Corruption is common

Two of my cousins have talked about tax evasion in last one year. Another cousin is facing tough times in convincing his vendors to issue bills. Tax evasion is in the psyche of younger generation before they finish education. Maybe some among their parents, relatives evade tax. Maybe they see how lot of big conglomerates go about their business with the help of corruption. May be it is disillusionment.

But tax evasion is everywhere. Are you sure the caterer, decorator, musician or photographer for any marriage pays tax?

However.. Do you want the protection offered by police in your everyday life. Do you want the systems (albeit archaic and definitely needs improvement) which protects your right to property including land. Do you want the freedom to go on a bike to Ladakh, which is made possible by the army and its weapons. Do you want the roads that make these rides possible.

Our taxes make it possible. But aren't these taxes wasted by the inefficiency of the government? So why should the taxes be paid? If you have a better way of organising/spending your taxes and providing common services, may be it is your duty to come out in public and state the same. Lobby for what you think is right. Start a transformation based on research and dialogue. To convince the government or people to change the ways. If we are convinced that the structure of governance is reasonable in the country, then our responsibility lies in paying tax and individually making sure that the taxes are used productively. A great many tools are available with us including right to information.

Solar Energy is Going to Change the World

In a previous post, there is a quote "Energy is freedom. Growth is freedom."

It can be changed to "Solar & Storage are freedom. Growth is freedom".

I have no compunction in adding this zillionth article on the subject and feed into the euphoria that is building up. Yes, already governments are going crazy over solar, but the real revolution will happen when people start buying and making solar energy generation ubiquitous. 

I insist everyone to have a look at this solar cell efficiency chart. Future is written there. Efficiency of crystalline Si cells and thin film cells have plateaued at around 20%. But the newer technologies have shown more potential. Observed cell efficiency of ~45% implies that the cell converts 45% of incident solar energy into electricity. Yes, few types of cells have exhibited high efficiency for quite sometime. However, bringing the technology to maturity and to make it suitable for commercial production takes a long time. Hindrances can be prohibitive manufacturing cost, toxic materials in the panel, creation of a new ecosystem while there is already huge manufacturing capacities for crystalline Si panel, etc.

However, I feel that there is so much research going on in solar technology that it can be equated to human brute force. And commercial production of panels with high efficiency would result in solar technology spreading like how smartphone revolution happened over last ten years.

While I let my imagination run away, what if solar panels could be made with aluminium and easy to manufacture. Imagine, if all vehicle rooftops can generate solar energy.

Now, coming to how much land in India has to be covered with solar panels to supply its entire energy requirement..

Estimated energy requirement in FY17: 1214.6 billion kWh (Data from Central Electricity Authority; One kWh means "One Unit" - based on which our power bills are raised) 

Performance ratio: 75% (due to myriad losses caused by actual operational conditions, 25% of generated electricity is lost)

Average annual solar resource is assumed at 5 kWh/Day/sq. m (Solar Resource Map). This means that five units of electricity are incident in one square metre per day. i.e if efficiency of panel and performance ratio are 100%, you can generate 5 units day from one square metre of land.

So the area of solar panels required to supply entire electricity requirement of India is:

Ya, the land requirement is as small as that. And I have arbitrarily increase the values by 20% to account for myriad factors like very cloudy days, shading or whatever other issues that can crop up. Over compensated. Anyway there is this older article that says area of Spain is enough to power the entire world at 20% cell efficiency. So half of Spain would be enough if efficiency doubles.

Of course, energy will be available only for half of the day. If you want it for the other half, massive storage/world wide super transmission grid is required. Let us put it aside for a moment. Even people worried about lot of metallic junk covering the entire world in the form of solar and wind turbines, this is not much to worry about when you think how much of de-forestation for coal mines and carbon emission can be avoided. 

As land requirement is as less as that, why do we have to build these solar panels over ponds/catchment area of dams/any water body. I am not particularly positive about the impact on aquatic life.

In this context, should we even put up hydro plants in the country. Is it worth the environmental impact that hydro plants cause.  

In Indian context, solar is a boon as it uses less than half litre per kWh while thermal plants in India use two to seven litre per kWh. So switch off the lights/use solar panels and save water.

Of course, the problem of heavy metal pollution from the solar panels and batteries remain. But I pin my hopes on research in this field to come up with answers. This article talks about valid concerns regarding solar energy. May be, solar panels will turn into the enemy in another 50 years like coal and oil now.

