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This paper aims to investigate the interactions between CO2 emissions, economic growth and energy consumption in India for 1970– 2017 within the time–frequency domain using wavelet techniques. The results show that the interaction between energy consumption and CO2 emissions is strong and varies significantly across time– frequency bands, indicating that the energy consumption leads to environmental degradation. The negative effect of economic growth on CO2 emissions is only statistically significant in the short run. In addition, the findings reveal a positive association between economic growth and energy consumption across time– frequency bands, demonstrating energy consumption increases economic growth, which in turn heightens the CO2 emissions. There should be improved energy use and reduced CO2 emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent times, the virtual power plant (VPP) is gaining more attention in power system engineering due to its tremendous potential in enhancing sustainable urbanism, in which, it supplies clean energy from distributed generators. Electricity is deemed a basic requirement for future automotive and ultra-modern technologies. The deficiency of traditional energy resources and their complex generation process make the production cost of electricity increase dramatically. Moreover, traditional power distribution systems are encountering issues in distributing electrical energy to fulfill customer demands. Therefore, this paper proposes a novel power management system named 'the hybrid genetic local binary knowledge (HGLBK) algorithm' to manage power distribution in the transmission lines and to optimize the total operation cost of the network. The hybrid optimization algorithm effectively controls the load by supplying the surplus power load to the adjacent feeders thereby optimally selecting and placing the distributed energy resource (DER). The proposed concept is implemented at Kayathar, Tamil Nadu in India, and their real-time data are utilized for modeling the VPP. The proposed VPP concept is implemented in the IEEE-9 bus system and the performance of VPP is simulated using the MATLAB software. The performance of the proposed HGLBK algorithm is assessed by comparing its effectiveness with the existing approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Maize production due to its many climate friendly properties have been center of research and development in terms of yield, water per hectare requirement, and so forth. • Out of agricultural stubble waste, corncob showed highest potential for beneficiation amongst traditional cash crops. Corncob beneficiation products and their applications span from bio fuels to mattress, with over 3500 products. • With processes such as gasification, pyrolysis, combustion and so forth, we can use this agricultural waste product for energy generation. • With applications such as bio-oil, ethanol blending, poultry feed, bio char, methanol, and so on maize was found to be the answer to many global problems. Increased global energy consumption and energy generation constraints using non-renewable energy sources have stressed countries and major industries to practice and develop cleaner, sustainable, readily available and predictable source of energy. On the other hand, agricultural waste or stubble burning presents a major problem for developing countries like India as it alone produces 516 million tons of agricultural waste in the year 2017-2018, out of which 116 million tons waste was burnt producing 176.1 Mt Carbon dioxide, 10 Mt of Carbon monoxide, and other harmful greenhouse gases. Though 13% of India's total energy is produced by the biomass, a lot of scope and potential in waste biomass is still left unexplored. Research and development in biomass (agricultural waste) conversion to energy is the potential solution to both problems. Out of all agricultural waste biomass, corncob was the center of research for this review paper. This review paper covers global and Indian scenario in the generation of corn cob, its beneficiation and uses in multiple industries, characteristics of corn cob, technologies available and used for the biomass conversion, limitations faced by the industry in corn cob's beneficiation, future potential developments, pledged goals and projected targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electric vehicles (EVs) are fast evolving and their technological advancement is taking at a rapid pace. The performance usually depends upon two basic parameters for an EV, the range of the vehicle and energy consumption per kilometre for the vehicle. Drive cycles (DCs) play a major role in designing EVs. Many DCs are currently used such as the Indian drive cycle (IDC), New European Drive Cycle (NEDC), Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicle Test Procedure (WLTP) to check the performance of vehicle in term of their emissions and working standards. This paper compares an electric two‐wheeler scooter with these standard DCs for range and energy consumption estimation and found out that the range obtained using NEDC drive cycle was 130 km in comparison with the IDC which was about 95 km. The paper also highlights the importance of good infrastructure of roads in India to optimize the driving range of the electric vehicle and also stresses the use of good cooling techniques of batteries for range enhancement of EVs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multicriteria mathematical modeling is an analytical framework for formally describing real‐life problems involving multiple and conflicting objectives. In the past decade, multicriteria decision‐making techniques have been applied in almost every area of the decision‐making including energy‐economic planning and sustainable development. Various mathematical and analytical models have been presented for the sustainable development planning and their assessment. In this paper, we discuss an approach related to multicriteria decision‐making and apply it for the assessment of the sustainable development goals of India by the year 2030. In the INDC report submitted to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (2015, http://www..unfccc.int/submissions/INDC/Published%20Documents/India/1/INDIA%20INDC%20TO%20UNFCCC.pdf), India has identified many goals related to the sustainable development like energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, GVA growth, and an increase in the employment by the year 2030. This paper overcomes the energy resource allocation problem in related literature due to the lack of sectorial data for the same year by calculating the estimates for each sector for the year 2030. We presented a multicriteria decision‐making model which allocates public labor force in the key economic sectors of India. The presented model is validated with the data of the key economic sectors and their contribution in the identified goals. The paper provides a decision support for the better management of future sustainable policies by assessing the efficiencies of the current policies toward future sustainable goals. We evaluated the identified goals using the multicriteria decision‐making approaches so that the strategic planning can be implemented by the policy makers and to present a quantitative justification of planning strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the role of nuclear energy in promoting ecological sustainability in India, focusing on three ecological indicators: ecological footprint (EF), CO2 emissions (CO2), and load capacity factor (LF). In addition to nuclear energy, the study considers the influence of gas consumption and other drivers of ecological sustainability using data spanning from 1970 to 2018. The analysis also takes into account the impact of the 2008 global financial crisis on the model, employing the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) and frequency domain causality approaches to assess the relationships. Unlike previous studies, this research evaluates both the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) and load capacity curve (LCC) hypotheses. The ARDL results support the validity of both the EKC and LCC hypotheses in the Indian context. Furthermore, the findings reveal that nuclear energy and human capital contribute positively to ecological quality, while gas consumption and economic growth have a negative impact on ecological sustainability. The study also highlights the increasing effect of the 2008 global financial crisis on ecological sustainability. Additionally, the causality analysis demonstrates that nuclear energy, human capital, gas consumption, and economic growth can serve as predictors of long-term ecological sustainability in India. Based on these findings, the research presents policy recommendations that can guide efforts towards achieving SDGs 7 and 13. