Tamil Nadu may find its pole position in captive wind energy under threat as companies are reluctant to add to capacity nor is the sector attractive enough for third-party wind power developers.
That could see the state falter in its bid to add 6,000 megawatts (MW) of wind energy capacity by the end of the 12th Five-Year Plan (2016-17) to take it to 13,000MW from 7,162.3MW now.
Gujarat and Maharastra, which are a distant second and third in the rankings, could take advantage of this to gain on Tamil Nadu, experts said.
Madras Cements Ltd, the second largest cement maker in south India, has a wind energy capacity of 159MW. It doesn’t intend to add to this, but will instead invest in thermal energy, said a senior company executive who didn’t want to be named.
It costs Rs.5 crore to set up 1MW of thermal energy capacity and Rs.6 crore for equivalent wind energy capacity, according to Amol Kotwal, deputy director of energy and power systems at Frost and Sullivan, a business consulting firm. Inadequate infrastructure, delayed payments, and lack of incentives are discouraging further investment in the sector, critical for a power-deficient country that needs to boost energy capacity.
The trend in Tamil Nadu also reflects a wider disenchantment with the promise of wind energy as a source of seemingly “free” energy.
Madras Cements plans to enhance the capacity of the thermal power plants at Alathiyur, Jayanthipuram and Ariyalur by adding one turbine each of 6MW capacity at a total cost of Rs.55 crore, said the company in its recent annual report.
Last week, TVS Motors Ltd’s TVS Energy unit, which set up its captive 59MW wind energy unit in 2010, sold 90% of its stake to Green Infra Ltd, a renewable power producer as it was too capital intensive. The two-wheeler company did not mention whether the price at which it sold its subsidiary and whether it made profits.
Tamil Nadu gets 44% of its total energy requirement from renewable energy, with close to 90% of it coming from wind energy, pushing thermal energy to second place. This is much higher than the national average for renewable energy consumption of 12%.
With the economic slowdown hurting firms, most aren’t too keen on making investments in renewable energy. “Since the slowdown has affected the business of many companies, they would rather divert the money into their core business than put it in wind power,” said K. Vidyashankar, managing director, MM Forgings, which has a captive wind energy plant.
Wind energy is seasonal in Tamil Nadu—mostly between May and October. The southern state saw its wind energy capacity addition drop to 174MW for a total of 7,162MW in 2012-13, compared with about 1,000MW made over the previous two years. Last year, Rajasthan saw the highest addition of 614MW, taking its total capacity to 2,684MW. Gujarat set up 208MW additional capacity, adding up to a total of 3,174.9MW, and Maharastra added 288.5MW taking its total to 3,021MW.
The poor financial condition of the state power distribution company is leading to delays in payments to windmill owners, said Frost and Sullivan’s Kotwal.
Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corp. Ltd (Tangedco), the commissioning and distribution arm of the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board, reported a loss of Rs.54,000 crore in 2011-12.
It has taken over a year to clear payment dues. “We have cleared about Rs.2,000 crore backlog dues till April,” said a state government official.
Since a majority of the wind farm project cost is funded through debt (70-75%), irregular payments from Tangedco result in windmill owners struggling to repay bank loans. Meanwhile, the lack of infrastructure—in terms of transmission and distribution—needed to move power to the grid results in windmills having to be shut down for several hours a day, Kotwal said.
The reasons for inadequate infrastructure include incomplete projects such as the establishment of 400 kilovolts (kV), 230kV, 110kV and 11kV substations at Kanarpatti, Kayathar and Karungulam. Due to the shortage of evacuation facilities, nearly 15-20% of wind energy generated is lost, explains Kotwal.
“It is a sad state of affairs unless the transmission and tariff rates are improved,” said Ramesh Kymal, chairman, Indian Wind Turbine Manufacturers’ Association. “Additional capacity expansion may not happen as seen two years ago.”
The removal of accelerated depreciation for wind energy and raising the rates on cross-subsidy by the state has made the sector unviable, he added. It takes six-seven years for a wind energy farm to break even depending upon size and location.
