Review of Global Energy Consumption

Global energy consumption has about doubled in the last three decades of the past century. In 2004, about 77.8% of the primary energy consumption is from fossil fuels (32.8% oil, 21.1% natural gas, 24.1% coal), 5.4% from nuclear fuels, 16.5% from renewable resources, of which the main one is hydroelectric, 5.5%, whereas the remaining 11% consists of non-commercial biomasses, such as wood, hay, and other types of fodder, that in rural-economies still constitute the main resource. These ’rural’ biomasses (mainly fodder) are usually ignored by statistical reviews of energy consumption proposed by oil companies, but for a correct global perspective they ought to be considered, because at least two thirds of human kind still lives in rural and artisanship economies not too different from the European Middle Age. For example, in the U.S. in 1850 two thirds of the mechanical energy was obtained from horses, and in 1925 horses were still 30 million. To fix ideas, the amount of energy currently consumed everyday by human kind corresponds to the heating value of 100 large oil tankers. Not accounting for the 1.2 Gtoe/yr of ’rural biomasses’, the fraction of energy demand covered by fossil fuels in 2004 appears to be 87.7%, a percentage often cited by various sources. Direct solar energy usage is about 11 Mtoe (millions, not billions of toe), less than 0.1% of the global consumption.

The fuel share in world’s total consumption in 2012 can be tabulated as follows:

S.N.	Fuel type	Energy(Mtoe)	% share
1.	Coal	907	10.1
2.	Oil	3645	40.7
3.	Natural gas	1365	15.2
4.	Biofuel	1113	12.4
5.	Electricity	1625	18.1
6.	Others	314	3.5

In 2012, almost 19% of total energy consumption is done by different modes of renewable sources. The promotion and implementation of renewable energy is increasing day by day exponentially due to various reasons like GHG reduction, low operation cost, decreasing fossil fuel reserves etc.

The contribution of different modes of renewable sources (among total 19%) is as follows:

S.N.	Renewable energy type	% share
1.	Traditional biomass	9%
2.	Biomass/geothermal/solar heat	4.2%
3.	Hydropower	3.8%
4.	Wind/solar/biomass/ geothermal power	1.2%
5.	Biofuels	0.8%

The total installed capacity/ total world consumption of different renewable energies are as follows:

S.N.	Energy type	Total consumption/production
1.	Biomass energy	116.5 Billion liter
2.	Geothermal energy	76TWh
3.	Hydropower energy	1000 GW
4.	Solar PV	139GW
5.	Solar thermal heating and cooling	326GW
6.	Wind	318GW

References:

          Key world energy statistics, 2012, IEA

                 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_energy_consumption

                Renewables 2014 world status report, 2014, REN21

  WORLD ENERGY CONSUMPTION AND RESOURCES, Gian Paolo Ber

Trying with Wind

It is always pleasing to start a new prospective in some proven technologies. We believe it is how we can make relevant changes and make product competitive and less expensive for consumers. Recently surfing through SWERA report, we found a new project to talk about with our energy enthusiast. Its wind power for Nepal.

Though Nepal has many companies dedicated towards wind energy as Krishna Grill and Engineering Workshop (KGEW), Kathmandu Alternative Power and Energy Group (KAPEG), yet they are not able to produce much. It might be due to less research in the sector, unwillingness to pay by consumer, failed example of Kagbeni, but most common is definitely the cost of Wind Power system. With some of Youtube experience it was found that it is not that hard to start up a Wind Plant with low cost but it will take few days to make one.

The PVC turbines as seen in various literature can surely be an alternative for the commercial blades. Though lot of efficiency is under stake but we can make the thing moving merely with few hundred Neplese Rupees. Properly designed blades can do really good. A brief idea of making blades is shown in the figure below.

We pretty much followed the template above. After the blades were nearly in shape with a small hub to give 3 blade arrangement we were ready to go. With the help of good friends and good wind the testing was carried out. Few glimpse of initial testing is shown in video below.

After the good rotations and few measurements we are now running up some more ideas of Alternator and Stands. Another video showing few more upgradations is shown below. 

Hope we will come out with very good solution for remote village in Nepal. Hope so.....

A brief review of Nepal's Energy Resources

Energy Resources of Nepal are divided into three categories, viz. Traditional, Commercial, and Alternative energy resources. Traditional sources include Fuel wood (charcoal from woody biomass), Tree, Non woody biomass, Agricultural products, Animal Dung: biomass based, bio-chars, and municipal and solid wastes. Commercial sources include coal, grid, and petroleum, whereas Alternative sources include biogas, solar, wind, and micro-hydro.

