Wednesday Post

I  fail to understand what is wrong with Maharashtra govt regarding  handling of Covid pandemic. It has been reported that out of 10 districts in the country with maximum Covid positivity rate, 7 are from Maharashtra and rest 3 are from Bihar. The highest positivity rate of 32.7% is of Raigad district in Maharashtra, the number of tests carried out are only 74,577. Thane with 3,90,378 tests and positivity rate of 29.4% is occupying the 2^nd place. Other districts from Maharashtra in the list are Nashik, Dhule ,Pune, Jalgaon  and Satara.. If number of tested people have been more,  where the positivity rate would have gone is anybody’s guess. Maharashtra with 6.15+ lakh cases is having almost 25% of total cases in the country. With Ganpati festival round the corner, and govt allowing the inter district movement of people, I do not know  what will be the situation post Ganpati festival in 1^st week of September, when inter district movement of people will end.

Now coming to my other topic of the day:

In the beginning of this century it was said that about 80% of the world’s energy supply was derived from non renewable fossil fuels like coal, petroleum and natural gas. In contrast, RENEWABLE ENERGY sources  accounted for nearly 20% of global energy consumption at the beginning of this century, it was largely from traditional use of biomass such as wood for heating and cooking.

We all know fossil fuels are finite resources, and eventually they will get exhausted, and when their stocks starts dwindling, they will  start becoming very expensive to retrieve as far as balance quantity is concerned. Fossil fuels also cause air, water and soil pollution, and produce greenhouse gasses that contribute to global warming. Fossil fuel combustion also has  number of negative environmental consequences. Fossil fuel based power plants emit air pollutants such as sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, toxic chemical and particulate matter. Exposure to all these gases is very harmful and can lead to asthma and other problems.

Fossil fuel combustion are responsible for acid, which has led to acidification of many lakes and causing damage to aquatic life, leaf damage in many forests and production of smog in or near urban areas. Burning fossil fuel also releases Carbon dioxide, one of the main greenhouse gas which causes global warming.

Now Renewable Energy is energy that is generated from natural processes that are continuously replenished. This includes sunlight, geothermal heat, wind , tides, water and various form of biomass. This energy can not be exhausted. While the major supply of energy is derived from large hydroelectric power plants, other types of renewable energy such as solar, wind and geothermal, also account for a small yet significant part of total electricity generation.

The main sources of renewable energy are:

Solar Energy

Sunlight or solar energy can be used for heating and cooling homes and other buildings. Generating electricity, water heating and variety of industrial process can be done with use of solar energy. The technology used to harvest the sun’s energy is constantly evolving including water heating, rooftop pipes, photo voltaic cells and mirror arrays.

Wind Energy

The energy of the wind has been used for centuries to sail ships and drive windmills that grind grain. Today, wind energy is captured by wind turbines and used to generate electricity.

Hydroelectricity

Flowing water can be used for powering water wheels that  Drive mechanical processes, and captured by turbines and generators, like those housed in many dams around the world. The energy of flowing water can be used to generate electricity. Tiny turbines can be used to power single homes.

Biomass and Biodiesel

Biomass, is a renewable organic matter, and can include biological material derived from living, or recently living organisms, such as wood, waste and alcoholic fuels. Wood energy is derived both from harvested wood as a fuel and from wood waste products. Waste energy can be generated from municipal waste, manufacturing waste, and landfill gas. Biomass alcohol fuels, or ethanol is derived almost exclusively from corn.

Biodiesel is fuel made from plant oils that can be used in diesel engines. They are typically made of renewable organic raw materials such as soybean or rapessed oils, animal fats, waste vegetable oil or microalgae oils.

I hope the above information on renewable energy will be helpful to you all.

Awaiting views/feed backs/comments.

Anil Malik

Mumbai, Maharashtra

19^th August 2020.

THIS IS 150th POST OF YEAR 2020.