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the conditions of the spread of globalization processes, growing interdependence, and interconnectedness of countries, a significant intensification of the academic society efforts to ensure national energy security and independence is necessary. The purpose of the paper is to provide a systematic review of the scientific environment aimed at analysing the contents and features of scientific publications dealing with new trends and patterns in sustainable energy consumption. In order to create a semantic and definition basis and research the main trends of scientific publications on the subject of developing energy efficiency and sustainable consumption, the paper carried out a bibliometric analysis concerning the categories «energy efficient» and «energy consumption» using the Scopus and VOSviewer tools. The main question is, what are the main scientific and research trends and patterns in the field of energy efficiency and sustainable consumption? For this purpose, the quantity and quality tendencies of the scientific articles which are studying issues connected with energy efficiency and sustainable consumer behaviour were determined. A sample of more than 24000 scientific publications on this issue was generated from publications indexed by the Scopus database. The study period covers 2001-2021. On the global level, the analysed investigated area is represented by the countries: China, the USA, and India. VOS viewer tools were used to systemize 5 clusters of scientific articles that analysed sustainable energy consumption from different points of view. Identification of regularities in the developing of scientific approaches to energy-efficient consumption and developing sustainable energy sector was carried out using bibliometric analysis, which has made it possible to describe the dominant retrospective evolutionary and temporal tendencies in the development of this theory concerning the concepts of sustainable development, environmental management, and development of renewables. As a result, one of the most significant trends is a green brand and tendencies connected with developing green marketing and green consumer awareness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cogeneration is preferred mostly in process industries where both thermal and electrical energies are required. Cogeneration plants are more efficient than utilizing the thermal and electrical energies independently. Present government policies in India made renewable energy generation mandatory in order to minimize fossil fuels consumption and to protect the environment. Hence, many cogeneration plants have been integrated with renewable energy generation. However, post-integration effects increase and introduce inefficiencies in the operation of cogeneration systems. In this paper, a case study of an identified typical cogeneration plant where renewable energy is integrated is considered. Post operational effects on the plant due to integration of renewable energy (solar) are studied and by practical experimentation through cost-benefit analysis the break-even point beyond which renewable energy generation introduces inefficiencies is estimated. Next, a systematic methodology is developed based on the heuristic forward-chaining approach technique to establish the breakeven point. An algorithm/flow chart is developed using an iterative method and executed through MATLAB using practical data from the industry. Suggestions for suitable energy storage devices to store renewable energy beyond the breakeven point, based on a techno-economic analysis of energy storage technologies, are made. Further, the battery energy storage system is designed and the capacity is estimated based on the practical solar irradiance data. A rule-based algorithm is developed to control the charge and discharge cycles of battery storage based on predefined conditions. The payback period is estimated based on the expected monetary benefits of proposed energy storage and the economy of the proposed system is ensured. The post-operational issues are resolved by introducing energy storage. The methodology presented in this paper can be a guiding tool for optimization of various renewable-energy-integrated cogeneration systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper thoroughly analyses energy, economic and environmental (3E) performance of using different battery (BAT) energy storage system like lead acid battery (LAB), lithium-ion battery (LIB), vanadium redox flow (VRF) battery and mechanical energy storage (MES) like flywheel and pumped hydro storage (PHS) using three different dispatch strategies (DS) such as cycle charging (CC), load following (LF) and generator order (GO), respectively. Andaman and Nicobar(A&N) Island of India have no main grid. Hybrid Optimization Model for Electric Renewable (HOMER) Pro software is used to study feasibility of power generation using various sources. Study incorporating tidal plant with wind turbine and Bio-DG in micro grid is considered first time for an Indian scenario as per authors' knowledge with application of various DS and energy storage technologies. The superiority of LIB over LAB and MES is proved in this study. Wind/Bio-DG /tidal/LIB have relatively least net present cost(NPC), cost of energy (COE) of $1.30M and $0.263, respectively among five energy storage devices using CC dispatch strategy compared to other two strategies. It is investigated that LIB uses only 250 units of batteries, which is 46% less than total utilized LAB units for catering same load. In terms of expected lifespan, energy losses, energy production and state of charge (SOC), performance of LIB are superior to LAB. SWOT and sensitivity analysis have been performed considering fuel price and wind speed. Different techno economic indicators like cost summary, cash flow, fuel summary, economics, electrical parameters, renewable fraction (RF), return of investment (ROI), lowest simple payback period, internal rate of return (IRR), pollutant emission are considered and compared with each other for LAB and LIB combinations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India is crucial to the future of the global energy system, and hence to efforts to mitigate climate change. However, projecting India's energy future is challenging because of a number of structural uncertainties related to its still emergent development process – there are multiple 'future Indias'. This is particularly so given India's unusual historical development pattern and economic structure. This paper reviews more than 40 energy system scenarios for India to 2050 including scenarios of different policy stringency. This analysis suggests that the task of drawing policy insights is hampered by widely divergent, often non-transparent and insufficiently discussed, assumptions about GDP and its structural attributes as implied by sectoral energy consumption, industrial intensity of GDP, and sectoral demand patterns. It is these assumptions that crucially drive the divergence in scenario results, even more than assumptions about energy and climate policy per se. While divergent results are important for exploring the range of possible future pathways, policy insights can only be generated if scenario producers adequately convey a sense of causality, probability and desirability underpinning their scenarios. This requires linking more detailed socio-economic scenario storylines with the input assumptions and output results of energy system scenarios. To improve modelling for policy insight, the paper proposes that more attention be devoted to developing overarching socio-economic development scenarios, linking these to sector dynamics, and unpacking and interpreting model results. Key policy insights India's development pathway is characterized by a relatively low level of industrialization, precocious growth of services, and low and slow urbanization compared to similar countries. The unusual features of India's development pathway have a material impact on its energy system. There is a wide range of uncertainty pertaining both to India's future rate of GDP growth, but also to the persistence or reversal of the aforementioned structural characteristics. Existing modelling studies do not adequately detail and contextualize assumptions about India's macro-scale development pathway, and its links to micro-scale patterns of sectoral energy demand and supply, leading to a wide divergence of results and uncertainty over how to interpret them. Addressing these lacunae requires enhanced transparency and discussion of overarching socio-economic development scenarios for development, linking these to sector dynamics, and unpacking and interpreting model results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rural and remote regions of developing economies face a serious scarcity of reliable energy supply. Focus on providing electricity through renewable and off grid energy resources is becoming increasingly popular. Off the grid or decentralized renewable energy typically considers either solar or small hydro power to fill the supply deficit and increase in demand with time is generally ignored. This paper proposes a hybrid technology mix of various renewable energy options for two remote villages located in Darma valley of Uttarakhand state in the Indian Himalayan Region. Since the villages are at an average height of 3500 m amsl, they are inaccessible during winters due to heavy snowfall. Therefore, decentralized energy could be the most cost effective solution to provide electricity. This paper estimates the energy demand of these villages and identifies the most optimum off the grid solutions, and compares it with grid connected electricity supply using hybrid optimization model for electric renewables. Micro hydro energy generation was found to be the most cost effective and techno-economically viable solution. This paper also evaluates the barriers faced by remote Himalayan villages so as to achieve reliable application of the results of this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper