Feature Article

Sales of solar heating installations fell short of expectations almost everywhere last year. Despite this firms are optimistic. Improved political support is driving hopes of an upswing.

As India experiences rapid economic development, energy scarcity is becoming a critical barrier to further sustained growth. Costs of conventional power plants are high. Excessive use of fossil fuels and natural sources of conventional power plants will harm the environment and contribute towards climate change.

The British began extending their control over forests in India
(including Uttaranchal, or Uttarakhand) after passing the Forest Acts of 1865 and 1878. This was driven by the increasing demand for timber, and hence the growing significance of forests as a source of revenue. Forests also acquired strategic importance with the growing requirement for timber for the expanding railway network.

A robust transmission network is essential for power market operations. Experts have recommended that the market reforms should start with transmission and not generation. Transmission system issues need to be accorded the highest priority in the market development initiative.

Even when social institutions agree on conservation goals, for instance, the protection of endemic, rare, or at-risk species in regional conservation area networks, there is typically a long waiting period between setting goals and the formulation of an explicit action plan to achieve those goals, and an even longer period before the plan is funded and implemented on the ground.

Wind resource availability and hence the power generation from wind power projects is variable in nature. Since the share of wind power generation is growing in India, the grid generation issues resulting due to this variable nature of wind power will have to be addressed if the growth is to be sustained.

The surface water quality monitoring in a catchment is one of the most important tools for water management. The western zone of Virudhunagar district in south Tamil Nadu depends upon the surface water from Pillavakkal irrigation system, comprising a number of interconnected surface tanks. The increase in agricultural products and industrial zones in this terrain results in an essential investigation of the surface water quality and soil parameter.

Globally, the wind energy sector saw phenomenal growth in the year 2007. However, in India, the industry failed to keep pace. Worldwide wind energy installation were 19,696 in 2007 MW up from 15,120 MW in 2006. In contrast in India the installations in 2007 were 1580 MW down from 1730 MW in 2006.

At present, there is much anxiety regarding the security of energy supplies; for example, the UK and other European States are set to become increasingly dependant upon imports of natural gas from states with which political relations are often strained.

For many years, India lagged behind the rest of the world in the field of urban public transport. This changed with the formation of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Ltd. (DMRC) in 1995, with the mandate to build a Metro system in the Indian capital New Delhi. The project has provided significant environmental and social benefits to the city.