GovernmentJammu, Dec 26 (IANS) Some remote and inaccessible border areas in Jammu and Kashmir will soon get electrified through solar and wind energy.
This is being done under the Remote Village Electrification Programme (RVEP) to be commissioned by the Science and Technology department of the state.
‘The project will provide electricity to remote inaccessible areas, border areas and some remote hospitals as these are not connected with National Power Grid,’ Minister for Science Technology Aga Syed Ruhullah said.
He said that each project will cost Rs.20 lakh and will generate 8.8 kilowatts of power (6.6kw from wind energy and 2.2 kw from solar photovoltaics) ‘to slowly replace the conventional power supply and bring down the cost of providing electricity through diesel generator sets being used in some remote areas.’ An estimated 350 units would be installed.
A majority of these projects would be in areas that remain cut off for a few months during winters due to snowfall.
According to official statistics, 809 villages in the Jammu region close to the international border and 349 in the Kashmir Valley and Ladakh are without electricity. ‘We are going to cover 285 villages and 28 hamlets under RVEP,’ the minister said.
In September 2009, about 30 villages comprising 3900 households in the remote Gurez area of North Kashmir close to the Line of Control (LOC) got solar electrification benefitting 30,000 people living there.
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Everyone knows that the earth’s temperature is the least in the outer crust and the most in the central core. Radioactive materials in the earth’s inner core decay continuously, and the nuclear reactions caused by these reactions heat up the inner portions of the earth’s crust up to 4000 degrees centigrade. This immense heat diffuses to the higher layers of soil, rocks and clay and superheats the water in underground streams and rivers flowing through them, resulting in hot water geysers, streams and steam up ground. As early as in the first decade of the 20th century, man built geothermal stations to tap this steam, bring it to turbines, run his generators and produce electricity. In many parts of the world, rocks situated beneath the upper crest of the earth, at just 6500 ft depth, are nearly 260 degrees centigrade hot. The heat latent in these rocks can be made use of in two ways. Either we can directly tap the hot steam, stream or geyser coming out of the earth to our turbans or we can drill these hot rocky layers, pump water in and take steam out through two separate holes. Why the underground water and the pumped in water do not boil and become steam in spite of its temperature of nearly 200 degrees centigrade is because of the high pressure in those depths. But once this superheated water is released from this high pressure and comes out into the atmospheric pressure, it instantly becomes steam and can be used as such. That is the attraction for geothermal power. Earlier there was the problem of the water pumped into the bowels of the earth not coming back but escaping into subterranean pools, lakes, rivers or even canyons which have never been exposed to sunlight since their formation. There also was the problem of removing minerals from the out coming water to prevent pipes and turbines corroding. Now such problems have been successfully solved. The only problem still remaining to be solved, and which makes many ideal geothermal locations loathsome to people, is the stench and foul smell of such gases as sulphur escaping along with the steam. But in many places these very sulphurous spots are gaining undeniable popularity as health spas. Italy was the first to tap the potential of geothermal energy, New Zealand, Philippines, Mexico and California followed, and now this undepletable source of energy is taken for granted. We needn’t fear about this well drying up: the hot molten core of our planet earth won’t cool at least for another one million years.
The energy future of the world is not at all as dull and dark as many unnecessarily fear and picturize. One simply has to wonder how plenty the energy latent in tides, waves, wind, rocks and rubbish are. They are the natural sources of energy stored by the earth and reserved for man, to be used without fear of depletion and without guilt of sin. By using them we do not become answerable to our future generations nor are we committing a crime against them. We are not leaving much waste which are uncleanable for them. But the sinful story of man’s endeavors with nuclear energy is entirely different. There is only death and destruction there. What kind nature provided us for being used without inhibitions or shame are called ‘non-conventional energy sources’ in the professorial terminology because we [they] are so misled by a few to think that nuclear and hydro-electric energy only are conventional and customary. The wind and wave and water, the original home of life on this planet, is waiting for us to understand their magnanimity. The world will go on without nuclear power, or even without electricity for that matter, but what use is nuclear energy without human race?