TECHNO-ECONOMICS
OF RENEWABLE ENERGY UTILIZATION
IN INDIAN AGRICULTURE SECTOR
by
PALLAV PUROHIT
Centre for Energy Studies
Thesis submitted
in fulfillment of the requirements
of the degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY to the
INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, DELHI
NEW DELHI - 110016
FEBRUARY 2004
CERTIFICATE
It is hereby certified that the thesis entitled "Techno-Economics of Renewable
Energy Utilization in Indian Agriculture Sector", which is being submitted
by Mr. Pallav Purohit, is entirely the result of his own efforts. The work was
carried out under my supervision and has not been accepted in substance or in
part of any degree/diploma and is not being concurrently submitted in
candidature for any other degree/diploma to any other university or institute.
Dr. Tara Chandra Kandpal
Professor
Centre for Energy Studies
Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
Hauz Khas, New Delhi — 110016 (INDIA)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
It is my great pleasure to express deep sense of gratitude to my thesis supervisor Dr. T. C. Kandpal, Professor, Centre for Energy Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi not only for being the guiding force behind this work but for being much else-a guru, a friend, an elder brother...
I am also thankful to the Director, I.I.T. Delhi and Head, Centre for Energy studies, I.I.T. Delhi, for providing the necessary facilities in completing this work. The financial assistance in the form of fellowship and other facilities provided by Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) New Delhi, and Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) New Delhi are also to be duly acknowledged.
I am extremely grateful to Dr. S. S. Mathur and Dr. S. C. Mullick, Professors and former Heads, Centre for Energy Studies, Dr. (Mrs.) P. Mathur, Professor and former Head, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi for the much needed guidance and encouragement during the course of this work. I am extremely grateful to the reviewers of the thesis for their valuable comments towards improvement in the quality of the thesis.
I am extremely indebted to Dr. G. C. Joshi, Professor, Department of Physics, H. N. B. Garhwal University Srinagar (Uttaranchal), Dr. P. C. Maithani, Principal Scientific Officer, MNES and Dr. Subodh Kumar, Senior Scientific Officer-II, CES, IIT Delhi for their timely guidance and encouragement.
I am extremely thankful to Prof. Kirit Parikh, Chairman, Integrated Research and Action for Development (IRADe), New Delhi and Member, Planning Commission, Govt. of India and Prof. Jyoti Parikh, Executive Director, IRADe, New Delhi for their encouragement and moral support during the final phase of this work. My sincere thanks to Dr. B. D. Sharma, Senior Advisor, IRADe, New Delhi and fellow colleagues Dr. S. Mullick, Ms. Pallavi Maitra and Ms. Kavita Singh for their encouragement and willing support during the final phase of this work.
MV sincere thanks to our group members Mr. M. R. Nouni and Mr. P. C. Pant, Principal Scientific Officers, MNES, Ms. R. Uma, Fellow, TERI, Mr. B. Chandrasekar from EDCIL and Mr. A. Kumar from CES, IIT Delhi for many useful technical discussions during the completion of this work. Many thanks to Mr. 0. P. Chawla, and other members in our Solar Concentrator Laboratory for their timely help and cooperation.
I thank from the bottom of my heart to my research colleagues Dr. P. K. Bhardwaj, Mr. S. Bose, Mr. Rajesh Gupta, Dr. S. Rana, Dr. S. Diambi, Dr. J. Pandit, Dr. M. S. Bhandari, Dr. R. S. Adhikari, Dr. R. K. Tyagi and Dr. S. K. Tyagi for their timely help, cooperation and encouragement. I must thank to the people who have closely associated with me, among them are Mr. D. P. Benjwal, Mr. D. D. Devshali, Mr. P. C. Budhakoti, Mr. U. C. Purohit, Mr. K. K. Pandey, Mr. S. Deoli and many more for their encouragement and willing support.
I am extremely thankful to my elder brother Dr. Gunjan Purohit and younger brother Mr. Ishan Purohit for making most of the good things that have happened in my life possible. I am extremely indebted to Dr. S. P. Purohit for his motivation, appreciation and support during the course of this work. Last but not least, I wish to thank my uncle's Dr. D. C. Purohit, Dr. K. C. Purohit and other members of my family for their encouragement, inspiration and support during the course of this work.
(Pallav Purohit)
ABSTRACT
Economic growth and the need to improve the quality of life necessitate use of increasing
amounts of energy for productive purposes. On the supply side, the limitations imposed by
the depleting reserves of fossil fuels are being faced by both the developed and developing
economies. The rural areas of developing countries are often worst affected by the
unavailability of appropriate energy supply at affordable prices. As a consequence, in most of
the developing countries, rural energy is primarily derived from unprocessed biomass
(fuelwood, agri-residues and animal dung), animal and human resources. Increasing the
availability of useful energy to the large masses in rural areas of developing countries is a
pressing challenge before their Governments. There is a general consensus on using
renewable energy resources as a sustainable alternative in these areas. These include
processed biofuels (biogas, producer gas, biomass briquettes), solar energy, wind energy and
micro hydropower etc. Improvement in the efficiencies of fuel utilization, would of course,
be an inseparable component of any such strategy to augment the existing rural energy
supply.
