1. Deendayal Upadhyaya GramJyoti Yojana
  2. LED Schemes under Modi-raj
    1. Theory CFL vs LED vs Bulb lights?
    2. #1: National Program for LED streetlights & home lights
    3. #2: DELP: Delhi-wallo LED lelo Yojana
  3. Floating solar powerplant
  4. Synthetic Gas & CNR Rao
  5. Agnisumukh LPG stove
  6. Direct sale of bio-diesel by manufacturers
  7. Misc. Developments
  8. Mock Questions

Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDLJ DDUGJY)

When? Cabinet cleared the scheme in 2014, November.
Which
ministry?		 Not announced yet. Although most likely power ministry- because they implemented Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Vidhutikaran Yojana earlier.

Salient Features?

  1. Separate agriculture and rural-home electricity supply lines. (separate agriculture and non-agriculture feeders).
  2. Improve rural electricity infrastructure, setup electricity meters, use ICT enabled smart grids.
  3. 24 x 7 electricity to all households by 2019.
  4. And most importantly- to stop Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidhyutikaran Yojana. (because two swords can’t stay in one scabbard.)
  5. Cost over 40,000 crore rupees.
  6. State electricity distribution companies will be given contracts but they’ve to finish projects within 2 years.

LED Schemes under Modi-raj

Theory CFL vs LED vs Bulb lights?
Filament Bulb
  • Electric current heats up tungsten metal and they glow. They are covered with glass to prevent air contact- otherwise tungsten will be oxidized.
  • Inert Argon gas added to prevent Tungsten evaporation.
  • Halogen bulbs have some halogen gas (like Chlorine, Bromine) to prolong life because they deposit the evaporated tungsten back to the filament.
  • LED 88% more efficient & 50x more lifecycle than bulb
Tube light
  • Electrons pass through mercury gas at low pressure.
  • This gas emits UV light
  • Inner Fluorescent white phosphor coating of the tube, will turn this UV-light into visible light.
  • LED 50% more efficient & 8-10 times more lifecycle than CFL.
LED
  • Light emitting diodes (LED) use Semi-Conductors to emit light, when DC current passed.
  • Blue-LED inventors won Nobel-2014. click me for more

 

#1: National Program for LED streetlights & home lights
Purpose Install LED bulbs as streetlights and homelights
Deadline March 2015 to March 2016.
Coverage 100 cities.
Benefit? 24 crore energy units will be saved.
Why in News? Modi launched in Jan. 2015

#2: DELP: Delhi-wallo LED lelo Yojana

  • Domestic Efficient Lighting Programme” (DELP).
  • By Delhi Government, Tata Power, BSES Yamnua etc.
  • They provide LED bulb at a cheap price using “on-bill financing model”.
  • As such one LED bulb costs ~350-600 rupees in open market.
  • But this group purchased bulbs in bulk- hence very cheap for them.
  • They’ll sell it to you at Rs.130 per bulb. (Rs.10 upfront, remaining 120 in 12 easy installments of Rs.10 each- in your lightbill.) One customer can get max. 2 LED bulbs.
  • To avail this scheme, you’ve to register at eeslindia.org/Delhi-Launch or by sending an SMS to a 7042299688.
  • With every bulb, you can save Rs.162 in electricity bill every year. Bulb can run for 3 years.
  • Why in News? Modi launched this scheme in January 2015.

Fodder from Modi’s LED speech

  • Power can be produced in large quantity by staff of few hundred people.
  • But to save that much amount of electricity, we need crores of people to change their lifestyle habits.
  • But, It is much more economical to conserve power, than to produce power.
  • Must involve celebrities, eminent citizens to create junta-awareness.
  • On new year- instead of giving gifts like diaries and calendars- better give LEDs are gifts!
  • Same way, Companies could distribute LED bulbs along with dividend payments to their shareholders.
  • This Delhi-wallo LED-lelo Yojana should be replicated in other towns with population of 1 lakh and above.

#2: Floating solar powerplant

Floating Solar plant

Where?