mainly dealt with the technical and economic feasibility of an off-grid hybrid power generation system for a remote rural Turtuk village of Ladakh, located in the northern part of India. The study showed that the proposed configured renewable integrated hybrid system, using Hybrid Optimization of Multiple Energy Resources (HOMER) software, efficiently met the energy demand, exhibiting optimum performance with low investment. The proposed PV(115 kW)/Wind(1 kW)/Battery(164 strings of 6 V each)/DG(50 kW) hybrid system was a highly commendable, feasible solution preferred from a total of 133,156 available solutions resulting from HOMER simulations. The net present cost and energy cost of the proposed configuration were $278,176 and $0.29/kWh, respectively. The proposed hybrid configuration fulfilled local load, with 95.97% reduced dominant harmful carbon dioxide emission, as compared to the sole us of a diesel generator power supply system. The technical performance of the hybrid system was ensured, with advantages including the highest renewable penetration and least unmet load. Furthermore, the analysis exclusively evaluated the impact of the system's economic parameters (namely, its expected inflation rate, nominal discount rate, and project lifetime) on the net present cost and cost of energy of the system using a noble single fix duo vary approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the exhaust rate of the conventional sources has geared up already, this is compelling the power industries to install the power plants based on the non-conventional sources so that future demand of the energy supply can be fulfilled. Among the various sources of renewable energy like wind, hydro, tidal etc., solar energy is the most easily accessible and available renewable energy source. Ensuring the feasibility of any energy source not only technical but also the economical perspective is the most important criteria. This paper has incorporated both the perspective and has done the techno-economic analysis to determine the optimum combination of the PV array size and battery size to minimize the overall electricity generation per unit. In this paper, a standalone solar PV system has been analyzed for the location of Jamshedpur, where an effort has been done to choose the optimum combination of the solar array and battery size within the desired range of LLP so that the electricity generation cost per unit can be minimized. The overall duration of the analysis has been done for a year and the outcome of the research has been verified with the help of MATLAB software. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present paper, spatio-temporal variability in surface radiative energy fluxes has been estimated for snow/ice-covered Beas River basin, lower Western Himalaya, India using remote sensing technology and evaluated with wireless sensor network (WSN) collected data at various elevation levels. Surface energy fluxes are derived using Landsat-8 satellite images and digital elevation model (DEM) at fine spatial resolution (~30-m) during clear-sky days of the year 2016–2017. RMSE have been estimated in incoming shortwave, incoming longwave, outgoing longwave, net shortwave and net radiation flux and observed to be ~5%, ~ 6.3%, ~2.4%, ~18.9%, and ~28.3% of the respective mean values. Landsat-8 images in conjunction with DEM have shown the potential to retrieve variability in surface radiative energy fluxes at fine resolution in mountain terrain. Additionally, temporal variability in radiative radiation fluxes have also been explored on different elevation ranges and aspects slopes. The high energy fluxes have been estimated on southern slopes during analysis as compared to northern slopes in the present study. The paper appears to be the first for reporting net radiation flux for Himalayan snow cover at 30-m spatial resolution. The satellite-derived energy fluxes may be valuable in various applications associated with climatology, hydrology, wet-snow avalanche detection, land use land cover, mass balance, ecology, etc., especially in the absence of in situ data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electric vehicles (EVs) have emerged as a fast-growing industry not only in India but all over the world due to their environment friendly and economic properties. Moreover, it is being seen as a future replacement for fast depleting fossil fuels. But still, the international vehicle market cannot accept EVs as a ubiquitous vehicle manufacturing standard due to their short cruising range and underdeveloped charging infrastructure. Therefore, as an immediate and cost-effective solution to a problem subject to limited battery capacity, the EV route regularization, i.e., optimum energy usage route selection becomes utmost important. To accomplish this objective, this paper proposes a meta-heuristic routing model based on the principles of Artificial Bee Colony (ABC). The proposed model has been designed to consider prominent energy consumption influencing parameters like speed, battery health, road elevation, etc. Moreover, tractive effort modeling on different road surfaces like dry, wet, snow, and icy is also embedded in the design of EV route modeling. The simulation of the proposed model has been done to quantify its performance bys utilizing route maps as well as real-time information of vehicles' location by the Warrigal project as input. The analysis of obtained results has revealed the traces of saving in EVs' energy consumption of about 7.1% in comparison with Google maps if the route suggested by the proposed model is followed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rising price and demand for energy are significant issues for the food sector, which consumes a substantial amount of energy throughout the supply chain. Hence, improving energy efficiency has become an essential priority for the food sector. However, most food businesses have limited awareness of the recent technological advancements in real‐time energy monitoring. Thus, the concept of "Internet of Things" (IoT) has been investigated to increase the visibility, transparency, and awareness of various energy usage levels. This paper presents a case study of a beverage factory where the implementation of an IoT‐enabled sensing technology based on the embodied product energy (EPE) model helped to reduce the energy consumption. This arrangement made provision for the collection of real‐time energy data within a food production system to support informed and energy‐aware operational decisions, which lead to optimized energy consumption and significant savings of approximately 163,000 kWh in the year 2017. Practical applications: Given the importance of energy efficiency and Internet of Things (IoT), especially in the food manufacturing industry, this research reports a baseline application at a beverage company in India. The results allowed the company to use energy more efficiently to have an advantage over its competitors and better market positioning. More data could be incorporated into the energy management system with the use of IoT. The availability and accuracy of such valuable data would help managers to make better energy‐efficient decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The forecast of electricity demand in recent years is becoming increasingly relevant because of market deregulation and the introduction of renewable resources. To meet the emerging challenges, advanced intelligent models are built to ensure precise power forecasts for multi-time horizons. The use of intelligent forecasting algorithms is a key feature of smart grids and an effective tool of resolving uncertainty for better cost and energy efficiency decisions like scheduling the generations, reliability and power optimization of the system, and economic smart grid operations. However, prediction accuracy in forecasting algorithms is highly demanded since many important activities of power operators like load dispatch depend upon the short-term forecast. This paper proposes a model for the estimation of the consumption of electricity in Agartala, Tripura in India, which can accurately predict the next 24 h of load with and estimation of load for 1 week to 1 month. A number of specific characteristics in the city have been analysed in order to extract variables that could affect the pattern of electricity consumption directly. In addition, the present paper shows the way to significantly improve the accuracy of the prediction through ensemble machine learning process. We demonstrated the performance of individual Random forest and XGBoost along with their ensemble. The RF and XGBoost ensemble obtained an accuracy with an improvement of 15–29%. The analyses or findings also provide interesting results in connection with energy consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India, being a developing country with a fast-growing economy, experiences ever increasing electrical energy demand. Industrial and economic development in rural India is impeded by inadequate, erratic and unreliable grid supply. This has resulted in underperformance of smallscale manufacturing and service industries. Dependency on fossil fuel-based sources as an alternative increases the operation costs and carbon emissions. Migration to cleaner energy ensures sustainable solution and addresses the issues of depleting fossil fuels, global warming and environmental hazards. In this regard, hybrid renewable energy systems have gained wide acceptance