In view of the increasing interest in the development and dissemination of technologies for
harnessing new and renewable sources of energy in India, there have also been some efforts
towards their use in the agriculture sector. In spite of some success reported in the case of a
few renewable energy systems for other end use applications (such as domestic solar water
heating systems, biogas plants for domestic cooking, improved cookstoves, solar PV lighting
systems etc.) the cumulative number of renewable energy systems so far being used in the
agriculture sector are far below their respective potentials. The barriers to the dissemination
of renewable energy technologies in the agriculture sector include (a) unavailability of
appropriate renewable energy technologies, (b) unattractive financial implications of
investments in renewable energy systems, (c) lack of infrastructure to provide after-sales
backup, and (d) lack of adequate institutional support for the dissemination of renewable
energy technologies etc. Therefore, in order to develop and disseminate appropriate
renewable energy resource-technology combinations to meet the energy demand in
agriculture sector, it is necessary to undertake an in-depth evaluation of the various feasibility
aspects (resource availability, financial and economic viability, energetic feasibility, socio-
cultural acceptability, environmental sustainability and institutional preparedness) of each
resource-technology combination. While satisfaction of each of these feasibility aspects is
necessary for a large-scale sustainable dissemination of renewable energy technologies, in the
initial phase the financial viability is of direct relevance for motivating the users towards their
adoption. Financial analysis of renewable energy technologies is, however, quite involved as
the associated costs and benefits are not always clearly defined. The implications of size,
capacity, components, and/or design of the energy technology on its cost and benefit are not
fully understood and consequently are not explicitly incorporated in the financial evaluation
exercises. An attempt to develop simple frameworks to study the financial viability of
renewable energy technologies having large dissemination potential for irrigation water
pumping and solar crop drying has been made in the present work.
The agriculture sector is also a producer of potential feedstocks. Agricultural residues
obtained from crop production (after harvesting) as well as agri-processing residues (obtained
in post harvesting operations) are one of the promising biomass energy feedstocks available
in the country. In view of the increasing opportunity costs of agricultural residues it is no
longer appropriate to consider them as feedstocks available at zero private cost. Substantial
amount of work is available in the literature on the pricing of wood fuels and its dependence
on market conditions. However, for agriculture residues such procedures are not available. In
fact, the agricultural residues can have varying cost labels attached to them depending upon
their potential as fuel (and any other feedstock). An attempt has been made to estimate the
maximum acceptable monetary value of some of the important agricultural residues as
biofuels. These estimates of the agricultural residues can then be used in techno-economic
evaluation studies of renewable energy systems using agricultural residues as energy
feedstocks.
Direct burning of agricultural residues in domestic as well as industrial applications is very
inefficient. Moreover, transportation, storage and handling problems are also associated with
its use due to low bulk density. One of the approaches that has been pursued towards
improved and efficient utilization of agricultural and other biomass residues is their
densification in order to produce pellets or briquettes. The briquetting of biomass improves
its handling characteristics, increases the volumetric calorific value, reduces transportation
costs and makes it available for a variety of applications. These biomass briquettes can
substitute coal used in boiler applications particularly in places located at large distances
from coal pithead. However, a substantial amount of energy (in the form of electricity) is
required for briquetting of biomass. It is therefore necessary to compare the energy inputs in
briquetting with the energy required for coal transportation. An attempt has been made to
evaluate the energetic viability of biomass briquetting compared with the incremental energy
embodied in the transportation of coal from coal pithead to the end use location. The results
of this study can help in identifying broad niche areas for the use of biomass briquettes from
the perspective of energetics.
The use of renewable energy technologies may often lead to both tangible and intangible
benefits. While all the likely tangible benefits are normally taken into account in the financial
evaluation exercises, invariably the intangible benefits (such as environmental externalities,
iii
health benefits, employment generation, reduced oil import bill etc.) are not considered in the
analysis. Moreover, the results of financial evaluation studies are also affected by the market
imperfections and commercial energy price distortions etc. In the initial phase of
dissemination of renewable energy technologies it is critically important that the above
factors are also taken into account to facilitate a proper comparison of these technologies with
existing commercial energy based options. Such an economic analysis may provide the
much-needed support to some of the renewable energy technologies during the critical phase
of their evolution and dissemination. An attempt to study several aspects of the economics of
renewable energy technologies for irrigation water pumping have also been made in this
work with the objective of quantifying their costs and benefits to the society.