On the tariff front as well, Tamil Nadu offers the lowest at Rs.3.51 per kilowatt-hour compared with states such as Gujarat (Rs.4.23) and Rajasthan (Rs.5). Tariffs are decided by the state electricity regulatory commissions.
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2013年8月20日 星期二
2013年5月14日 星期二
Obama administration allows wind farms
It happens about once a month here, on the barren foothills of one of America's green-energy boomtowns: A soaring golden eagle slams into a wind farm's spinning turbine and falls, mangled and lifeless, to the ground.
Killing these iconic birds is not just an irreplaceable loss for a vulnerable species. It's also a federal crime, a charge that the Obama administration has used to prosecute oil companies when birds drown in their waste pits, and power companies when birds are electrocuted by their power lines.
But the administration has never fined or prosecuted a wind-energy company, even those that flout the law repeatedly. Instead, the government is shielding the industry from liability and helping keep the scope of the deaths secret.
Wind power, a pollution-free energy intended to ease global warming, is a cornerstone of President Barack Obama's energy plan. His administration has championed a $1 billion-a-year tax break to the industry that has nearly doubled the amount of wind power generators in his first term.
But like the oil industry under President George W. Bush, lobbyists and executives have used their favored status to help steer U.S. energy policy.
The result is a green industry that's allowed to do not-so-green things. It kills protected species with impunity and conceals the environmental consequences of sprawling wind farms.
More than 573,000 birds are killed by the country's wind farms each year, including 83,000 hunting birds such as hawks, falcons and eagles, according to an estimate published in March in the peer-reviewed Wildlife Society Bulletin.
Getting precise figures is impossible because many companies aren't required to disclose how many birds they kill. And when they do, experts say, the data can be unreliable.
When companies voluntarily report deaths, the Obama administration in many cases refuses to make the information public, saying it belongs to the energy companies or that revealing it would expose trade secrets or implicate ongoing enforcement investigations.
Nearly all the birds being killed are protected under federal environmental laws, which prosecutors have used to generate tens of millions of dollars in fines and settlements from businesses, including oil and gas companies, over the past five years.
"We are all responsible for protecting our wildlife, even the largest of corporations," Colorado U.S. Attorney David M. Gaouette said in 2009 when announcing Exxon Mobil had pleaded guilty and would pay $600,000 for killing 85 birds in five states, including Wyoming.
The large death toll at wind farms shows how the renewable energy rush comes with its own environmental consequences, trade-offs the Obama administration is willing to make in the name of cleaner energy.
"It is the rationale that we have to get off of carbon, we have to get off of fossil fuels, that allows them to justify this," said Tom Dougherty, a long-time environmentalist who worked for nearly 20 years for the National Wildlife Federation in the West, until his retirement in 2008. "But at what cost? In this case, the cost is too high."
The Obama administration has refused to accept that cost when the fossil-fuel industry is to blame. The BP oil company was fined $100 million for killing and harming migratory birds during the 2010 Gulf oil spill. And PacifiCorp, which operates coal plants in Wyoming, paid more than $10.5 million in 2009 for electrocuting 232 eagles along power lines and at its substations.
But PacifiCorp also operates wind farms in the state, where at least 20 eagles have been found dead in recent years, according to corporate surveys submitted to the federal government and obtained by The Associated Press. They've neither been fined nor prosecuted. A spokesman for PacifiCorp, which is a subsidiary of MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co. of Des Moines, Iowa, said that's because its turbines may not be to blame.
Killing these iconic birds is not just an irreplaceable loss for a vulnerable species. It's also a federal crime, a charge that the Obama administration has used to prosecute oil companies when birds drown in their waste pits, and power companies when birds are electrocuted by their power lines.
But the administration has never fined or prosecuted a wind-energy company, even those that flout the law repeatedly. Instead, the government is shielding the industry from liability and helping keep the scope of the deaths secret.