Doing nothing

My mother always wonders why the super rich still engage in business. Why don't they enjoy the pleasures they can find around the world. Why do they exert effort to improve their business, enter into new business and are seen bargaining hard for their business. My theory is that it is simply tough to enjoy idleness all the time unless you are a sage.

We have grown in an environment where effort and achievement are appreciated. Being lazy or even appearing lazy is condemned. There are umpteen adages reinforcing hard work.

What are we working for. To feed ourselves and to live a life of comfort. We also enjoy working. Like a truck driver loving to be on the move through various places of a country. Like a teacher enjoying the development of young minds. Like a financial analyst loving to juggle numbers and convince a client on a proposition. We love that it provides an avenue to apply our thoughts and it offers an opportunity to achieve by functioning beyond expectation of others. Lot us have defined our lives through achievement in our career and our purchasing power. However, we also complain the taxing nature of our work.

Here comes artificial intelligence to shatter all of that. It can take up all the routine jobs and relieve crores of people around the world from drudgery of work. There is a proposition to offer minimum wages to everyone. That is the simple part. Are people ready to be jobless or to re-skill for taking up the available jobs. Large amount of people having lot of time at their hands would be a huge problem for the world.

Will our civilization find new goals to engage everyone. Goals like combating global warming, enabling space travel and exploration can engage a lot of people. Or will we enter into internal struggles. 

Will there be a boom in entertainment and sports, since so many people may choose to live on their minimum wages and would have lot of time to spend. Will more people turn to religion to find a direction to their lives. Will people invent more, come up with ingenious scientific discoveries as numerous people will have opportunities for scientific pursuit when their basic needs are taken care of. Will there be high demand for programmers, hackers, mathematicians and scientists to go through the complex world of artificial intelligence. Matrix-like where thousands of lines of codes can hide destructive agendas. 

How will the rich people/scientists/programmers etc react to people leading comfortable lives through their efforts but paying nothing to them. 

Marxist ideology on Power

Last time, I got lost in the internet jungle, I came across this blog on a book called "Austerity Ecology & the Collapse-Porn Addicts: A Defence Of Growth, Progress, Industry And Stuff". The book has the following amazing lines, which makes an anarchist punk out of people working in advancing energy freedom for the World:

"As a result of our audacity, our ultimate resource, each of the limits imposed upon us by nature that we have breached—from fire that allowed us to expend less food energy intake on digestion and permitted more energy to be given over to our expanding brain, through electric lighting that allows us to stay up after dark, to the technologies of the bicycle, the washing machine, the pill, abortion, and fertility treatments that have chipped away at patriarchy—has required a growing consumption of energy. All of these natural limits were imposed as arbitrarily as the rules and dictates of any illegitimate government. For this reason, one would think that the most defiant possible demand of anarchism—the political philosophy that challenges not just the power of the state, but all illegitimate authority—would be for the ever greater degrees of freedom delivered by the liberatory power of more energy. Indeed the entirety of the left, not just anarchists, in recognition of this potential for liberation, used to argue not against energy expenditure or technology, but that these advances be shared by everyone, rather than just the elite few.

Energy is freedom. Growth is freedom."

All the scientists and engineers working on the working stuff and the financiers working on the cunning stuff to bring energy freedom, KUDOS.

Link to the blog: http://boingboing.net/2016/01/12/keep-your-scythe-the-real-gre.html

Global Transmission Grid

I am enamored by grandeur in technology. And the envisioning of a world super grid made me slurp my mouth in the giddy taste of such vast infrastructure. World super grid could make it possible to run the world only on green technology. Sun and wind power can be shared across the globe. World might find a new energy equilibrium where the cheapest sources across the globe are tapped first. It will be a DC grid as opposed to the most prevalent AC grid. Link to the yummy article is below:

http://spectrum.ieee.org/energy/the-smarter-grid/lets-build-a-global-power-grid

Our Indian grid is poised to become a great one in next five years. High capacity lines already completed and in construction would make transmission constraints a thing of the past, I hope. Raipur - Pugalur 800kV HVDC line will make Southern power deficit disappear. Will seamless transmission bring changes in the power purchase dynamics. Yes, I expect so. Cheapest power should be utilized first. Existing long-term power sale agreements may hinder this re-adjusment. Utilities have to pay three years worth of capacity charges to exit a power sale agreement (the term observed in most of the power purchase agreements) and litigation may add several years for the process to end. Tata Power Delhi Discom's contention in CERC to exit costlier PPAs is thing to watch out, in this respect.