Here is an essay on ‘Energy and Rural Services’ for class 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12. Find paragraphs, long and short essays on ‘Energy and Rural Services’ especially written for school and college students.
Essay Contents:
- Essay on the Introduction to Energy and Rural Living
- Essay on the Rural Services of Energy Sources
- Essay on the Alternative Energy Sources
- Essay on the Conclusion to Integrated Rural Services
Essay # 1. Introduction to Energy and Rural Living:
In most of the rural communities, quality of life is extremely low. There are people having no asset to talk about, no land, no shelter, no food, and are forced to live a miserable life under the trees because of their financial distress. Even when there is enough food, sanitation, medical care, education, lighting, hot water and community life are severely lacking.
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A minimum shelter or dwelling is a must for any human being next to food, to enable him to live a useful social life. The desire to build a reasonable good house of one’s own with maximum possible amenities is cherished by one and ails.
In order to improve the living standards of rural population, a number of projects like ‘Low Cost Housing’ or ‘Houses for the Millions’ have been launched by Central and state Governments to build new and low cost houses. The provision of maximum possible amenities with these houses and other rural services require cheap and abundant energy for domestic cooking, food production and processing, heating and lighting, community development, irrigation water, mechanised agriculture and cottage industries, based on local resources.
Transportation of electricity through grids to far flung areas is prohibitively expensive. Supplying commercial fuels like coal, diesel and patrol over long distances is very difficult.
Identify need for domestic amenities and other rural services and their present status of supply. Potential of renewable alternative energy sources locally available in the village and status of supplementary and appropriate technologies developed have been surveyed in details. Alternative modes of supply of these services based on local resources and available technologies have been explored. Under the severe constraints of resources and paucity of funds, an integrated approach to supply of rural services is recommended.
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Essay # 2. Rural Services of Energy Sources:
Domestic amenities for a typical village have been identified in Table P.6.1. Cooking energy is the main requirement followed by drinking water, wash water, lighting and heating. The common modes of energy inputs presently used are listed in the 2nd column of the Table. The proposed alternative sources are shown in the 3rd column.
The potential of these resources and latest technology status are discussed in the following paragraphs:
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Typical services for community life are included in Table P.6.2. The community services as on today are absent Therefore, alternative sources are recommended in the Table.
Similarly, the utilities in the form of electricity, water and steam are needed for the development of cottage industries in the villages. The potential technologies based on renewable and local energy sources are listed in Table P.6.3.
The main human efforts in rural areas are directed towards securing sufficient food. Nearly 65-80% of energy consumed is in the food chain systems. The typical food supply systems and traditional energy inputs are illustrated in Figs. P.6.1, P.6.2 and P.6.3 .Potential areas of substitution by solar energy are also marked in the same figures.
It is important to note the proposal for re-division of activities between rural and urban regions as marked in the figure P.6.2 and P.6.3 so that more value added activities are shifted to villages for rural prosperity.
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Essay # 3. Alternative Energy Sources:
India is bestowed with plenty of sunshine for 250-300 days per year. In South and Central India the annual average daily incidence of solar energy is about 4.5 kWh/m2 with the maximum even exceeding 7 kWh/m2 with the maximum even exceeding 7 kWh/m2. Therefore, solar energy can be used to solve some of the energy problems in rural India. Solar energy can be integrated with locally available energy sources.
Depending upon the location, the other sources of the village which can be exploited are:
(i) Water current energy in the rivers and irrigation canals where micro hydro plants working on low/zero head turbines can be installed for generation of electricity and direct pumping of water. It is estimated that 5000 MW capacity of power can be created in India with the help of small hydro turbines of 200 kW to 1000 kW capacity each.
(ii) Biomass for generation of power by direct burning in fluidised-bed combustors for generation of steam for a thermal power plant or production of fuel gas by gasification and running an I.C. Engine plant. The estimated production of agricultural residues in India is 200 million tonnes per year and that of wood is 130 million tonnes. At an energy conversion rate of 35%, total useful potential is about 75000 MW. The fluidised bed units can be used in conjunction with various configurations of power cycles using steam turbines, gas turbines, and combined cycles with and without cogeneration.
(iii) Animal wastes for generation of biogas for running an I.C. Engine or cooking gas. The biogas consumption is about 0.46m3 per kWh which can be obtained from 13.5 kg of cattle-dung i.e., daily producing of one cattle.
(iv) Wind energy for water pumping and production of electricity. Depending upon local wind conditions annual average energy per m2 of swept surface may be 100 kWh for calm areas and 500 kWh for windy areas.
Cooking Energy:
Eighty percent of the basic energy needs of rural India are provision of cooking energy, which amounts to 0.5 to 1 kWh/person/day with a peak of 0.2 to 1.2 kW per capita it is mostly met from traditional fuels like firewood and cow-dung cakes. Cooking usually takes place on open-fire places which have thermal efficiency of the order of 5 percent.
In case where firewood is scarce, dung and agricultural residues are used. If too much dung and residues are taken off agricultural land the soil may become slowly depleted of essential nutrients, causing gradually decreasing yields or an increasing demand for synthetic fertilizers.
Hot Plate Type Solar Cooker:
The Government of India is trying to introduce box type solar cookers with financial subsidies but with poor success due to many technical drawbacks in the design. The temperature obtained is less than 100°C and is insufficient for chapati making and trying which are very important cooking processes.
There is no provision for storage of heat and cooking has to be carried out while the sun is shining which is an odd time for preparing dinner and breakfast. Cooking has to be carried out in the open without privacy and in the sun which is very inconvenient to the housewife. In order to overcome all these difficulties, a small family size solar cooker was designed and fabricated at REC, Kurukshetra.