Wind power, a pollution-free energy intended to ease global warming, is a cornerstone of President Barack Obama's energy plan. His administration has championed a $1 billion-a-year tax break to the industry that has nearly doubled the amount of wind power generators in his first term.
But like the oil industry under President George W. Bush, lobbyists and executives have used their favored status to help steer U.S. energy policy.
The result is a green industry that's allowed to do not-so-green things. It kills protected species with impunity and conceals the environmental consequences of sprawling wind farms.
More than 573,000 birds are killed by the country's wind farms each year, including 83,000 hunting birds such as hawks, falcons and eagles, according to an estimate published in March in the peer-reviewed Wildlife Society Bulletin.
Getting precise figures is impossible because many companies aren't required to disclose how many birds they kill. And when they do, experts say, the data can be unreliable.
When companies voluntarily report deaths, the Obama administration in many cases refuses to make the information public, saying it belongs to the energy companies or that revealing it would expose trade secrets or implicate ongoing enforcement investigations.
Nearly all the birds being killed are protected under federal environmental laws, which prosecutors have used to generate tens of millions of dollars in fines and settlements from businesses, including oil and gas companies, over the past five years.
"We are all responsible for protecting our wildlife, even the largest of corporations," Colorado U.S. Attorney David M. Gaouette said in 2009 when announcing Exxon Mobil had pleaded guilty and would pay $600,000 for killing 85 birds in five states, including Wyoming.
The large death toll at wind farms shows how the renewable energy rush comes with its own environmental consequences, trade-offs the Obama administration is willing to make in the name of cleaner energy.
"It is the rationale that we have to get off of carbon, we have to get off of fossil fuels, that allows them to justify this," said Tom Dougherty, a long-time environmentalist who worked for nearly 20 years for the National Wildlife Federation in the West, until his retirement in 2008. "But at what cost? In this case, the cost is too high."
The Obama administration has refused to accept that cost when the fossil-fuel industry is to blame. The BP oil company was fined $100 million for killing and harming migratory birds during the 2010 Gulf oil spill. And PacifiCorp, which operates coal plants in Wyoming, paid more than $10.5 million in 2009 for electrocuting 232 eagles along power lines and at its substations.
But PacifiCorp also operates wind farms in the state, where at least 20 eagles have been found dead in recent years, according to corporate surveys submitted to the federal government and obtained by The Associated Press. They've neither been fined nor prosecuted. A spokesman for PacifiCorp, which is a subsidiary of MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co. of Des Moines, Iowa, said that's because its turbines may not be to blame.
2013年3月19日 星期二
Wind farms don’t make you sick
A paper by Australian researchers that concludes wind turbines don’t make people sick — anti-wind-turbine activists do — is making a lot of noise in the anti-wind-farm community in Ontario.
The province has 1,500 megawatts (MW) of wind generation capacity connected to its power grid, the majority of it built under the Liberal’s Green Energy Act. Opposition to wind farms has been fierce, especially from those who believe the noise and/or vibrations from turbines is making them sick.
Professor Simon Chapman, an associate dean of the School of Public Health at the University of Sydney, mapped out the history of health-related complaints about wind turbines in Australia and found they don’t follow logically from the development of wind farms, but instead follow the growth of anti-wind turbine activism. The paper has not yet been peer-reviewed.
He found the majority of complaints — 68 per cent — came from just five of the country’s 49 wind farms, which are also at the centre of activism. There were no complaints from all of Western Australia and many other very large wind farms.
Chapman collected health-related complaints about the country’s wind farms made to Australia’s government, directly to wind companies and in Australian media finding that 120 people complained between 1993 and 2012. That is the equivalent of one in every 272 residents living within five kilometres from a wind farm.
“I find it implausible that if wind turbines in themselves were harmful, there would be whole farms using the same equipment, mega-wattage, everything, where people weren’t saying they were affected,” he said.
Wind farms have been in operation in the country since 1993, but health complaints didn’t start in earnest until 2009, when anti-wind activists began widely publicizing health-related concerns and a controversial American doctor dubbed the phrase “Wind Turbine Syndrome”, said Chapman.