At the end, a preliminary attempt to estimate the primary energy supply potential of the four
renewable energy technologies for irrigation water pumping has also been made in the thesis.
It is found that even in 2025, the contribution these technologies to the primary energy supply
for irrigation water pumping is likely to less than 7%. An attempt to project future levels of
dissemination of the renewable energy technologies for irrigation water pumping have been
made alongwith estimation of the required amount of investment for this purpose.
iv
PREFACE
Introduction
Economic growth and the need to improve the quality of life necessitate use of increasing
amounts of energy for productive purposes. On the supply side, the limitations imposed by
the depleting reserves of fossil fuels are being faced by both the developed and developing
economies. The rural areas of developing countries are often worst affected by the
unavailability of appropriate energy supply at affordable prices. As a consequence, in most of
the developing countries, rural energy is primarily derived from unprocessed biomass
(fuelwood, agri-residues and animal dung), animal and human resources. Increasing the
availability of useful energy to the large masses in rural areas of developing countries is a
pressing challenge before their Governments. There is a general consensus on using
renewable energy resources as a sustainable alternative in these areas (Lawand et al., 1982;
Moulik et al., 1992; Jefferson, 1994; 1996; Grilbler et al., 1996; Lampinen et al., 1997;
Sayigh, 1999; Rintala et al., 2002). These include processed biofuels (biogas, producer gas,
biomass briquettes), solar energy, wind energy and micro hydropower etc. Improvement in
the efficiencies of fuel utilization, would of course, be an inseparable component of any such
strategy to augment the existing rural energy supply.
India accounted for 12.5% of total primary energy consumption in the Asia-Pacific region
and 3% of world primary energy consumption in 2000-01 (British Petroleum, 2001). The fuel
mix of commercial energy consumption in India varies significantly from sector to sector.
The share of gross value added from agriculture sector to total gross domestic product (GDP)
was 27% in 2000-01 (TERI, 2002). According to the 1991 census, 68% of the workforce was
employed in this sector (GOI, 1993). The average annual growth rate of agriculture sector
viii
was 3.6% during 1992-2000 (MOF, 2001). The foodgrain production has been projected to
increase from 199 million tonne (MT) in 1996-97 to 304 MT in 2011-12 to meet the
increased nutritional requirement due to population growth (TERI, 2000). With the cropping
area (in the country) more or less saturated the increase in foodgrain production is expected
essentially due to the adoption of modern agricultural practices. As a consequence, the
agricultural production activities in India have gradually become very energy intensive and
the prevailing trends indicate towards further increase in its energy intensity (Singh and
Chancellor, 1975; Singh and Miglani, 1976; Pathak and Singh, 1978; Pathak and Singh,
1980; Bhatia, 1985; Parikh, 1985; Pathak, 1985; Pathak and Bining, 1985; Pathak et al.,
1986; Parikh and Syed, 1988; Moulik et al., 1991; Painuly et al., 1995; Parikh and
Ramanathan, 1999). The total energy input to the Indian agriculture sector has increased from
about 242 PJ in 1951 to about 1302 PJ in 1995 with a compound growth rate of 3.9% per
annum. During this period, the energy use per hectare has gone up by 3.8 times (a compound
annual growth rate of 3.1%). The share of commercial energy has increased from 9% in 1951
to 70% in 1995 (Singh, 1997; Agarwal et al., 1998). Amongst the several end use activities in
the agriculture sector land preparation, irrigation water pumping and drying are most energy
intensive (TERI, 2002).
In view of the increasing interest in the development and dissemination of technologies for
harnessing new and renewable sources of energy in India, there have also been some efforts
towards their use in the agriculture sector (Bhatia, 1977; Kishore et al., 1986; Kishore and
Rastogi, 1987; Shyam et al., 1987a; Bhatia and Pereira, 1988; MNES, 2003; Kishore et al.,
2004). In spite of some success reported in the case of a few renewable energy systems for
other end use applications (such as domestic solar water heating systems, biogas plants for
domestic cooking, improved cookstoves, solar PV lighting systems etc.) the cumulative
number of renewable energy systems so far being used in the agriculture sector are far below
ix
their respective potentials (MNES, 2003). The barriers to the dissemination of renewable
energy technologies in the agriculture sector include (a) unavailability of appropriate
renewable energy technologies, (b) unattractive financial implications of investments in
renewable energy systems, (c) lack of infrastructure to provide after-sales backup, and (d)
lack of adequate institutional support for the dissemination of renewable energy technologies
etc. Therefore, in order to develop and disseminate appropriate renewable energy resource-
technology combinations to meet the energy demand in agriculture sector, it is necessary to
undertake an in-depth evaluation of the various feasibility aspects (resource availability,
financial and economic viability, energetic feasibility, socio-cultural acceptability,
environmental sustainability and institutional preparedness) of each resource-technology
combination. While satisfaction of each of these feasibility aspects is necessary for a large-
scale sustainable dissemination of renewable energy technologies, in the initial phase the
financial viability is of direct relevance for motivating the users towards their adoption.
