Renewable energy potential in India and future agenda of research

ABSTRACT

Demand of electrical energy is exponentially increasing causing environmental problems due to extensive use of fossil fuels. Hence, research has been promoted in renewable energy technologies to mitigate environmental pollution. Indian subcontinent is rich in renewable energy sources (RES). This paper describes potential of RES and region-wise installed capacity in India. Estimated potential of RES is 57 GW which is targeted to be 175 GW by 2022. A logical framework for our future research work has been presented. This includes performance optimisation of solar pumping system and reliability assessments of the designed system using reliability indices.

Abbreviation: RES: Renewable energy resources; SHP: small hydro plants; GOI: Government of India; MNRE: Ministry of New and Renewable Energy; LHP: large hydropower; BCM: billion cubic metres; PEC: per-capita energy consumption; JNNSM: Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission; DNI: direct normal irradiance; SPV: solar photovoltaic; UMPP: ultra mega green solar power project; GIS: geographic information systems; WMS: wind monitoring stations; MPWL: Madhya Pradesh windfarms Ltd.; MIB: mat river basin; SWAT: Soil and Water Assessment Tool; ROR: run of river; SMS: short message service; CDM: clean development mechanism; NIOT: national institute of ocean technology; LOLP: loss of load probability; CSO: Central Statistics Office; CEA: Central Electricity Authority; TERI: The Energy and Resources Institute; WPI: Wind Power India; IEA: International Energy Agency; EAI: Energy Alternatives India; BKP: Biomass Knowledge Portal; IRENA: International Renewable Energy Agency; GAIN: Global Agricultural Information Network; NITI: National Institution for Transforming India; NIWE: National Institute of Wind Energy; UP: Uttar Pradesh; J&K: Jammu and Kashmir; HP: Himachal Pradesh; NR: northern region; MP: Madhya Pradesh; WR: western region; TN: Tamil Nadu; AP: Andhra Pradesh; SR: southern region; ER: eastern region; NER: north eastern region; A&N: Andaman & Nicobar     

Relations between Environmental Right for Citizens and the Right to Use Environmental Resources owned by Company and Enterprise

Abstract

From angles of administrative law and private law, the article analyzes relations between environmental right for citizens and the right to use environmental resources owned by company and enterprise and points out three principles to balancing two relations: A principle of equal protection, a principle that general interest is superior to special interest as well as taking an account for special interest, in specific circumstances, for example, in the circumstance that clashes between environmental and economic interests can not be avoided, policy makers can put an emphasis on more important social interest according after considering weight of each interest. Finally, the article reaches a conclusion that China should establish system of environmental right for citizens from legislative and administrative levels so that a harmonious society can be constructed with guarantee.     

西部水资源开发利用风险现状评价

我国实施西部大开发战略后,西部水资源开发利用问题变得越来越突出.为了弄清楚西部水资源开发利用存在的风险现状,本文在风险概念的基础上探讨了水资源开发利用风险概念和影响因素,并构建了西部水资源开发利用风险评价指标体系.根据水资源系统表现出多模态、突跳和发散的基本突变特征,论述了运用突变理论评价水资源开发利用风险具有一定的可行性,将突变理论引入到水资源开发利用风险评价中,对西部水资源开发利用风险进行评价.首先对各项风险评价指标按照重要性排序,并对各指标值进行无量纲化;然后利用突变模型的归一公式和突变模型的评价准则进行递归运算,最后求出各层指标相对风险值(突变隶属度),将评价结果与风险等级对照,综合判断和分析各层各项指标相对风险状况.计算结果表明:在西部12个省份中,各层指标的风险值差异显著,但是水资源开发利用综合风险值分布在0 66-0.92之间,总体上属于中高度风险水平,12省份风险从小到大排序为:西藏→陕西→重庆→四川→青海→云南→贵州→广西→内蒙→甘肃→新疆→宁夏,这一结果与西部12省份水资源开发利用实际状况相符,可以为西部大开发过程水资源合理有效利用和管理提供风险决策参考依据.     

Local communities' participation in decision-making processes through planning and budgeting in African countries

Community participation and community based management are topical themes in current policy and discussion revolving around decision-making processes especially those dealing with natural resources management.This review shows that while governments have accepted the need to either cede or devolve control and management of natural resources to the local communities,the communities are not part and parcel of the planning and budgeting which are crucial in decisionmaking.Communities were seen to be more involved in the implementation of natural resource management programs but lacked ownership of the projects.This causes lack of commitment to the programs and at times hostile reaction from the communities.The communities are always at the receiving end when it pertains to losses in the exchange.Community participation was shown to be effective when the local population is involved not as co-operating users but as natural resource managers or owner managers.     

Is a negative correlation between resource abundance and growth sufficient evidence that there is a “resource curse”?