He concluded wind turbines do not cause the symptoms — including insomnia, heart murmurs and other irregularities, headaches, vertigo, dizziness and nausea — at all.
“I don’t doubt that when people say, ‘I’m suffering,’ that they’re suffering,” he said. “But the problems that people speak of are very common in all communities. The question becomes not whether they have those problems, but what’s causing those problems.”
He argues people have mis-attributed their common health problems to wind farms because of activists’ campaigns. Some may have even become more ill because they believe that wind farms make them sick — a phenomenon called the “nocebo effect“, he said.
“For people who are not trained in epidemiology or social psychology and who are generally probably ill-disposed to wind turbines — they don’t like the look of them and think they are a ‘green conspiracy’ and it reminds them of the city where they don’t live — they’re a very receptive group to such suggestions.”
In Australia, some activists, whom Chapman calls “professional victims”, will tour rural areas where wind farms are being built and tell people all about their suffering from Wind Turbine Syndrome.
In some cases he highlighted, complaints of Wind Turbine Syndrome began before the wind farms were fully operational or operational at all. In one case, less than two days after a single turbine became operational at 25 per cent strength, a woman told an Australian national newspaper she’d been sick for three days.
Researchers in New Zealand exposed volunteers to 10 minutes of infrasound — the type of inaudible decibel believed to cause health problems — and 10 minutes of fake infrasound. Some volunteers were previously exposed to information from anti-wind groups, intended to invoke a high-expectation of negative symptoms.
Those volunteers reported symptoms that aligned with that information when they heard both the infrasound and the fake infrasound, while the other volunteers reported no symptoms. The researchers said their findings suggest psychological expectations could explain the link between wind turbine exposure and health complaints.
The province has 1,500 megawatts (MW) of wind generation capacity connected to its power grid, the majority of it built under the Liberal’s Green Energy Act. Opposition to wind farms has been fierce, especially from those who believe the noise and/or vibrations from turbines is making them sick.
Professor Simon Chapman, an associate dean of the School of Public Health at the University of Sydney, mapped out the history of health-related complaints about wind turbines in Australia and found they don’t follow logically from the development of wind farms, but instead follow the growth of anti-wind turbine activism. The paper has not yet been peer-reviewed.
He found the majority of complaints — 68 per cent — came from just five of the country’s 49 wind farms, which are also at the centre of activism. There were no complaints from all of Western Australia and many other very large wind farms.
Chapman collected health-related complaints about the country’s wind farms made to Australia’s government, directly to wind companies and in Australian media finding that 120 people complained between 1993 and 2012. That is the equivalent of one in every 272 residents living within five kilometres from a wind farm.
“I find it implausible that if wind turbines in themselves were harmful, there would be whole farms using the same equipment, mega-wattage, everything, where people weren’t saying they were affected,” he said.
Wind farms have been in operation in the country since 1993, but health complaints didn’t start in earnest until 2009, when anti-wind activists began widely publicizing health-related concerns and a controversial American doctor dubbed the phrase “Wind Turbine Syndrome”, said Chapman.
He concluded wind turbines do not cause the symptoms — including insomnia, heart murmurs and other irregularities, headaches, vertigo, dizziness and nausea — at all.
“I don’t doubt that when people say, ‘I’m suffering,’ that they’re suffering,” he said. “But the problems that people speak of are very common in all communities. The question becomes not whether they have those problems, but what’s causing those problems.”
He argues people have mis-attributed their common health problems to wind farms because of activists’ campaigns. Some may have even become more ill because they believe that wind farms make them sick — a phenomenon called the “nocebo effect“, he said.
“For people who are not trained in epidemiology or social psychology and who are generally probably ill-disposed to wind turbines — they don’t like the look of them and think they are a ‘green conspiracy’ and it reminds them of the city where they don’t live — they’re a very receptive group to such suggestions.”
In Australia, some activists, whom Chapman calls “professional victims”, will tour rural areas where wind farms are being built and tell people all about their suffering from Wind Turbine Syndrome.