Financial analysis of renewable energy technologies is, however, quite involved as the
associated costs and benefits are not always clearly defined (Kandpal and Garg, 2003). The
implications of size, capacity, components, and/or design of the energy technology on its cost
and benefit are not fully understood and consequently are not explicitly incorporated in the
financial evaluation exercises. In an attempt towards understanding some of the issues
involved in the financial feasibility evaluation of the use of renewable energy technologies in
the agriculture sector, techno-economic evaluation of several renewable energy technologies
potentially suitable for meeting the energy demand of irrigation water pumping and solar
crop drying has been made in this study. Irrigation and drying have been selected because of
(a) the increasing energy intensity of these activities, (b) the broad field experience with most
of the technologies addressed, and (c) the importance of these activities for rural
development.
The agriculture sector is also a producer of potential feedstocks (Parikh, 1985; Pathak et al.,
1986; Shyam et al., 1987b; Shyam and Gite, 1990; Reddy et al., 1999). Agricultural residues
obtained from crop production (after harvesting) as well as agri-processing residues (obtained
in post harvesting operations) are one of the promising biomass energy feedstocks available
in the country. In view of the increasing opportunity costs of agricultural residues it is no
longer appropriate to consider them as feedstocks available at zero private cost. Substantial
amount of work is available in the literature on the pricing of wood fuels and its dependence
on market conditions (Hillring, 1999a, 1999b; 2000; Roos et al., 2003). However, for
agriculture residues such procedures are not available. In fact, the agricultural residues can
have varying cost labels attached to them depending upon their potential as fuel (and any
other feedstock). An attempt has been made to estimate the maximum acceptable monetary
value of some of the important agricultural residues as biofuels. These estimates of the
agricultural residues can then be used in techno-economic evaluation studies of renewable
energy systems using agricultural residues as energy feedstocks.
Direct burning of agricultural residues in domestic as well as industrial applications is very
inefficient. Moreover, transportation, storage and handling problems are also associated with
its use due to low bulk density. One of the approaches that has been pursued towards
improved and efficient utilization of agricultural and other biomass residues is their
densification in order to produce pellets or briquettes. The briquetting of biomass improves
its handling characteristics, increases the volumetric calorific value, reduces transportation
costs and makes it available for a variety of applications. These biomass briquettes can
substitute coal used in boiler applications particularly in places located at large distances
from coal pithead. However, a substantial amount of energy (in the form of electricity) is
required for briquetting of biomass. It is therefore necessary to compare the energy inputs in
xi
briquetting with the energy required for coal transportation. In this study an attempt has been
made to evaluate the energetic viability of biomass briquetting compared with the
incremental energy embodied in the transportation of coal from coal pithead to the end use
location. The results of this study can help in identifying broad niche areas for the use of
biomass briquettes from the perspective of energetics.
In the last two decades significant efforts have been made to study the financial viability of
different renewable energy technologies for several end use applications such as domestic
cooking, lighting, power generation etc. (Sinha and Kandpal, 1991; Rubab and Kandpal,
1995a, 1996; Kapur et al. 1996, 1998; Kandpal and Garg, 2003). Detailed techno-economics
of renewable energy systems potentially useful for agriculture sector are, however, not
available. It is in this context that an attempt to develop simple frameworks to study the
financial viability of renewable energy technologies having large dissemination potential for
irrigation water pumping and solar crop drying has been made in the present work. A modest
attempt to internalize some of the technological parameters in the financial evaluation
framework has also been made in the present work for the case of biogas and producer gas
driven dual fuel engine pumps, solar photovoltaic (SPV) pumps and windmill pumps for
irrigation water pumping. Important design features of the respective technologies have been
taken into account while estimating both the costs and benefits.
Solar drying is one of the potential applications of solar energy in the agriculture sector
(Lawand, 1966; Lawand et al., 1975). However, the dissemination of solar dryers for agri-
produce drying faces severe competition from the largely prevalent practices of open sun
drying and also to a lesser extent from the use of locally available biofuels. Thus, in the
prevailing scenario the agri-produce drying applications based on fossil fuels appear to be the
xii
only niche area for solar drying systems. However, unless the solar drying systems offer
exceptionally attractive financial gains it may not be practically possible to enhance their
acceptance among the potential users.
In an attempt towards evaluating the financial attractiveness of solar dryers the present work
has focussed on two somewhat different situations — (i) replacing open sun drying by solar
drying and (ii) substitution/saving of fossil fuels or biofuels by solar dryers. The benefits
accrued to the investor arise from different quarters in the above two cases. In the case of
open sun drying being replaced by solar drying it is the reduction in the losses and the likely
improvement in the quality of the product leading to monetary benefits to the investor. On the
other hand, in the case of biofuel/fossil fuel substitution the monetary worth of the fuel(s)
saved decides the benefits of the solar dryer to the investor.