as optimum solution. Hence, authors have optimally designed hybrid energy system for power deprived rural Indian villages. Authors have heeded to the vital element of incremental load growth over years while designing the microgrid to sustain the increasing load demand of emerging economy of developing country. HOMER Pro Software is utilized to accomplish system size optimization and authors have gained comprehensive insights into techno-financial feasibility for different dispatch strategies of the proposed energy system. The levelized cost of electricity of the optimal off-grid system catering to multiyear incremental load growth is 0.14$/kWh indicating that proposed system is promising in terms of commercial efficacy. The study performs a detailed analysis of the results obtained during different phases of the project to ensure robustness and supply continuity of the proposed system. The paper also includes comparison of the carbon footprint in the proposed system with that of existing system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India and China are the biggest developing economies in the world apart from being the most populous nations. The population of China is expected to increase over 1.4 billion by 2050, and India may over take China and become the most populous nation at around 1.6 billion populace. These two nations are home to about 40 % of the total population in the world. Apart from this, India and China have attained remarkable success in the economic growth denoted by higher gross domestic product (GDP). The two nations together contribute about one-fifth of the world GDP. This paper discusses about the changes in the energy consumption pattern of developing countries like China and India aiming towards the sustainable development. Furthermore, this paper also analyses the most important drivers adding to the ecological problems, and gives a further glance at the ecological impacts of these in India and China. Over the last 50-60 years we have been emitting carbon dioxide at an accelerated pace. This has had an effect on the carbon dioxide concentration and other GHG gas concentrations, in the atmosphere. The paper also discusses about the effect of pollutants like NOx, SOx, Particulate matter and Mercury on the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the strategies for achieving sustainable development goals is to close the gap between environmental vulnerability and economic progress (SDGs). The significance of renewable energy in harmonizing environmental and economic conditions is becoming a touchy subject in current debates. Against this backdrop, the major objective of this paper is to assess whether economic growth and environmental sustainability can promote renewable energy consumption in the Indian economy by using ARDL and Novel Dynamic ARDL estimation techniques. The results obtained from both the methodology shows that rising efficiency in the economic growth coupled with environmental sustainability leads to an increase in renewable energy consumption. We also find, from the frequency domain causality test, that there is a unidirectional causality between renewable energy consumption and economic growth & renewable energy consumption and environmental sustainability in both the short- and long run. The former causation validating the conservation hypothesis for the Indian economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Power system operation has become more complex with larger use of renewable energy sources, strict requirements of environmental controls, and need to maintain adequate security and stability norms. To meet the environmental norms now, Flue-Gas Desulphurization (FGD) plants have to be installed in old thermal power plants. With larger share of wind and solar energy resources, flexible operation of conventional thermal and hydro power plants is needed. The paper reviews various recent issues pertaining to power system operation in India and the challenges posed to ensure efficient grid operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The need for alternative and viable energy sources for the automotive industry is increasing due to the fast depletion of fossil fuel reserves. In the present scenario fluctuating petroleum prices. Inconsistent supply, global politics, conflicts of oil-producing countries sky-rocketing energy demands, lacking oil reserves make an energy-intensive country like India, vulnerable to energy security. For a few years, researchers across the world found Biodiesel as a favourable potential energy source to fulfil its energy needs due to its availability, renewable nature, low toxicity and lesser polluting nature. There are various sources of biofuel identified by the scientists and researchers so far, which include edible oil, non-edible oil, animal fats, microbial feedstocks, waste cooking oil, etc. making biodiesel viable for use and economical for production is the very next challenge for researchers. The present work, emphasises on various selection criteria e.g. physicochemical properties, structural composition, environmental aspects, economic aspects etc. to choose better alternative out of the available biofuel resources. This paper will extensively contribute to identifying the most appropriate and cost-effective feedstocks for biodiesel selection for greater use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the association among energy consumption, carbon‐dioxide emission, and India's economic growth along with supplemental variables including foreign direct investment, population density, inflation, and agricultural land. An autoregressive distributive lag model is applied over annual time‐series data from 1985 to 2019. Further, the robustness and novelty of the model are confirmed by applying fully modified ordinary‐least‐square, dynamic ordinary‐least‐square, canonical co‐integrating regression, variance decomposition, and impulse response function. The analysis results indicate that a cointegration association exists among variables. In the short run, the profound determinants of economic development are energy consumption, carbon‐dioxide emission, inflation, and agricultural land. In the long run, both inflation and agricultural land significantly negatively influence economic growth while carbon emission drives a positive impact. Interestingly, a one‐way Granger causality runs from economic growth towards energy consumption, carbon emission, and agricultural land. The new research presents a comprehensive understanding of economic growth indicators, aiding policymakers, and advancing existing literature. Consequently, as a recommendation, the policymakers should constitute explicit goals for renewable energy consumption to stimulate sustainable economic growth with carbon emission reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we examined the relationship between renewable and non‐renewable energy consumption on CO2 emissions in India by taking disaggregated data from 1965 to 2018. In order to determine the effect of long‐run elasticity of independent variables on dependent variables, we have used ARDL bound testing approach. The directions of causality of the variables are investigated by Toda–Yamamoto Granger causality test. The long‐run results reveal that hydro energy consumption has a positive impact on CO2 emissions but not significant. However, nuclear energy consumption indicates that there is a negative effect on CO2 emissions. It reveals that all non‐renewable energy consumption sources have positive and significant effect on CO2 emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Decoupling of GDP from all energy sources under multiple principles are examined. • World economy achieved weak energy decoupling in most years during 2000–2011. • World economy coupled with coal use and tended to couple with cleaner energy use. • None of studied economies achieved long-term GDP-embodied energy decoupling. • Decoupling delusions occurred when only considering direct and total energy use. Decoupling indicators are widely used to understand links between economic growth and energy use. However, traditional decoupling analyses mostly focus on domestic energy consumption (i.e., the production-based principle) and neglect off-site energy use across global supply chains to satisfy an economy's final consumption (i.e., the consumption-based principle). Moreover, analyses for total primary energy conceal an economy's preference for different energy sources. Therefore, this paper evaluates decoupling states of GDP from all types of primary energy use under consumption-based principle, for world economy and eight typical economies during 2000–2011. Regarding total primary energy, world economy witnessed weak decoupling in most years, and most economies studied (e.g., USA, Japan and China) achieved decoupling initially but performed negative decoupling finally. For EU, USA, Japan, Russia and India, production-based decoupling performances were generally better than consumption-based ones. Decoupling phenomena detected under production-based principle even became coupling or negative decoupling under consumption-based principle in some cases. As for each energy source, world economy decoupled from oil use, but still coupled with coal use, and gradually showed a trend to couple with natural gas and renewables use. Different energy sources showed distinct decoupling degrees from GDP, affected by individual embodied energy requirement structure. This paper uncovers