Energy, Environment and Climate Change

The study describes the creation of four simple metrics to estimate: 1. the ratio of ‘green’ vegetated areas to the ‘blue’ water spread areas, defined as the ‘Green-blue ratio’ (GBA); 2. The ratio of ‘blue’ water spread areas to ‘built-up’ ratio around the lakes, defined as the ‘Blue to Built-up ratio’ (BBA), 3. the percentage of impervious surface area (ISA) and 4. the pace of urbanisation in the dynamic zones (DZ) of urban lake environments.

A case study from Odisha, India on the socio-technical constraints among fishers to utilise the services of marine fishery advisories provided to them.

An analysis of the transformational processes, habitat fragmentation and resilience of Pulicat lake, India, a coastal ecosystem is presented in this co-authored publication. 

This edited book discusses Blue-Green Infrastructure (BGI) from conception to implementation in building resilience and urban sustainability. The book emphasizes on infrastructures, institutions, and perceptions as three main pillars of implementing and managing successful BGI, with a special focus on Asia.

India's overambitious targets for solar energy could destabilize its power sector and threaten energy security. Rather than 'green' political posturing, the country must plan an energy transition based on its developmental interests.

The present work reports the actual ground conditions prevalent at a fish landing center in Northern Odisha, namely, Talsari in the aftermath of the cyclone “Yaas”, which made landfall on May 26th, 2021. The coastal vulnerability and the impacts of the cyclone are discussed.

Power generation from Thermal Power Plants (TPP) in India forms the backbone of the power system. In this study, the dispersion of particulate matter and sulphur dioxide from a TPP with a 275 m-high stack are studied under different atmospheric conditions up to a distance of 30 km from the stack. Based on the results, policy changes that need to be implemented are suggested.

The dynamic performance of a hybrid power plant configuration comprising of a ground heat exchanger and an organic Rankine cycle (ORC) for power generation at the load end is studied. The simulation of dynamic characteristics demonstrates that the proposed geothermal-ORC hybrid system is capable of producing a steady power output of approximately 86.3 kWt. The exergy efficiency of U-shaped BHE without insulation is found to be the maximum.

This paper analyses the power supply situation in Southern India for the year 2018 to evaluate the impact of renewable energy policies on energy costs and the resulting cost of avoided carbon. An optimization model is built using GAMS. Validating the model results against actual data for the year 2018 suggests that regulatory constraints and policy interventions have reduced the solution space for reasonable cost-based optimization in Southern India.

Given India’s continued dependence on coal to supply 24x7 power for industrial and residential consumers at affordable prices, the country needs a unified Coal Mines Environment Authority staffed with multi-disciplinary expertise to assess and minimize the adverse environmental impacts of coal mines with an integrated approach to ensure more efficient, effective and transparent environmental governance.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recently (Sep 2021) released its revised Air Quality Guidelines (AQGs) which have been made more stringent compared to their earlier guidelines. This raises the question whether India’s National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) notified by the MoEFCC in 2009 are adequate and whether the revised WHO AQGs are relevant for India. The natural corollary to this is to identify the policies and actions required to strengthen the science of risk assessment and develop rational estimates of mortality and morbidity attributed to air pollution amongst the population in India. These issues have been examined in the NIAS Policy Brief to recommend the way forward.

The levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) and environmental advantages of coal-CSP hybrid systems are presented by simulating the hybrid system in two modes at three locations in India with contrasting DNI profiles. The cost of additional energy generated due to SAFWH in booster mode is up to 51.4% less as compared to a stand-alone CSP. In the fuel saver mode, up to 40 thousand tons of coal can be annually saved with SAFWH, thus reducing CO2 emissions by 1.7% as compared to a stand-alone coal-fired plant.

The authors propose a “Sustainable Coal Mining (SCM) Bill” to constitute a unified authority named “Coal Mines Environment Authority” to enhance the effectiveness, efficiency, and transparency of the environmental regulation of coal mines. Besides the draft SCM Bill, the authors also explain the enabling amendments required in the existing environment, forest, and mining Laws to enact the SCM Bill.

This report describes the research conducted by NIAS to develop an optimal transition plan for India’s power sector and concludes with policy recommendations for an orderly transition to a more environment-friendly generation mix for South India by 2030.

The research report focuses on the Spatio-temporal trends in air quality, vegetation, and water quality before, during, and after the closure of opencast coal mines in India. Besides, Aerosol Optical Depth and Normalised Difference Vegetation Index have also been extracted to study the long-term trends in Particulate Matter concentrations and vegetation cover, respectively. The report concludes with policy recommendations to improve the sustainability of the coal sector.