The use of renewable energy technologies may often lead to both tangible and intangible
benefits. While all the likely tangible benefits are normally taken into account in the financial
evaluation exercises, invariably the intangible benefits (such as environmental externalities,
health benefits, employment generation, reduced oil import bill etc.) are not considered in the
analysis. Moreover, the results of financial evaluation studies are also affected by the market
imperfections and commercial energy price distortions etc. (Gittinger, 1982; Sinha and
Bhatia, 1984; ADB, 1998a; Belli et al., 2001). In the initial phase of dissemination of
renewable energy technologies it is critically important that the above factors are also taken
into account to facilitate a proper comparison of these technologies with existing commercial
energy based options. Such an economic analysis may provide the much-needed support to
some of the renewable energy technologies during the critical phase of their evolution and
dissemination. An attempt to study several aspects of the economics of renewable energy
technologies for irrigation water pumping have also been made in this work with the
objective of quantifying their costs and benefits to the society.
At present the development and dissemination of the renewable energy technologies for the
irrigation water pumping in India is in its initial phase. The reported dissemination levels are
much smaller than their respective estimated potentials (MNES, 2003). Though a variety of
technology diffusion models are available in the literature (Bass, 1969; Islam and Hague,
1994; Sharan, 1995; Naik and Sharan, 1997) their use for forecasting the future levels of
renewable energy technology dissemination need to be undertaken very carefully. The cost of
the technologies is also expected to depend upon the cumulative level of their penetration
(Kuemmel, 1999; Ibenholt, 2002; Masini and Frankl, 2003; Zwaan and Rabl., 2003). An
advanced knowledge of the investment required for dissemination of renewable energy
technologies for irrigation water pumping and its time variation would be of considerable
help in macro-level energy planning. A preliminary attempt towards estimation of primary
energy supply potential of the renewable energy technologies for irrigation water pumping
has been made in this thesis alongwith estimation of the required amount of investment for
this purpose.
A brief chapter-wise summary of the thesis is given below.
Chapter 1
Energy Use in Indian Agriculture Sector
A brief presentation of the existing energy demand and supply situation in the Indian
agriculture sector has been made. A brief review of the published literature on the use of
renewable energy technologies in the agriculture sector for irrigation and drying has also
been presented.
xiv
Chapter 2
Monetary Valuation of Agri-residues and Preliminary Identification of Energetically
Justifiable Niche Areas for their Briquetting
A simple approach for estimating the monetary value of agricultural residues used as biofuels
has been presented in this chapter. The role of different factors (i.e. calorific values of
agricultural residues and coal, efficiencies of boilers, pithead price of coal, distances from
coal pithead and freight rate of coal transportation etc.) included in the analysis have also
been studied.
Energetics of using biomass briquettes to substitute coal deserves serious consideration, as a
substantial amount of energy is required for briquetting of biomass. In the present work an
attempt to compare the energy embodied in biomass briquettes with the energy embodied in
coal at the end use point in India has been made. Biomass briquetting does not appear to be
an energetically viable option even for locations at a distance of about 1500 km from the coal
pithead (even if the briquetting unit is located very close to the place of availability of the
biomass feedstocks). A need for transportation of biomass feedstocks further pushes this
critical distance upwards.
Chapter 3
Financial Evaluation of Renewable Energy Technologies for Irrigation Water Pumping
Financial feasibility evaluation of different options for irrigation water pumping in
agriculture sector has been presented in this chapter. The alternatives considered include
(i) diesel engine pump in independent as well as in dual-fuel mode with biogas or producer
gas, (ii) electric motor pump, (iii) SPV pump, and (iv) windmill pump. With the estimation of
irrigation water requirement and known characteristics of the resource-technology
combinations, appropriate size of the pumping system is estimated and the cost of supplying
c-d 040' 114
&Los- 146°'
xv
the water is worked out. Monetary benefits accrued to the end user have also been quantified
on the basis of the amount of diesel or electricity saved. The financial figures of merits such
as benefit to cost ratio, net present value and internal rate of return of an investment in each
option have also been estimated. The effect of fuel price escalation on the financial
performance indices has been evaluated alongwith the estimation of the break-even prices of
diesel and electricity.
Chapter 4
Financial Evaluation of Solar Drying of Agri-produce
Financial feasibility evaluation of solar crop drying is the subject matter of this chapter. With
the estimation of useful energy requirement for crop drying and known characteristics of the
solar drying system appropriate size(s) of solar dryer(s) have been estimated. The incremental
benefits of solar drying over open sun drying have also been quantified. The discounted
payback period, benefit to cost ratio, net present value and internal rate of return of an
investment on a solar dryer have been estimated.