It consists of a flat plate with mirror boosters, an oil storage tank, a thermosyphon system, a heat pipe and a control valve. It would just replace a bottled gas cooking range. There are no operating and maintenance expenses.
Biogas Plate:
The technology for conversion of animal wastes into biogas via anaerobic digestion is well established and quite a large number of biogas plants both community type and individual types are already in operation. The biogas obtained from 13.5 kg of cattle dung, i.e., daily produce of one cattle, is sufficient to meet the cooking energy requirements of two persons and surprisingly, the ratio of human beings to cattle in an Indian village is two. The gas produced can be easily transported to specially designed gas plates through network of HDPE pipes.
Water System:
Drip irrigation of corn, wheat, cotton, millets requires 25 m3 of water per hectare-day whereas flood irrigation of rice, sugarcane, etc., would require 50 to 60 m3 of water per hectare day. In addition, water requirements for livestock are 40 to 50 liters per head-day. The lifting height of water varies from a few meters to 30 m. The equivalent energy requirements would be 135 W per hectare for surface water and 400 W per hectare for ground water.
Out of the total 143 million hectares of land under cultivation in the country, hardly 43 million hectares (a barely 25% of the land under cultivation) is irrigated. Out of this irrigated area, 23 million hectares are served by tube-wells ponds or such similar minor irrigation schemes. There are about 2 to 3 million open wells in our country which are motorised various modes of irrigation and water supply schemes based on non-conventional energy sources have been developed.
Solar Water Pumps:
The National Physical Laboratory, New Delhi has developed, Abhimanyu Solar Pump of 1 kW rating using R114. The total cost of the components (condenser, boiler, expansion motor, storage tank, collector assembly and pump) and development charges is of the order of Rs. 37.000.
Solar Photovoltaic Water Pumping System:
The Central electronics Ltd. Sahibabad (UP) has developed a photovoltaic system at a cost of Rs. 40,000 which can give an average water output of 30 to 40m3 per day with a maximum total head of 10 m. It is highly susidised and installed at a cost of only Rs. 5,000
Wind Mill:
The specifications of a propeller type wind mill-pump set has been standardised for installation in India are:
Maximum daily output 23 m3 at a wind speed of 10 m/s
Total cost of machine including transportation and erection is Rs. 11.750 and a similar expenditure is to be incurred on well boring and construction of storage tank. The Government of India provides a subsidy of Rs. 7500.
Biogas Engines:
The biogas engines for pumpsets produced in India are essentially diesel engines where air intake is connected to biogas supply. The diesel is required for starting the engine and 20% diesel and 80% biogas are mixed automatically to produce power. The biogas consumption is about 0.46 m3/ kWh which can be obtained from 13.5 kg of cattle dung. The price of a typical 3.7kw. 1500 rpm biogas engine with centrifugal pump of 100 × 100 mm including accessories and trolley is about Rs. 6500. It is subsidised by Government agencies. The cost of a typical gobar gas plant of 85 m3 capacities is about one lac rupees.
Biomass Gasifiers:
The agricultural and forest residues can be first dried in solar driers to restrict the moisture content below 15%. These are pressed in compaction briquetting machines to prepare feed size of 50 to 75 mm for the gasifier. On an average 1kg of biosmass produces 2.5 nm3 of fuel gas and 1kwh of shaft energy to drive irrigation pump. The total cost of a biomass gasifier with gas cooler and scrubber of 15m3/hr capacity. 5kw/1500 rpm diesel engine and 100 × 100 mm centrifugal pump with accessories and controls is about Rs. 37,000.
Water Mills:
Poncet water wheel or a Darrieus turbine rotor can be submerged in a river, water stream or canal to tap current energy from water speed as low as 1m/s. The mechanical energy thus obtained is used for driving irrigation pumps. Such floating water mills can be used in conjunction with Himalayan Mills and Hydraulic rams to meet the total energy requirements of a village in mountainous region for irrigation and drinking water and all the electrical power for domestic, community and industrial purposes.
Solar Refrigerator:
At the 1975 UNESCO Conference on Solar Energy, several developing countries stated that small solar driven units are urgently needed for preservation of food in rural areas where little electric power is available. A study and design project was undertaken at REC, Kurukshetra for the development of a small solar refrigerator. Solid absorption zeolite refrigeration cycle was adopted because of absence of moving parts, toxic and corrosive chemicals and expectation of long and trouble-free operation.
It was designed for fitting onto the cabinet of the present 165L capacity domestic refrigerator. It consists of a 1.5 m2 flat plate collector filled with 50 mm thick zeolite and can produce 9 kg of ice in 8 hours. The project experience can be used for the development of small solar cold storages for preservation of food in rural areas.
Solar Milk Cooler:
Nearly 500/600 liters of milk per village is sold as liquid milk per day and its chilling is done by the agencies procuring it. A village level chilling/cooling facility will make possible the collection once in a day resulting in large savings. For example, reduction in route kilometerage alone can result in savings of about 12.5% of procurement price. Rural processing of milk will also add value to the produce and increase rural income.
The zeolite solar refrigerator can be attached to cooling-cum-storage tank. The water refrigerant circulates by thermosyphon effect in the tank walls and acts as a very efficient heat exchanger, reducing the temperature difference between milk and water vapour to less than 0.5°C.
Essay # 4. Conclusion to Integrated Rural Services:
Geographical conditions dictate the exploitation of locally available energy sources for providing maximum amenities for the rural community. Integrated rural services can be designed from local resources available, for example, a hydro village in a hilly area, a solar village in south India or a biomass village in the plains of north India and hybrid village. The scientists and academicians can benefit from the proposals made for taking up research and technology development projects.