Biomass is in abundance in Nepal, especially in rural Nepal where it dominates as the principal energy resource. Wood fuel resources of Nepal make up a 10% crown cover of forests and shrub lands make up less than 10%. Community forest initiatives have been very effective in management of biomass supply chain. Community forests have got 40% population of Nepal involved in their programs with a supply of 7142.2 GT of forest products. (WECS, 2010)

According to FAO global forest resource assessment 2010, estimated biomass stock of above ground biomass in forest in million tons is 718. (FAO, 2010)

Sustainable fuel wood supply in 2008 / 2009 in cultivated land is 1165.9 GT, NCI 688.6 GT, grassland 51.5 GT, forest: 10037.6 GT, and shrub-land: 563.1 GT. (WECS, 2010)

In 2008/09 14.9 million tons of animal residues were produced, amounting to a total 40% of energy requirements of the country that could be potentially fulfilled by animal residues, as 80 % of total dung available can be used as fuel but only 15% is used for energy needs because dung is required for agriculture. ICS, briquettes, and gasifiers are other biomass based energy generation technologies. 331000 ICS have reportedly, been installed in Nepal. (WECS, 2010)

Biogas production, a CDM project has a potential of up to 1.9 million plant installations. 57% of such plants are currently in Terai, and more than 2 lakhs are alrready installed. The data only accounts cows and buffalos as a source of dung. 43 million GJ potential energy is equivalent to 11% of total energy demand of nation, with a high average availability factor of 81 %. (WECS, 2010)

Agricultural residues can be field residues or byproduct of agro processing. There is a total supply potential of 243 million GJ by agricultural residues equivalent to 61 % of annual energy consumption. (WECS, 2010)

Biomass wastes are other untapped resources.

Hydropower Resources: There is a theoretical potential of 83000 MW, technical potential of 45000 MW, and economically feasible potential of 42000 MW of electricity to be produced by using Nepal’s hydropower resources. (WECS, 2010)

According to, Department of electricity development, 43 projects total with capacity of 718.099 MW are currently in operaion, out of which private sector has promoted 35.09% of total hydroelectricity generation. Similarly, two thermal plants in Duhabi and Hetauda can produce 53.4 MW of electricity. (DOED, 2015)

Low grade lignitic coal can be mined in Nepal. 148200 tons coal were produced in Nepal in 2008/09.

Occurrence of coal in Nepal is in Quaternary lignite of Kathmandu valley, Eocene coal from mid-western Nepal, Siwalik coal, and Gondwana coal. Coal extracted in Dang s mostly used by brick industries. (WECS, 2010)

There are a total of 1152 micro-hydro projects as of projects, with installed capacity of 22831 kW serving 19000 households. There are also 40 mini hydro with installed capacity of 14.94 MW according to AEPC 2014. (Republica, 2014)

Wind remains widely unused energy resource of Nepal, despite having several research, development, and installation attempts. DANGRID, in 1990, calculated a feasibility of 200 MW between Kagbeni and Chusang of Mustang. A study done by AEPC and SWERA in 2003 calculated a potential of 3000 MW in Nepal. For demonstration, AEPC has installed a 400 W system in Nagarkot, and 5 numbers of 200w standalone systems in different parts over Nepal. (WECS, 2010)

Geothermal energy is a completely neglected resource. Nepal has 32 hot water springs where temperature of water reaches up to 500 C. (WECS, 2010). More research needs to be done.

Insolation in Nepal ranges from 3.6 – 6.2 kWh/m2/day, with 300 sunny days a year at average. SWERA calculated a commercial potential of 2100 MW from solar PV. Solar thermal energy use is common in solar water heating system in urban areas of Nepal amounting to more than a total of 185000 installations. (WECS, 2010)

References:
1. DOED (2015). Operating Projects – Hydro. Retrieved fromhttp://www.doed.gov.np/operating_projects_hydro.php on Mar 30, 2015.
2. FAO (2010). Global Forest Resource Assessment, Country Report: Nepal, Food and Agricultural Organization, Italy.
3. WECS (2010). Energy Sector Synopsis Report. Water and Energy Commission Secretariat, Kathmandu.
4. http://kshitiz.org