Chapter 5
Economic Analysis of Renewable Energy Technologies for Irrigation Water Pumping
In this chapter an attempt to include certain economic considerations in the evaluation of
renewable energy technologies for irrigation water pumping have been made. The valuation
of costs and benefits associated with different renewable energy resource-technology
combinations potentially feasible for irrigation water pumping has been accordingly made.
The unit cost of water and unit cost of useful energy delivered by these technologies/systems
has also been estimated.
xvi
Chapter 6
Energy Supply from Renewables for Irrigation Water Pumping in India
Results from a preliminary attempt to estimate the fraction of energy demand for irrigation
water pumping that can be met with four renewable energy technologies for water pumping
have been presented in this chapter. Future projections for the energy demand and cumulative
potential number of installation of renewable energy technologies for irrigation water
pumping have been estimated using available technology diffusion models. An attempt to
project the capital investment requirement on renewable energy technologies for irrigation
water pumping has also been made in this chapter.
Chapter 7
Conclusions and Recommendations for Future Work
Important conclusions and policy related implications of the financial/economic evaluation
studies presented in the thesis have been summarized in this chapter along with some
recommendations for future work.
LIMITATIONS OF THE PRESENT STUDY
Since the primary objective of the study was to develop simple yet realistic methods and
approaches to study the techno-economics of several renewable energy technologies with a
potential of large scale dissemination in Indian agriculture sector, several other aspects have
not been dealt with to the extent. Important limitations of the present study are as follows.
(i)
All the sample calculations have been carried out using the conditions and prices
prevalent in rural areas of India. The methodologies suggested, however may be
applicable in rural areas of other developing countries also.
xvii
(ii) The cost of various energy end use equipments have not necessarily been normalized
to a particular year though efforts have been made to use latest available figures in
most of the cases.
(iii) The estimates used for operation and maintenance costs, useful life etc. of different
technologies are essentially based on the data provided by manufacturers or as
obtained from the literature.
(iv) While developing the financial feasibility evaluation models it has been assumed that
the costs and performance characteristics of the renewable energy options considered
in the present work are completely specified. Moreover, it is also assumed that the
monetary worth of the fuel saving can be precisely quantified. In actual practice, for
several renewable energy technologies the cost and performance related information
is not available without ambiguity. In such a scenario, in numerical calculations the
best available estimates of various input parameters have been used in the study.
(v) In most of the numerical calculations, a discount rate of 10% has been used, whereas
in actual practice some other value may also prevail. However, in most of the cases
sensitivity of the results have been studied with respect to discount rate.
(vi) Due to the unavailability of data, in chapter 6 of the thesis, energy consumption for
irrigation water pumping as a fraction of the total energy use in the agriculture sector
has been kept constant. However, it may vary with increasing energy consumption in
the agriculture sector.
(vii) A few of the available technology diffusion models have been used merely to obtain
estimates for the likely future dissemination levels of the four renewable energy
technologies for irrigation water pumping. Detailed assessment to verify the
applicability of each one of the diffusion models for forecasting the diffusion levels of
the four renewable energy technologies has not been attempted due to unavailability
xviii
of available data on actual dissemination levels in the country as well as the
distortions caused by government intervention in the diffusion of these technologies.
The work presented in the thesis partially appeared in the following research publications.
A. JOURNALS
(1) Published
(1) Pallav Purohit, Atul Kumar, Santosh Rana and Tara Chandra Kandpal, "Using
Renewable Energy Technologies for Domestic Cooking in India: A Methodology for
Potential Estimation", Renewable Energy, 26 (2), pp. 235-246 (2002).
(2) Atul Kumar, Pallav Purohit, Santosh Rana and Tara Chandra Kandpal, "An
Approach to the Estimation of Value of Agricultural Residues Used as Biofuels",
Biomass and Bioenergy, 22 (3), pp. 195-203 (2002).
(3) Pallav Purohit, Atul Kumar and Tara Chandra Kandpal, "Potential of CO2 Emissions
Mitigation Using Renewable Energy Technologies for Domestic Cooking in India",
International Journal of Ambient Energy, 23 (3), pp. 127-135 (2002).
(4) Tara Chandra Kandpal, Pallav Purohit, Atul Kumar and B. Chandrasekar,
"Economics of Renewable Energy Utilization in Developing Countries", SESI
Journal, 13 (1-2), pp. 57-82 (2003).
(ii) Accepted for Publication
(1) Pallav Purohit and Tara Chandra Kandpal, "Techno-Economic Evaluation of Water
Pumping Windmills in India", International Journal of Energy Technology and
Policy, (In press).