In some cases he highlighted, complaints of Wind Turbine Syndrome began before the wind farms were fully operational or operational at all. In one case, less than two days after a single turbine became operational at 25 per cent strength, a woman told an Australian national newspaper she’d been sick for three days.
Researchers in New Zealand exposed volunteers to 10 minutes of infrasound — the type of inaudible decibel believed to cause health problems — and 10 minutes of fake infrasound. Some volunteers were previously exposed to information from anti-wind groups, intended to invoke a high-expectation of negative symptoms.
Those volunteers reported symptoms that aligned with that information when they heard both the infrasound and the fake infrasound, while the other volunteers reported no symptoms. The researchers said their findings suggest psychological expectations could explain the link between wind turbine exposure and health complaints.
2012年12月11日 星期二
High-end, High-tech
Many luxury carmakers are leveraging the latest technology to help their vehicles stand out in a crowded market and give motorists a compelling reason to trade in their existing rides for the latest posh models.
“The competition is particularly intense among the German automakers,” said Clifford Atiyeh, senior news editor at MSN Autos. “When one of them offers something, the others follow with remarkable speed. New technology, if marketed correctly, increases vehicle prices and profit margins, especially when desirable features are bundled in option packages costing thousands of dollars each. To get a backup camera, for example, you may also have to buy adaptive cruise control and upgraded seats.”
The race among high-end manufacturers to incorporate new high-tech features is so aggressive, in part, because many less-expensive models now offer features previously only available in really expensive cars.
For example, the 2013 Honda Accord and Ford Fusion both offer lane-keeping systems and blind-spot detection. Hyundai made heated front and rear seats standard on the 2012 Elantra Limited, along with a power moonroof and mirror-embedded turn signals.
With lower-end vehicles hijacking much of their tech cachet, luxury automakers have been forced to find “the next big thing” to stimulate the luxury end of the market. They’re pulling out all the stops to offer new innovations that justify premium prices.
Mercedes-Benz is offering what amounts to the world’s most sophisticated windshield wiper/washer system in its 2013 SL-Class hardtop roadster. Called Magic Vision Control, it squirts washer fluid onto the windshield (via channels embedded into the wiper blade) in both directions of travel to avoid any oversplash. And the SL’s onboard computer allows web browsing while the vehicle is stationary, so you’re never far from Facebook.
The new Rolls-Royce night vision system can identify human forms up to 300 yards away (a greater distance than headlights can reach) and relay a warning to the driver. This warning is displayed on the windshield via a “heads-up” display system that also includes information like vehicle speed and navigation instructions, reducing the need to take one’s eyes off of the road.
Other new safety features on Rolls-Royce vehicles include LED headlamps that can change direction to cast more light into turns, as well as adjust beam intensity and pattern depending on vehicle speed and orientation.
GMC’s redesigned 2013 Acadia SUV claims to be the first vehicle on the market with a front-center air-bag system, created to protect drivers and front passengers in far-side impact crashes where the affected occupants are on the opposite, non-struck side of the vehicle. The air bag deploys from the inboard side of the driver’s seat and positions itself between the driver and front passenger.
Standard on GMC’s upscale Acadia Denali version is a heads-up display that monitors your speed and other critical driving information continuously, as well as Side Blind Zone Alert and Rear Cross Traffic Alert systems that use radar to watch blind spots the driver may not be able to see and then issue visible and audible warnings.
Luxury automakers are also upgrading their multimedia systems. One of latest is CUE (Cadillac User Experience) in the Cadillac XTS and ATS luxury sedans. The system integrates entertainment and information data from up to 10 Bluetooth-enabled mobile devices into a cutting-edge infotainment system. CUE reduces (from around 20 to just four) the number of buttons traditionally found in luxury cars to control the radio and entertainment functions.