potential energy decoupling delusions to deepen the understanding of relationships between energy use and economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Literature has highlighted the existence of a gap in clean fuel usage between the social groups in most emerging nations across the world, which is detrimental to global efforts to achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7 (access to clean energy) and SDG 10 (reducing inequalities) and just energy transition with recognition justice. This paper, assesses the clean fuel gap across social groups in India using three rounds of representative data (2004, 2014, and 2018) by applying the logit model, exogenous switching treatment effect regression (ESTER), and the Blinder–Oaxaca Decomposition Model. Such an analysis is instrumental in identifying the clean energy usage gap and its causes, thereby providing insight to policymakers to design policies to achieve just energy transition and carbon neutrality by 2060. The results show a substantive clean fuel gap between social groups in India, which is a cause of concern for just energy transition. Clean energy utilization gaps among social groups are alarming across geographical locations and consumption quartiles, highlighting the importance of recognition justice for just energy transition. The results show that in rural areas, only 19.6 % of the General Caste households and 14.5 % of the disadvantaged social groups (Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Castes, and Other Backward Class) in quartile one use clean energy, while in urban areas, the shares are 60.4 % and 46.3 %, respectively. To achieve a just distribution of the benefits of energy transition, energy policies should focus on disadvantaged social groups and simultaneously target General Caste households from a lower economic status and those residing in rural areas, indicating the need for targeting the neglected regions. [Display omitted] • Clean energy use has steadily increased among all social groups in India, indicating some improvement in energy justice. • Clean energy access gap among social groups has declined, but this gap still persists. • Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes are the most disadvantaged social groups in terms of clean energy. • All social groups from low-income families have limited access to clean energy. • All social groups from households with low education have limited access to clean energy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

World has been shifting towards cleaner and safer sources of energy. Reducing the carbon footprint is the need of the hour. Industries all over the globe are researching on reducing the pollution causing emissions and trying to improve in terms of using sustainable sources of energy and saving the environment. This paper would analyse the low carbon energy assessors (LCEA) in the construction industry. A detailed study has been conducted using primary and secondary research to determine the carbon emissions at different stages of construction. The study would help us in identifying the main phases and activities and components, contributing the majority of the carbon footprints. The need of this age is to work on this area and minimise the pollution and harm to the environment. The construction sites chosen are diverse and consist of all types of building in the southern part of India. The highest carbon emission component in building construction is the cement as a large amount of CO2 emission takes place during the manufacturing process of the cement. The minimum carbon emission that takes place due to the components from the building are labour, sand, MS steel and stainless steel. The study would give a high level idea about the impact of low carbon energy assessors (LCEA) in the construction industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy is an efficient source in the present world and it is very significant. Huge building systems such as luxury hotels, commercial complex, malls and educational institutes require chiller plants for air-conditioning purpose in their premises. In this paper, a case analysis on energy savings and efficiency improvement of a chiller plant is done for a luxury hotel building located at Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. The building consists of carrier make 2 Nos. 633 kW/180 TR and 1 No. 1185 kW/337 TR water cooled chillers. The chiller plant system at the site consumes up to 43% of the facility's annual energy cost. To increase the energy savings and efficiency of existing system and to achieve a lower number on the Specific Power Consumption (SPC), the existing chiller plant is retrofitted with 1 No. 879 kW/250 TR Premium efficiency chiller and an energy analysis is done by simulating the proposed chiller using Chiller Plant Automation (CPA) software and by understanding the energy usage of the chiller as per the site operating load and weather conditions. With the change in chiller, the system efficiency of the hotel increased by 40% and the energy consumption reduced to 38%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Government now-a-days are looking forward to achieve "Energy for All" standards. Countries are committing themselves to reduce carbon emissions. Recently, every IT industry giants, who typically own and operate huge Data Centers (DC) are looking forward to achieve "100% usage of green energy to power their datacenters, contribute to the utility grid in equivalence to their electrical power consumptions". Electrification and gradual decarbonisation still continue as significant, global concern. Hence it is pretty clear that need for MicroGrid (MG) based facilities is actually a mandatory. But intermittent-characteristic (unreliability/unavailability) of Renewable-Energy (RE) generating sources (like Solar Panels, Wind Turbines) regularly hinder both the stake holders-Government and IT industry from accomplishing such social and economic initiatives. Hence SmartMicroGrid (SMG) connected with utility grid are envisioned to support powering industries inorder to avoid future power outages. Interconnected industry4.0 factories where, actually the smart-management interms of two-way power supply and two-way communication network is foreseen. They are highly dependent on modern, integrated, Information and Communication technologies (IoT sensors, Fog and Cloud computing etc.). In this paper we have focussed on two objectives. Firstly our objective is to identify, optimum renewable-generation-capacities inorder to minimise investment cost of a microgrid. Secondly our objective is to maximize usage of more clean energy for applications running on FogMicroDataCenter (fogMDC), powered by microgrids and controlled by Sofware Defined Networking (SDN). We have used realistic meteorological data of Tamil nadu, India for our proposed work. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work proposed for two different scenarios, performance modelling and economic modelling aiding MG powered FogMDCs. Proposed economic modelling work is related to finding, the optimum sizing of distributed energy resources and financial cost. Proposed performance modelling is about, the clean energy usages in micro grid powered fogMDC for operations, supported by SDN for efficient distributed Virtual Machine (VM) based resource utilization to guarantee QoS in time sensitive IoT applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India is one of the fastest growing nations in the world with ample scope for renewable energy. Nevertheless, challenges in expansion of renewable energy consumption have resulted in pollutant emissions continuing to be a noteworthy environmental concern in India. This paper investigates the relationship between energy consumption, CO2 emissions, Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and international tourist arrivals in India during 1991-2018, using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag and Vector Error Correction Model frameworks. This study extends the Indian literature on economic growth, energy consumption, and pollutant emissions nexus by including tourism, an energy-intensive industry in the model specification. Results reveal that energy consumption and tourism positively contribute to CO2 emissions. A long-run unidirectional causality running from energy consumption, GDP, GDP2, and tourist arrivals towards CO2 emissions is observed. Our results suggest that sustainable tourism, energy consumption, and economic growth should be at the forefront of the economic development agenda of India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of non-imaging collectors has a wide scope in process heat applications based on its performance and economics. An experimental investigation of trapezoidal/concave cavity surface receiver (TSR) for non-imaging solar concentrating collector is carried out in this paper. The implementation of surface/coil receiver instead of tubular receiver for non-imaging collector is presented in this paper. A TSR with helical coil is developed for non – imaging concentrating collector, Elliptical Hyperbolic Collector (EHC). Experiments are carried to estimate the thermal performance of the system under various operating conditions such as two operating modes: series and parallel modes of operation of the collector, two circulation modes: passive and active modes. The stagnation temperature of the trapezoidal/concave cavity surface receiver is measured to be 118 °C on a