(2) Pallav Purohit and Tara Chandra Kandpal, "Solar Crop Dryer for Saving
Commercial Fuels: A Techno-Economic Evaluation", International Journal of
Ambient Energy, (In press).
xix
(3) Pallav Purohit and Tara Chandra Kandpal, "Solar Photovoltaic Pumping in India: A
Financial Evaluation", International Journal of Ambient Energy, (In press).
(4) Pallav Purohit and Tara Chandra Kandpal, "Renewable Energy Technologies for
Irrigation Water Pumping in India: Projected Levels of Dissemination, Energy
Delivery and Investment Requirements Using Available Diffusion Models",
Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, (In press).
(iii) Communicated
(1) Pallav Purohit and Tara Chandra Kandpal, "Techno-economics of Biogas-Based
Water Pumping in India: An Attempt to Internalize CO2 emissions Mitigation and
Other Economic Benefits".
(2) Pallav Purohit, Arun Kumar Tripathi and Tara Chandra Kandpal, "Energetics of
Coal Substitution by Biomass Briquetting in India".
(3) Pallav Purohit, Atul Kumar and Tara Chandra Kandpal, "Solar Drying vs. Open Sun
Drying A Framework for Financial Evaluation".
(4) Pallav Purohit and Tara Chandra Kandpal, "Techno-economic Evaluation of SPV
Water Pumping in India".
B. CONFERENCES
(1) Published
(1) Pallav Purohit, Atul Kumar, Santosh Rana and Tara Chandra Kandpal, "Estimation
of Monetary Worth of Agricultural Residues Used as Biofuels: A Preliminary
Estimation", Published in the proceedings of the 24th National Renewable Energy
Convention 2000 of the Solar Energy Society of India, Indian Institute of Technology
Bombay, Mumbai (India), 30 November — 2 December, 2000, pp. 328-333.
xx
(2) Atul Kumar, Pallav Purohit, Santosh Rana and Tara Chandra Kandpal, "Potential of
Using Renewable Energy Technologies for Domestic Cooking in India", Published in
the proceedings of the National Workshop on Energy and Environment
Management for Sustainable Development of Agriculture and Agro-Industrial
Sector, Bhopal (India), July 8-10, 2001, pp. 100-102.
(3) Tara Chandra Kandpal, Atul Kumar and Pallav Purohit, "CO2 Mitigation Potential of
Renewable Energy Technologies for Domestic Cooking in India", Published in the
proceedings of the National Conference on Advances in Contemporary Physics and
Energy, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi (India), February 8-9, 2002,
pp. 390-401.
(4) Pallav Purohit and Tara Chandra Kandpal, "Social Cost Benefit Analysis of Box
Type Solar Cooker", Published in the proceedings of the World Renewable Energy
Congress VII, Cologne, Germany, 29 June - 5 July, 2002.
(5) Pallav Purohit and Tara Chandra Kandpal, "Solar Photovoltaic Pumping in India: A
Financial Evaluation", Published in the proceedings of the ISES Solar World
Congress 2003, Goteborg, Sweden, June 14-19 2003.
(6) Tara Chandra Kandpal, Pallav Purohit and Atul Kumar, "Techno-economic
Evaluation of Solar Crop Dryer", Published in the proceedings of the Second
International Conference on Renewable Energy Technology for Rural
Development (RETRUD-03), Kathmandu, Nepal, 12-14 October 2003, pp. 197-201.
(7) Pallav Purohit and Tara Chandra Kandpal, "Potential of Water Pumping Using
Community Biogas Plants: An Economic Analysis", Published in the proceedings of
the World Renewable Energy Congress (WREC-VIII), Colorado, USA, 28 August -
3 September 2004.
xxi
(8) Pallav Purohit and Tara Chandra Kandpal, "Dissemination of Renewable Energy
Technologies in India: An Assessment Using Technology Diffusion Models",
Published in the proceedings of the World Renewable Energy Congress (WREC-
VIII), Colorado, USA, 28 August-3 September 2004.
(ii) Communicated
(1) Pallav Purohit and Tara Chandra Kandpal, "Tecono-Economics Analysis of SPV
Pumping in India", ISES Solar World Congress 2005, August 8-12, 2005 Orlando,
Florida USA. (Abstract communicated).
(2) Pallav Purohit, "Small Scale CDM Projects in India: An Analysis of SPV Pumps",
ISES Solar World Congress 2005, August 8-12, 2005 Orlando, Florida USA.
