nation.

My best wishes for all your future endeavours.
Pics by Pradeep Dilrukshana

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Sri Lanka should evolve a green energy missionto be achieved before 2030 - Dr. Abdul Kalam

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