The NIAS Transition plan for India’s power sector involving the progressive retirement of 36 GW of capacity in 211 obsolete Thermal Power Plants (TPP)s based on key performance parameters and shifting their load to upcoming modern TPPs and Nuclear Power Plants. Implementation of the NIAS Transition Plan will enable the National Grid to meet the peak demand up to March 2030 with lower Capex and tariffs while reducing coal consumption, water requirement, air pollution, and CO2 emissions.

Power distribution companies (DISCOMs) in India are experiencing financial stress. The high cost of power procurement is one of the key reasons for this financial stress. This is mainly due to a fragmented approach to power sector reforms. The authors offer insights and propose recommendations to address this situation.

Thermal stratification characteristics are investigated and analyzed in detail for three chosen shapes of TES, namely truncated-cone, paraboloid, and cylinder, using a two-dimensional unsteady numerical model. Results of the numerical model on cylindrical TES is found to have good agreement with the findings of the in-house experiments. . At every AR investigated for the two shapes of TES, Richardson number for the paraboloid TES is greater than that of the truncated-cone TES, qualitatively suggesting a better temperature stratification in the paraboloid TES.

As part of a SERB-funded research Project, NIAS drafted proposals for a “Sustainable Coal Mining Bill” and an “Environment, Forest, and Mineral Laws (Amendment) Bill,” to create a unified, empowered, and inter-disciplinary environmental regulator for coal mines. These proposals were discussed during a virtual stakeholder consultation workshop on September 5, 2020.

In this study, a tractable and computationally fast numerical model comprising of two simplified non-equilibrium energy equations for the working fluid and the phase change material (PCM), respectively, is developed to account for the radiation effects at the high temperatures in the cascaded multi-layered packed bed latent heat thermal energy storage (PBLTS). It is found that the radiative heat transfer plays a significant role at high temperature (> 650 °C) in dictating the performance of the thermal energy storage system during the charging operation.

The paper analyses the proposed Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2020 which is aimed at reducing subsidies and encouraging privatization, especially in the distribution segment of the power sector. The paper argues that the central government must hold off on passing any hasty legislation on the subject and adopt a more scientific and less ideological approach to deal with the travails of the power sector.

The NIAS Transition Plan for Thermal Power Plants (TPPs) recommends the progressive retirement of obsolete TPPs while shifting the load to existing and under-construction, modern TPPs and Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs) instead of retrofitting them with costly Flue Gas Desulfurisers (FGDs). Stack heights mandated for TPPs in India are designed to disperse SO2 emissions to ensure that ambient air SO2 levels comply with National standards. FGDs must be mandated only for TPPs in urban or sensitive or highly polluted areas since they increase specific CO2 emissions and water requirements and also hike tariffs. TPPs can use washed coal and retrofit high-performance Electrostatic Precipitators to reduce Particulate Matter (PM) emissions by 99.97 per cent without major capex.

This paper analyses the economic impact of Covid-19 in India. It documents the trajectory of infections and the lockdown and evaluates the extent of economic losses due to the lockdown. It also critically assesses the economic response of the Indian government to the pandemic and the lockdown.

In line with the recent research on coastal ecosystems, the present investigation details the changes in environmental parameters modeled as a function of their spatial and temporal distributions (dry and wet seasons) in a transitional aquatic ecosystem in South India, Pulicat lagoon using a geochemical model and saturation indices.

India's overambitious targets for solar energy could destabilize its power sector and threaten energy security. Rather than 'green' political posturing, the country must plan an energy transition based on its developmental interests.

This paper demonstrates the use of a linear Input-Output (IO) model to estimate the economic losses in India due to COVID-19. The results show that depending on the duration of the lockdown, the Indian economy is likely to face a loss of about 10–31% of its GDP. The paper also discusses the impacts of COVID-19 on the demand and supply of electricity and CO2 emissions from the power sector. The cost of avoided carbon is approximately 186–264 $/tCO2.

This paper is an analysis of the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic in India. The economic crisis after March 2020 affected all the sectors of the Indian economy and led to a loss of employment to the tune of at least 15 million. Using an Input-Output (I-O) framework, we create four scenarios of losses to the Indian economy. We estimate that India’s GDP growth rate in 2020-2021 may range from –4.3% to –15%.

In this study, a simplified energy equations-based dynamic model is used to develop working relationships for calculating the collector dimensions and the optimum heat transfer fluid (HTF) mass flow rate for achieving a predefined thermal efficiency. The computational results for the geometrical configuration corresponding to an average DNI, calculated from actual solar radiation data, indicate that to achieve a fixed temperature and a collector efficiency, the required HTF mass flow rate increases with an increasing level of solar radiation.