Evidence from cross-sectional growth regressions suggests that economies dependent on natural resource exports have had slower growth than resource scarce economies. Explanations for this “curse of resources” focus on institutional and market failures caused by resource abundance. With a simple two sector model exhaustible resource model, we demonstrate that the correlation between growth and natural resource abundance can be negative in the absence of market and institutional failures. Since there is no way to distinguish between efficient and inefficient equilibria on the basis of the negative correlation between growth and resource abundance, finding that correlation is not sufficient to conclude resources are a curse, nor is it necessary to find a positive correlation between growth and resources to overturn the resource curse interpretation. We show whether resources are a curse or a blessing for an economy can only be determined by an investigation of the correlation between resource abundance and income levels. Using panel data for U.S. states for the period 1970-2001, we show that resource abundance is negatively correlated with growth rates but positively correlated with income levels.     

Passive and active adaptive management: approaches and an example

Adaptive management is a framework for resource conservation that promotes iterative learning-based decision making. Yet there remains considerable confusion about what adaptive management entails, and how to actually make resource decisions adaptively. A key but somewhat ambiguous distinction in adaptive management is between active and passive forms of adaptive decision making. The objective of this paper is to illustrate some approaches to active and passive adaptive management with a simple example involving the drawdown of water impoundments on a wildlife refuge. The approaches are illustrated for the drawdown example, and contrasted in terms of objectives, costs, and potential learning rates. Some key challenges to the actual practice of AM are discussed, and tradeoffs between implementation costs and long-term benefits are highlighted.     

Adaptive management of natural resources--framework and issues

Adaptive management, an approach for simultaneously managing and learning about natural resources, has been around for several decades. Interest in adaptive decision making has grown steadily over that time, and by now many in natural resources conservation claim that adaptive management is the approach they use in meeting their resource management responsibilities. Yet there remains considerable ambiguity about what adaptive management actually is, and how it is to be implemented by practitioners. The objective of this paper is to present a framework and conditions for adaptive decision making, and discuss some important challenges in its application. Adaptive management is described as a two-phase process of deliberative and iterative phases, which are implemented sequentially over the timeframe of an application. Key elements, processes, and issues in adaptive decision making are highlighted in terms of this framework. Special emphasis is given to the question of geographic scale, the difficulties presented by non-stationarity, and organizational challenges in implementing adaptive management.     

Adaptive management for a turbulent future

The challenges that face humanity today differ from the past because as the scale of human influence has increased, our biggest challenges have become global in nature, and formerly local problems that could be addressed by shifting populations or switching resources, now aggregate (i.e., "scale up") limiting potential management options. Adaptive management is an approach to natural resource management that emphasizes learning through management based on the philosophy that knowledge is incomplete and much of what we think we know is actually wrong. Adaptive management has explicit structure, including careful elucidation of goals, identification of alternative management objectives and hypotheses of causation, and procedures for the collection of data followed by evaluation and reiteration. It is evident that adaptive management has matured, but it has also reached a crossroads. Practitioners and scientists have developed adaptive management and structured decision making techniques, and mathematicians have developed methods to reduce the uncertainties encountered in resource management, yet there continues to be misapplication of the method and misunderstanding of its purpose. Ironically, the confusion over the term "adaptive management" may stem from the flexibility inherent in the approach, which has resulted in multiple interpretations of "adaptive management" that fall along a continuum of complexity and a priori design. Adaptive management is not a panacea for the navigation of 'wicked problems' as it does not produce easy answers, and is only appropriate in a subset of natural resource management problems where both uncertainty and controllability are high. Nonetheless, the conceptual underpinnings of adaptive management are simple; there will always be inherent uncertainty and unpredictability in the dynamics and behavior of complex social-ecological systems, but management decisions must still be made, and whenever possible, we should incorporate learning into management.     

中国流域水资源生态补偿的法律问题与对策

随着我国经济社会的不断发展,水资源不足和水质污染引起的水危机已经成为许多地区可持续发展中的重要制约因素。在这种背景下,为了平衡环境、社会和经济多元利益,寻求先进的法律机制来调节平衡、保护流域生态环境、促进流域的可持续发展已成为一种共识。开展流域水资源生态补偿是实现流域上下游之间等相关方利益公平的关键所在。但由于我国缺乏生态补偿立法和相应的制度安排,流域水资源生态补偿目前仍面临许多问题：我国流域水资源生态补偿进展缓慢、法律制度滞后、部分法律法规彼此之间矛盾和相互冲突、流域水资源生态补偿的法律制度缺位、立法模式不适合当今流域生态环境问题解决等。本文通过对我国有关涉水法律中存在问题的分析,提出一些有关流域水资源生态补偿法律制度建设和完善的对策,以期对中国流域水资源生态补偿的推进和进一步实现水资源的可持续利用有所帮助。