clear sunny day in October and 102 °C on a cloudy day in February. The daily performance tests are performed under different operating conditions. Based on the experimental study, for the flow rate of 0.03 kg/min and 0.5 kg/min, the fluid outlet temperature is estimated to be 87 °C at 768 W/m 2 and 49 °C at 908 W/m 2 respectively. The corresponding instantaneous efficiency was calculated to be 9% and 40% respectively. The numerical model is developed to predict the temperature of the fluid along the receiver. The pressure drop across a receiver is estimated to be 9.3 kPa for a flow rate of 0.5 kg/min. Exergy analysis of the system is carried out and it ranges between 10 and 20%. The costs involved in fabricating the EHC system are compared to that of a non-imaging concentrating collector (CPC) of same aperture area. An economic analysis of the system is also carried out to study the feasibility of the system based on the life cycle savings method by estimating the annual solar savings from the EHC system. The present system can be a suitable option for low and medium temperature process heat applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The application of compressed biogas (CBG) in day-to-day livelihood has garnered significant attention in modern day era. It is considered as a potential solution to curb the increasing energy demand and other environmental concerns. The process involves anaerobic digestion (AD) (hydrolysis, acidogenesis, acetogenesis and methanogenesis) of organic substrate under an optimum operating condition (pH, temperature, etc.) via anaerobic microorganisms. This paper aims to describe some major facts about different technological options related to pre-treatment, AD, cleaning and up-gradation system. It also highlights the practical challenges related to high investment cost, inadequate infrastructure, clearance and approval issues, poor feedstock supply chain management etc. in adaption of CBG plants in India. The review examines the significance of both dry and wet continuous digester systems, which includes its advantages and challenges, considering factors, such as feedstock characteristics, process stability, and operational efficiency. It was also found that the type of feedstock and its availability in existing market plays a vital role in smooth functioning of CBG plants. Therefore, the study presents a comprehensive review discussing potential feedstock readily available for CBG plants in Indian market. It was concluded that the usage of agricultural waste (such as Napier grass) has higher CBG potential compared to other feedstock. At the same time, the study presents a broader aspect to policy makers and governing authorities to reframe the existing structure for financial assistantship, regulatory laws, subsidiary schemes etc. for CBG plant owners. It also gives an opportunity to technocrats, industrialist and investors to come-up with an indigenous technology with in-house manufacturing units to promote CBG production in India. [Display omitted] • India has 46 compressed biogas plants with an overall capacity of 272 tonnes/day. • Elaborated the significance of both dry and wet continuous digester systems. • Setting-up a compressed biogas plants requires high investment and operational cost. • Potential market for bio-fuels and bio-fertilizer needs to be explored in India. • Existing financial assistantship and subsidiary schemes need transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of role of irrigation in developing countries is widely recognized for economic development and food security. It impacts growth of a nation and contribute to the wellbeing of the people. In India, since independence agriculture has been the primary source of income and a major sector employing vast majority of people till date. Shallow wells play a very important role in irrigating vast majority of area as it is affordable to even marginal farmers. Ground water levels have been greatly affected by increase in population, urbanization, growth of industries, consuming level of food and energy demands. It can directly impact the agricultural sector and hence impact economy. This paper analyses the sustainability of such wells through a case study demonstrating the use of statistical methods to derive useful information. The results indicate statistical methods can provide useful insights into the sustainability of shallow wells. Proper management strategies that can lead to sustainability have been suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India as a developing economic power, has to rely much on its energy sector for growth and development. The growth is largely interlinked with the availability of energy and its judicious utilization. Also involved is the question whether the available energy is environmentally acceptable and technically viable. With the growth of country's economy, per capita power consumption has also increased resulting greater demands for power. India's power sector is mainly dependent on conventional or fossil fuels i.e., coal (60.1%) and gas (8.7%) (2015). India has around 10% of the world's coal reserves that will last for about another 30–40 years at the present consumption rate. The use of conventional fossil fuels has a negative impact on the environment due to the emission of harmful greenhouse gases. On the other hand, according to the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), Government of India, the country has untapped source of renewable energies such as, wind, solar power, nuclear energy and biomass. Globally, depletion of conventional fuel resources, is increasingly turning the focus on non-conventional sources of energy. The present paper is a review of biomass energy, its sources and its energy efficiency. Even though sources of biomass fuels are widely available all across India, these are still largely underutilized. According to the available statistics, in India the share of renewable energy has increased from 7.8% to 12.3% during 2012-13 and to 12.95% as on 31st March 2014, this paper also highlights the challenges and advantages of biomass energy over conventional fuels as well as utilization and applicability of biomass in sintering process as a replacement for coke. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sustainability transition of electricity sectors is a matter of competition between multiple emerging renewable systems and dominant, established conventional systems. These transitions are multi-dimensional and are featured with non-linear and causal interactions between social, technical, economic and political components. Understanding the dynamic of transitions, i.e. how transitions unfold, can inform effective policy interventions. This paper aims to present a narrative-modelling approach to improve the understanding and description of transition dynamics in electricity sectors. The central ideas of the paper are: (1) the use of qualitative transition narratives helps to capture the co-evolving nature of society and technology which are simplified in modelling approaches; (2) narratives, with concepts from the sustainability transitions field, also guide the development of a model structure; and (3) computational models, in return, reproduce the complexity of transition dynamics, i.e. feedback loops, non-linearity, and time delays—the features which are impracticable to analyse with transition narratives alone. We use the historical transition of India's electricity sector to demonstrate the implementation of our proposed approach. First, an overview of the transition narratives is presented and the model structure, developed based on the narratives, is explained. Then, it is argued how the coupling of the narratives and model improves our understating of the positive impacts as well as the side-effects of stable feed-in tariffs and accelerated depreciation on the penetration levels of wind and solar electricity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India's commitment to Paris Climate Change Agreement through its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) will require the energy system to gradually move away from fossil fuels. The current energy system is witnessing a transformation to achieve these through renewable energy targets and enhanced energy efficiency (EE) actions in all sectors. More stringent global GHG mitigation targets of 2 °C and well below 2 °C regimes would impose further challenges and uncertainties for the Indian energy systems. This paper provides a quantitative assessment using bottom-up optimization model (AIM/Enduse) to assess these until 2050 for meeting carbon mitigation commitments while achieving the national sustainable development goals. Energy transformation trajectories under five scenarios synchronized with climate mitigation regimes are explored—Business As Usual scenario (BAU), NDC scenario, 2 °C scenarios (early and late actions), and well below 2 °C scenario. The key results from the study include (a) coal-based power plants older than 30 years under NDC and older than 20 years for deeper CO2 mitigation will be stranded before their lifetime, (b) increase in renewables of up to 225–280 GW by 2050 will require battery storage with improved integrated smart grid infrastructure, (c) growth in nuclear to 27–32 GW by 2050 is dependent on nuclear supply availability, (d) gradual shift towards electrification in industry, building, and transport sectors, and (e) installation of CCS technologies in power and industry sectors. Cumulative