“CUE doesn’t replace your smartphone or your iPod,” said Micky Bly, executive director of global electric systems, infotainment and electrification at Cadillac. “Rather, it allows consumers to securely store those mobile devices while channeling the information on those devices — along with your navigation tools, weather maps, AM/FM and XM radio, instant messages and emails — through a central portal in your Cadillac, keeping hands on the wheel and eyes on the road.”
Even more sophisticated luxury cars are just around the corner. The BMW i8 Concept is fast, fuel-efficient and also intends to lead the way in innovative vehicle light technology. The Munich-based company claims that the vehicle’s laser headlights are more efficient than LED lights, 10 times smaller and easy on the eyes.
“The competition is particularly intense among the German automakers,” said Clifford Atiyeh, senior news editor at MSN Autos. “When one of them offers something, the others follow with remarkable speed. New technology, if marketed correctly, increases vehicle prices and profit margins, especially when desirable features are bundled in option packages costing thousands of dollars each. To get a backup camera, for example, you may also have to buy adaptive cruise control and upgraded seats.”
The race among high-end manufacturers to incorporate new high-tech features is so aggressive, in part, because many less-expensive models now offer features previously only available in really expensive cars.
For example, the 2013 Honda Accord and Ford Fusion both offer lane-keeping systems and blind-spot detection. Hyundai made heated front and rear seats standard on the 2012 Elantra Limited, along with a power moonroof and mirror-embedded turn signals.
With lower-end vehicles hijacking much of their tech cachet, luxury automakers have been forced to find “the next big thing” to stimulate the luxury end of the market. They’re pulling out all the stops to offer new innovations that justify premium prices.
Mercedes-Benz is offering what amounts to the world’s most sophisticated windshield wiper/washer system in its 2013 SL-Class hardtop roadster. Called Magic Vision Control, it squirts washer fluid onto the windshield (via channels embedded into the wiper blade) in both directions of travel to avoid any oversplash. And the SL’s onboard computer allows web browsing while the vehicle is stationary, so you’re never far from Facebook.
The new Rolls-Royce night vision system can identify human forms up to 300 yards away (a greater distance than headlights can reach) and relay a warning to the driver. This warning is displayed on the windshield via a “heads-up” display system that also includes information like vehicle speed and navigation instructions, reducing the need to take one’s eyes off of the road.
Other new safety features on Rolls-Royce vehicles include LED headlamps that can change direction to cast more light into turns, as well as adjust beam intensity and pattern depending on vehicle speed and orientation.
GMC’s redesigned 2013 Acadia SUV claims to be the first vehicle on the market with a front-center air-bag system, created to protect drivers and front passengers in far-side impact crashes where the affected occupants are on the opposite, non-struck side of the vehicle. The air bag deploys from the inboard side of the driver’s seat and positions itself between the driver and front passenger.
Standard on GMC’s upscale Acadia Denali version is a heads-up display that monitors your speed and other critical driving information continuously, as well as Side Blind Zone Alert and Rear Cross Traffic Alert systems that use radar to watch blind spots the driver may not be able to see and then issue visible and audible warnings.
Luxury automakers are also upgrading their multimedia systems. One of latest is CUE (Cadillac User Experience) in the Cadillac XTS and ATS luxury sedans. The system integrates entertainment and information data from up to 10 Bluetooth-enabled mobile devices into a cutting-edge infotainment system. CUE reduces (from around 20 to just four) the number of buttons traditionally found in luxury cars to control the radio and entertainment functions.
“CUE doesn’t replace your smartphone or your iPod,” said Micky Bly, executive director of global electric systems, infotainment and electrification at Cadillac. “Rather, it allows consumers to securely store those mobile devices while channeling the information on those devices — along with your navigation tools, weather maps, AM/FM and XM radio, instant messages and emails — through a central portal in your Cadillac, keeping hands on the wheel and eyes on the road.”
Even more sophisticated luxury cars are just around the corner. The BMW i8 Concept is fast, fuel-efficient and also intends to lead the way in innovative vehicle light technology. The Munich-based company claims that the vehicle’s laser headlights are more efficient than LED lights, 10 times smaller and easy on the eyes.
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