(Abstract communicated)
CONTENTS Abstract i Contents v Preface viii List of Figures xxiii List of Tables xxvi Nomenclature xxx
Chapter 1. ENERGY USE IN INDIAN AGRICULTURE SECTOR
1.1 Introduction 1.1 1.2 Energy Use in Indian Agriculture Sector 1.2 1.3 Initiatives Towards Renewable Energy Use in the 1.6
Agriculture Sector
Chapter 2. MONETARY VALUATION OF AGRI-RESIDUES AND PRELIMINARY IDENTIFICATION OF ENERGETICALLY JUSTIFIABLE NICHE AREAS FOR THEIR BRIQUETTING
2.1 Introduction 2.1 2.2 Estimation of the Monetary Value of Agricultural Residues 2.2
2.2.1 Analysis 2.4 2.2.2 Results and Discussion 2.7
2.3 Energetics of Coal Substitution by Biomass Briquettes 2.18 2.3.1 Analysis 2.21 2.3.2 Results and Discussion 2.24
Chapter 3. FINANCIAL EVALUATION OF RENEWABLE ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES FOR IRRIGATION WATER PUMPING
3.1 Introduction 3.1 3.2 Water Requirement of Different Crops 3.4 3.3 Energy Technologies for Irrigation Water Pumping 3.5
3.3.1 SPV pump 3.5 3.3.2 Windmill pump 3.6 3.3.3 Biogas driven dual fuel engine pump 3.7 3.3.4 Producer gas driven dual fuel engine pump 3.7 3.3.5 Electric motor pump 3.8 3.3.6 Diesel engine pump 3.8
3.4 Analysis 3.8 3.4.1 Estimation of capacities 3.8 3.4.2 Annual useful energy and annual water output 3.9 3.4.3 Unit cost of useful energy and unit cost of water 3.13 3.4.4 Valuation of benefits 3.13
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3.4.5 Present value of net benefits of an investment on the renewable energy technologies for irrigation water pumping
3.4.6 Break-even analysis 3.5. Results and Discussion
Chapter 4. FINANCIAL EVALUATION OF SOLAR DRYING OF AGRI-PRODUCE
4.1 Introduction 4.2 Analysis
4.2.1 Capital cost of solar dryer 4.2.2 Unit cost of drying and unit cost of useful energy 4.2.3 Valuation of benefits
4.3 Results and Discussion
Chapter 5. ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF RENEWABLE ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES FOR IRRIGATION WATER PUMPING
5.1 Introduction 5.2 Framework for the Economic Analysis of Renewable
Energy Technologies 5.3 Valuation of Costs
5.3.1 Capital cost 5.3.2 Cost of land 5.3.3 Operational costs 5.3.4 Annual repair and maintenance costs
5.4 Valuation of Benefits 5.4.1 Primary benefits 5.4.2 Additional economic benefits
5.5 Unit cost of Useful Energy and Unit Cost of Water 5.5. Results and Discussion
Chapter 6. ENERGY SUPPLY FROM RENEWABLES FOR IRRIGATION WATER PUMPING IN INDIA
6.1 Introduction 6.2 Projection of Energy Demand for Irrigation Water Pumping 6.3 Technology Diffusion
6.3.1 Technology diffusion Models 6.3.2 Diffusion models used for the dissemination of
renewable energy technologies 6.4 Investment Requirement for Installation of Renewable
Energy Technologies for Irrigation Water Pumping 6.5 Estimation of Energy Delivered by Renewable Energy
Technologies 6.6 Results and Discussion
3.16
3.17 3.18
4.1 4.3 4.3 4.5 4.6
4.10
5.1 5.2
5.3 5.3 5.4 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.6 5.7
5.12 5.13
6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.7
6.8
6.10
6.11
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Chapter 7. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE WORK
7.1 Conclusions 7.1 7.2 Recommendations for Future Work 7.6
APPENDICES
1 Incremental Cost of Boiler for Co-firing of Biomass Feedstock A.1.1
2 Availability of Agricultural Residues for Energy Applications A.2.1
3 Crop Water Requirement A.3.1
4 Sizing of Renewable Energy Based Systems for Irrigation A.4.1 Water Pumping
5 Unit Cost of Useful Energy and Unit Cost of Water Delivered A.5.1 by Renewable Energy Technologies (Financial Analysis)
6 Some Indian Manufacturers of Water Pumping Technologies A.6.1
7 Time Trend of Global Crude Oil Prices A.7.1
8 Unit cost of Water Delivered and Other Measures of Financial A.8.1 Performance of Windmill Pump at Different Locations in India
9 Break-even Analysis for SPV Pump A.9.1
10 Valuation of Traded Goods A.10.1
11 Estimation of the Opportunity Cost of Land (used for installing A.11.1 biogas plant)
12 Estimation of the Economic Cost of Cattle Dung A.12.1
13 Estimation of the Opportunity Cost of Water A.13.1
14 Estimation of CO2 Emissions Mitigation by Using Biogas A.14.1 Driven Dual Fuel Engine Pumps
15 Unit Cost of Useful Energy and Unit Cost of Water Delivered A.15.1 by Renewable energy Technologies (Economic Analysis)
16 Energy Supply from Renewable Energy Technologies for A.16.1 Irrigation Water Pumping: Results Based on Logistic and Gompertz model
References R.1-R.26
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