2 weeks back, as I was walking Anay to our car in the basement, he asked: 'Papa, why does it say 'Danger, Keep distance' near our car?'
Now our car parking is near the transformer sets of our building and while they sit there, housed in a cage, the building management was taking precautions by warning residents to keep distance. So in explaining to Anay about the 'Danger, Keep Distance' sign, I first launched into how electricity was generated in power plants or hydroelectric dams. Then that electricity had to be brought to our buildings through wires. But if they just brought the electricity like it was generated, it will get wasted a lot. So they increase the speed (short for voltage :-) to get it to our buildings, fast. But if they don't slow it down in our building when it reaches, it will burn the wires. The transformers reduce the speed and then the electricity comes to our home.
Anay asked: why does electricity have to come from so far? I answered: because the dams and the power plants are where the water and the coal is.
While the conversation with Anay ended, it set me thinking. Why do we do all this generation, voltage transform-up, transmission, voltage transform-down business? We spend so much energy managing transmission losses and theft. What if we have our own solar panels and make our own energy because the sun reaches our homes directly!
So when Elon Musk delivered his keynote 2 days back, I was delighted. I saw what he was saying. We don't need all these wires, we don't need to solve the problem of transmission losses, we don't need to worry about changing courses of our rivers, we don't need to worry about the pollution from our coal plants, we don't need to worry about radiation from our nuclear plants.
We just need to wrap solar panels around our buildings, put up battery packs, go off the grid and enjoy the energy that the Sun so happily and freely gives us!
Elon Musk has shown what's possible. The comparison of grid power at X Rs./KWh and solar power at Y Rs./KWh is erroneous. It doesn't account for the environment cost of grid power, it doesn't account for the system cost of grid power (transmission losses), it doesn't account for the human cost of grid power (the displacement, disease and disaffection of local communities where these big electric projects are situated).
Today morning, I opened the newspaper to read about the Jaitapur nuclear plant. And I wondered, why? Why do we have to create our own reactor when there is one shining in the sky - free, reliable and bountiful!
Let's make solar energy possible.
Now our car parking is near the transformer sets of our building and while they sit there, housed in a cage, the building management was taking precautions by warning residents to keep distance. So in explaining to Anay about the 'Danger, Keep Distance' sign, I first launched into how electricity was generated in power plants or hydroelectric dams. Then that electricity had to be brought to our buildings through wires. But if they just brought the electricity like it was generated, it will get wasted a lot. So they increase the speed (short for voltage :-) to get it to our buildings, fast. But if they don't slow it down in our building when it reaches, it will burn the wires. The transformers reduce the speed and then the electricity comes to our home.
Anay asked: why does electricity have to come from so far? I answered: because the dams and the power plants are where the water and the coal is.
While the conversation with Anay ended, it set me thinking. Why do we do all this generation, voltage transform-up, transmission, voltage transform-down business? We spend so much energy managing transmission losses and theft. What if we have our own solar panels and make our own energy because the sun reaches our homes directly!
So when Elon Musk delivered his keynote 2 days back, I was delighted. I saw what he was saying. We don't need all these wires, we don't need to solve the problem of transmission losses, we don't need to worry about changing courses of our rivers, we don't need to worry about the pollution from our coal plants, we don't need to worry about radiation from our nuclear plants.
We just need to wrap solar panels around our buildings, put up battery packs, go off the grid and enjoy the energy that the Sun so happily and freely gives us!
Elon Musk has shown what's possible. The comparison of grid power at X Rs./KWh and solar power at Y Rs./KWh is erroneous. It doesn't account for the environment cost of grid power, it doesn't account for the system cost of grid power (transmission losses), it doesn't account for the human cost of grid power (the displacement, disease and disaffection of local communities where these big electric projects are situated).
Today morning, I opened the newspaper to read about the Jaitapur nuclear plant. And I wondered, why? Why do we have to create our own reactor when there is one shining in the sky - free, reliable and bountiful!
Let's make solar energy possible.