  1. W.Bengal: 10KW plant over water, near Rajarhat New Town. (inauguration in Jan 2015)
    • Raft fitted with Hollow drums to float on water. Solar cells installed over the raft.
    • Funding from Ministry of new and renewable energy.
  2. Gujarat: solar cells installed above Narmada Canal. Even UN Secretary General Bank Ki Moon liked this idea.

Benefits of floating solar plants?

  • Water conservation: because these plants cutoff sunlight from water, thus water evaporation reduced from canals and dam reservoirs.
  • During dry-season, hydro-electric output declines from dam. If floating solar panels installed over dam-reservoirs, it can prevent shortfall in electricity output. + no additional manpower required for “chowkidaari”.
  • Such solar plants have higher efficiency because relatively cooler temperature in water bodies= higher efficiency of solar cell. 100 sq.meters of floating-solarcells can generate 10MW.
  • Shortage of land, and given the stringent norms in erstwhile LARR-2013 act, it was difficult to acquire land anyways!

Criticism

  • NGOs say chemicals from solar cells, will contaminate water.
  • Panels obstruct sunlight from water bodies, it may negatively affect the flora-fauna in long term.

Synthetic Gas & CNR Rao

Synthetic Gas

CNR Rao’s method can do this without needing very high temperature

 

What is Synthetic gas?

  • Synthetic gas = Carbon monoxide + hydrogen gas. And because of this hydrogen, is far superior and clean fuel.
  • Synthetic gas is made from coal and water.

What are the applications of Synthetic gas?

  1. Vehicle-fuel.
  2. Intermediate for creating synthetic natural gas
  3. Methanol and ammonia production.

What’re the challenges in Synthetic gas production?

  1. First, We’ve to split carbon monoxide from coal, and hydrogen from water. This procedure requires very high temperature (~1440 Celsius), hence very expensive.
  2. But Bharat Ratna recipient Dr. C.N.R. Rao is working on a new method to produce it at ~900 Celcius, using a chemical compound called Lanthanum Calcium Manganate.
  3. If we reduce the temperature requirement further, we can use solar-plants to provie the heat for synthesis of this gas.

Agnisumukh LPG stove

Agnisumukh LPG

Designed by Income Tax officer Hari Rao
Manufactured by Agnisumukh, a Bengaluru-based company.

Benefits of Agnisumukh LPG stove?

  • When switched on, stove’s ceramic burner turns orange-red, & produces uniform heat like charcoal.
  • Hence there are no flames, no incomplete combustion.
  • Uniform heating of utensil, so proper cooking of food. Cooks faster and saves ~50% gas, leaves no soot or smoke.
  • Its temperature can be controlled, it can be turned off with a timer- like a microwave.
  • If there is gas leak, It can sent alert via call/sms.
  • At present meant for industrial purpose, domestic-product clearance awaited.

Question: Why LPG stove good but LPG car bad?

  • LPG produced from fossil fuels. Mix of various hydrocarbons, varying composition, not suitable for vehicle engines.
  • LPG heavier than air, so settles down when there is a leakage. Hence, dangerous for vehicles.
  • So, better use CNG (compressed natural gas) is used in vehicles.

Direct sale of bio-diesel by manufacturers

2014: Rail budget permitted 5% blending of Biodiesel with (real) diesel. But this would be fruitless IF railway can’t get biodiesel in large quantity at affordable price.

Before After Jan-2015 liberalization
Only following entities could sell Biodiesel

  1. PSU-oil companies
  2. Private companies with over 2000 crore rupees in oil-infrastructure.

Result: supply bottlenecks, for PSU-oil company the cost of biodiesel production higher than (real) diesel MRP.

 Modi-cabinet allowed following entities to sell biodiesel to end-users such as Railways

  1. Private bio-diesel manufacturers
  2. Joint venture companies

Misc. Developments

Bio-Bus in UK
  • GenECO company plant converts food waste and sewage into gas, through anaerobic digestion (means without oxygen), similar to desi gobar gas plants.
  • This gas is filled up in the bus.Bus can carry ~40 passengers, to ~300km using 1 full tank of gas.
  • Produces less emission than convention diesel engine, hence good for urban air quality.
Discarded Laptop
batteries
  • Instead of using new batteries, IBM-scientists used old lithium ion batteries from discarded laptops after tweaking them.
  • Successful testing in Bangalore slums.
  • Every year, over 50 million laptop batteries discarded, and 70% of them can be used for running LED lights.