investments of up to 6–8 trillion USD (approximately) will be required during 2015–2030 to implement the actions required to transform the current energy systems in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sagar Island which is located in the world's largest delta, the Sunderban, in the eastern coast of India faces severe power crunch. Due to its isolated location, the power infrastructure is underdeveloped. This has led to very unreliable power supply and frequent power cuts. The island being economically weak, power is inaccessible to most of its residents. Thus, the per unit energy consumption of the area is low and it has led to the lowering of the human development index of the area. However, Sagar Island, owing to its location, has huge solar and wind power potential. This paper discusses the prospect of developing a solar-wind hybrid power plant to supply power to the area. The developed hybrid renewable energy system (HRES) power plant will provide uninterrupted power to the island. Results show that the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) from the proposed power plant is 0.03707 $/kWh, which is lower than the LCOE from the available grid. Lowering the cost of electricity will make electricity accessible to most of the inhabitants of the island. This will, in turn, increase the per unit energy consumption and hence the human development index. The proposed power plant will also help the environment by reducing CO2 emissions by 1894.08 tonnes annually. It will also save 587.39 tonnes of coal in its lifetime. Hence, the HRES power plant will make power accessible and also help Sagar Island to become a renewable fed "Green Island.". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The probable availability of renewable power sources is unexceptionable, and the government of India is setting high goals for the use of renewable energy. Renewable distributed generation (DG) reduces the need for fossil fuels, relieve environment change, and decrease radiations of CO2 and other perfluorocarbons. DGs and capacitors are more desirable choices to balance power demand closer to the load centres than centralized power generation. Optimal position and capacity of DGs play an essential role in enhancing the performance of distribution systems in terms of system loss mitigation, voltage profile enhancement and stability concerns. This paper introduces Harris Hawk Optimization (HHO) and Teaching Learning-Based Optimization (TLBO) approaches for efficient distribution of different types of DGs in the radial distribution system (RDS) to enhance system loss minimization, voltage profile, yearly energy savings and decreasing the greenhouse gas emissions. The aim is to depreciate system energy losses, cost of energy losses and more reliable voltage regulation within the frame-work of RDS planning. Four different cases are considered to assess the suggested algorithms. Simulations are carried out on IEEE 33-bus and 69-bus test RDSs. The preponderance of the recommended approaches has been shown by analysing the results with techniques available in the literature. The comparison is made based on the power losses and voltage profile of RDS. The outcomes reveal that a significant decrease in power loss, enrichment of the voltage profile across the network and exactness of the suggested methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fossil fuels such as coal, petroleum, and natural gas have been used as the major sources of energy in the recent past. However, the negative environmental impacts associated with the emission of the greenhouse gases from these conventional energy sources forced to realize the importance of renewable energy resources. At the same time, the average annual exponential rate of population growth in India needs increasing amounts of fresh-water for the basic necessities. This might result in water scarcity as the overall population in India is expected to increase to 1.60 billion by 2050. It has been forecasted that, by the year 2040, India will rank 40th in the world in terms of water scarcity. To meet the rising fresh-water demand, desalination is an intelligent and sustainable option for India, which has a very long coastline measuring 7517 km. In this paper, an attempt has been made to provide a comprehensive review of water scarcity in India and suggest a possible solution, which is implementing desalination technologies coupled with renewable resources. The paper reviews the ground water scenario in India and the global desalination market. We summarize the energy consumption in various desalination processes and provide a brief outlook of the desalination techniques in India. Apart from this, desalination using non-conventional sources such as solar, wind, and geothermal energy is discussed. In addition, factors affecting the environment due to desalination and the potential counter measures are presented. This review aims to provide an awareness of the projected water crisis in India, in the coming decades, and is also aimed to help the policy makers for selecting an appropriate desalination technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The annual consumption of petroleum products in India was about 221 million metric tons in 2015. Of this, 84% was imported. The Indian industrial sector accounts for about 16%-20% of the total fuel consumption for thermal energy for different heating applications in the temperature range of 50°C--250 °C. Solar collectors can meet these temperature requirements and offer the possibility to mitigate the consumption of oil. This study highlights the fact that conversion efficiency from solar energy is much higher for process heating than for electricity generation and that process heating applications constitute a significant share of industrial energy consumption. In this paper, a methodology has been developed to estimate the potential for integration of solar collectors for process heating. The methodology employs process operating temperatures to select the type of solar collectors. The size of the solar field is estimated taking into account the thermal heat loads, working fluid and temperatures of these processes, the efficiency of the chosen solar collectors, location-based solar irradiance and capacity utilization of the solar collectors. The proposed methodology has been validated with a software tool called System Advisor Model (SAM). The techno-economic analysis will indicate the viability of solar systems for integration in industries. Therefore, the consociated parameters on economic (capital cost, fuel oil savings, monetary benefits), financial (Payback periods, Rates of Returns) and environmental (Carbon savings) are estimated. Further, the methodology has been applied to select Indian industries to verify its potential quantitatively. The industries selected include Textile, Pulp & Paper, Dairy, Leather and Automobile. Process-wise energy demands are considered while estimating the potential as the fuel requirement offset by solar energy in terms of absolute fuel oil savings, monetary benefits and carbon savings. The other economic and financial parameters mentioned above were estimated to verify the capability and present the market position of solar systems. Further, sensitivity analyses have been performed with respect to solar energy penetration and fuel oil prices to address the viability of integration of solar energy for process heating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the causality between energy consumption, carbon emissions and economic growth is helpful for policymakers to formulate energy, environmental and economic policies. For the first time, based on nonlinear dynamics, this paper employs multispatial convergent cross mapping (CCM) to revisit the energy-carbon-economy causation for China, India and the G7 countries using both aggregate data and per capita data. The findings indicate that there are significant differences between developing countries and developed countries. A bidirectional nexus between energy consumption, carbon emissions and economic growth is found in China and India, but various causal relationships are identified in the G7 countries, including bidirectional, unidirectional and neutral nexus. The results confirm that the decoupling phenomenon is common in most G7 countries. By leveraging a variety of samples and a new approach, this study provides new evidence for policy authorities to formulate country-specific policies to obtain better environmental quality while achieving sustainable economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research paper deals with the experimental thermodynamic analysis of a forced convection solar air heater using pin-fin absorber plate and compared with the standard flat absorber plate. The experiments were carried out during the months of February 2018 and March 2018 at Coimbatore city in India. The performance parameters such as, outlet air temperature, energy efficiency, thermohydraulic efficiency, and exergy efficiency are used for performance comparisons. The results showed that the pin-fin absorber plate has about 17 °C higher outlet air temperature when compared to the flat absorber plate. The energy efficiency of a forced convection solar air heater using pin-fin absorber plate was found to be 3% to 12% higher when compared to flat absorber plate with 2% to 11% higher exergy efficiency. The results confirmed that forced convection solar air heaters using pin-fin absorber plate is having significant performance improvement in thermodynamic performance with minimum pressure drop across the air heater duct. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Appliance labels are a widely used policy instrument to increase the adoption of energy-efficient technologies. Most countries use categorical labels to facilitate comparison of appliances based on energy consumption. Studies have found that consumers respond positively to the labels, but the differentiated response to the categories on labels is not well understood in the literature. This study presents the results of a discrete choice experiment corroborated by an analysis of secondary market data to demonstrate that consumers differentiate between label categories; with a greater value being placed on appliances with higher levels of energy efficiency performance. We examine two appliances - air conditioners and refrigerators and observe that there are some differences in consumer response - likely due to the different usage patterns of the two appliances. Consumer responses were observed in hypothetical choice situations constructed ensuring statistical and design efficiency. In a mixed logit model specification with correlated random parameters, the magnitude and the distribution of consumer preference for the highest category of energy efficiency are estimated. The results are validated by estimating the incremental price of higher category of energy efficiency using market data for comparison. The sources of consumer heterogeneity for the highest category of energy efficiency are identified after controlling for other consumer variables. The findings presented in this paper are useful for improving the effectiveness of existing energy efficiency programs and designing new programs to accelerate adoption of energy efficient technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India's transport sector has been growing faster than its GDP, contributing to rising energy demand from the sector. This, coupled with limited domestic production, has led to a rising import dependence of crude oil in particular, which stood at 83.4 per cent in 2013-14. In order to enhance India's energy security and manage demand from the sector, this paper analyses the factors influencing transport activity and the resulting energy demand from the transport sector. The paper also outlines a range of possible scenarios for transport sector demand in India till 2030-31 along with the potential energy use under these scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India is striving hard to meet its energy and mineral needs for maintaining desired pace of development. This has led to pressure on boosting the production from mines. Unfortunately this growth was lopsided as almost all the growth in production was from opencast mines which was mainly due to obvious reason of availability of easy and shallow deposits. This may result in a sharp fa ll in production after the shallow deposits are exhausted. It is therefore desirable to increase the share of underground production by improving its financial viability so that the share of underground mines increases and a sustained production can be ensured. Providing fresh air to a working place at deep and remote place is a cost intensive process accounting for as much as 50% total energy consumption o f the mine. This paper presents a case for introduction of ventilation on demand (VOD) in Indian mines for improving the energy efficiency o f ventilation system of underground mines. The paper describes its essential component of VOD system, continuous airflow measuring system and its suitability for Indian mines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the optimal sizing of PV/Wind/Fuel Cell/Battery Hybrid Energy System for energizing a Small Scale Industrial Application or a village domestic load of 200 kW. HOMER software is used for simulation of the complete system. The solar radiation data and wind speed data used in this paper are for the place of Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India which is located 11.0183° N longitude and 76.9725° E latitude. The optimized sizes of components of Hybrid Power System (HPS) are found based on Levelised Cost of Energy (LCE) and total Net Present Cost (NPC). The results are presented and compared for five different combinations of HPS components. Suggestions are also presented to choose the low cost system which produces energy at low LCE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With 21,136 MW of wind energy installed in 2014, India is considered a success story in terms of net installed capacity. Few existing studies on Indian wind energy have highlighted the important role of institutions, and how they stemmed from the work of advocacy groups; studies also tend to focus on short time periods. This paper uses the notion of collective institutional entrepreneurship to analyze Indian wind energy across three time periods (1985–1995, 1995–2003, and 2003–2013). The analysis shows that Indian wind power development was driven by collective efforts of institutional entrepreneurs using two aggregated strategies, that is, supportive techno-economic and socio-political networks and an indigenous innovation infrastructure. The paper highlights setbacks, controversies, and tensions between various entrepreneurship groups and argues that actions must be taken for including actors who have been marginalized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapidly increasing energy demand and growing concern about economic and environmental consequences call for renewable/sustainable energy technologies׳ adoption in India. Renewable/sustainable energy technologies have faced a number of constraints that have affected their rate of adoption. In this paper an attempt has been made to identify and rank the major barriers in the adoption of ‘renewable and green’ energy technologies in the Indian context. Twenty-eight barriers have been identified from an extensive literature review. These identified barriers have been categorized into seven dimensions of barriers, i.e. Economical & Financial; Market; Awareness & Information; Technical; Ecological and Geographical; Cultural & Behavioral; and Political & Government Issues. Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) technique has been utilized for ranking of barriers to adopt renewable/sustainable technologies in the Indian context. All pair comparisons in AHP have been made based on experts’ opinions (selected from academia and industry). Sensitivity analysis has also been made to investigate the priority ranking stability of barriers to adopt renewable/sustainable technologies in the Indian context. This paper may help practitioners, regulators and academician focus their future efforts in adoption of ‘renewable/sustainable energy technologies’ in India. Further, this understanding may be helpful in framing the policies and strategies towards adoption of renewable/sustainable energy technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates household decision-making behaviour in the market for energy-efficient lighting and appliances in Delhi, India to study the energy efficiency gap using the inter-disciplinary framework of behavioural economics. A primary dataset of survey responses and choice experiments is analysed to test whether under-investment in energy-efficient technologies is explained by present-biased preferences. A ‘Multiple Price List’ set is employed to compute the standard discount factor, and the present bias and long-run component of a quasi-hyperbolic specification. Individuals who are more patient and less present-biased are found to be more likely to invest in certain energy-efficient appliances. As expected, time preferences are relevant for larger purchases such as refrigerators but lose some or all of their explanatory power for inexpensive purchases such as light bulbs. Our quantitative study contributes to the existing literature, which is limited to qualitatively identifying the (market failure) barriers for energy efficiency; inter alia , it tests for behavioural failures in individuals' decision-making towards the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Access to energy for cooking is one of the major challenges that rural India faces. Most of the rural households of North-Eastern India rely heavily upon fuelwood and traditional open-fire cookstoves for cooking activities. And everyday collection of fuelwood is time-consuming. Hence, women often gather fuelwood to make charcoal. While the use of charcoal has some advantages, it is not clear whether the investment of time in making charcoal is worthwhile. In this paper, we compare household time investments for fuelwood and charcoal production. The study is done using survey data on Napaam village situated in Sonitpur District of Assam, Northeast India. We developed a model to analyse fuelwood needed and time spent upon the introduction of improved cookstoves and/or charcoal production. This analysis reveals that improved cookstoves using fuelwood results in the least time expenditure on the production of cooking fuel. Whilst introducing charcoal marginally reduces the amount of fuelwood, but increases time spent on cooking, due to the time required to produce the charcoal. Hence, rural households who make their own charcoal spend more time on producing cooking fuel than those households relying on direct use of fuelwood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]