Mock Questions

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Q1. Correct Statements about Din Dayal Gram Jyoti Yojana

  1. It is a component of the Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidhyutikaran Yojana
  2. It aims to provide 24×7 electricity to rural households by 2016.
  3. It aims to setup combined feeders for agriculture and non-agriculture purpose- for cost-efficient operations in rural areas.

Answer choices

  1. Only 1 and 2
  2. Only 2 and 3
  3. Only 1 and 3
  4. None of them

Q2. What are the advantages of floating solar-plant?

  1. Water conservation
  2. Prevent eutrophication
  3. Higher efficiency than ground based solar panels.

Answer choices

  1. Only 1 and 2
  2. Only 2 and 3
  3. Only 1 and 3
  4. None of them

Q3. Why are water floating solar panels considered more efficient than land-based solar panels?

  1. They can trap latent heat from surrounding water to generate additional electricity.
  2. They perform at higher efficiency under the cool-temperature duet to surrounding water.
  3. Both A and B
  4. Neither A nor B

Q4. Sunlight is an example of

  1. fluorescence
  2. X-Ray emission
  3. Incandescence
  4. None of above

Q5. Fluorescent tube lights contain ___ gas at ____ pressure.

  1. argon, high
  2. argon, low
  3. mercury, low
  4. mercury, high

Q6. In a fluorescent tubelight when electronics pass through the tube, the gas inside the tube generates ___.

  1. Florescence
  2. visible light
  3. IR light
  4. UV light

Q7. An LED bulb uses ____ to emit light and works on ___ current.

  1. halogen, AC
  2. halogen, DC
  3. Semi-conductors, AC
  4. Semi-conductors, DC

Q8. Consider following statements:

  1. Nobel Chemistry prize for 2014 was given for invention of Blue LED.
  2. Without invention of Blue LED, we could never get white LED bulbs.
  3. Blue LEDs use Indiaum Gallium Nitride semi-conductor.

Answer choices

  1. Only 1 and 2
  2. Only 2 and 3
  3. Only 1 and 3
  4. None of them

Q9. Correct statements about Synthetic gas

  1. It can be used in production of methanol
  2. It contains artificially synthesized Methane and Propane gases.
  3. Both A and B
  4. Neither A nor B

Q10 what are the specialties of an Agnisumukh LPG stove?

  1. It produces purest form of blue-flame, thereby giving maximum heat output for given amount of gas.
  2. It can warn the user in case of gas leakage.
  3. Both A and B
  4. Neither A nor B

Q11. Find correct statements

  1. If filament bulb was filled with pure-oxygen instead of argon, its product life will increase.
  2. If filament bulb was filled with chlorine instead of argon, its product life will decrease.
  3. Both A and B
  4. Neither A nor B

Q12. In a fluorescent tube light, if mercury gas was replaced with neon gas, and the white coating was removed, what will happen when the light is switched on?

  1. Blue light
  2. Yellow light
  3. Red light
  4. Nothing will happen.

Q13. In a fluorescent tube light, if we remove the white coating and then turn the lights on, what will you get?

  1. Room bacteria will die
  2. Your skin will get tanned color with prolonged exposure.
  3. Both A and B
  4. Neither A nor B

Q14. Find incorrect statements

  1. Industrial license is required to produce biodiesel in India.
  2. Biodiesel can be obtained from Soyabean, Jatropha, Mustard and Palm oil
  3. Indian railway permits 10% blending of biodiesel with real diesel.

Answer choices

  1. Only 1 and 2
  2. Only 2 and 3
  3. Only 1 and 3
  4. All of them

[/columnize]

(GS3) Discuss the significance of Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana and National Program for LED streetlights & home lights for energy conservation in India. (200 words)