According to Rajvanshi

Indian scientists who have developed an improved lantern that uses kerosene have advised the government not to phase out the poor man's fuel on environmental grounds.

Kerosene was traditionally burned in rural homes in hurricane lamps to provide lighting or in pressure stoves to cook food.

Now the Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute (NARI) at Phaltan in Maharashtra has developed a device that simultaneously provides light (equivalent to that from a 300 watt electric bulb) and cooks a complete meal (including chapattis) for a family of five.

The lanstove (combined lantern and cooking stove) thus makes kerosene an ideal fuel for rural households, says Anil Rajvanshi, an IIT graduate and NARI director.

He says it is unfortunate that the Indian government has decided to phase out kerosene as a result of tremendous tirade by the Western countries against the use of kerosene from a climate change point of view. This move, he says, will deprive the poor people in India of a convenient household fuel.

According to Rajvanshi, it is the way in which a fuel is burnt that makes it clean or dirty. Liquid petroleum gas (LPG) and compressed natural gas become clean fuels only because of excellent combustion technologies available.

No doubt hurricane lantern is an inefficient and unclean combustion device, says Rajvanshi.

Lanstove was developed by his institute precisely to overcome these drawbacks, he says in a report published in the latest issue of "current science.They are called "solar" panels or solar module because most of the time, the most powerful source of light available is the Sun."

The research led to the device that burns kerosene efficiently and without causing any pollution.

Lanstove has been tested for the last eight months in 25 rural huts in western Maharashtra which do not have electricity. The users found that it is smokeless unlike the existing biomass-powered chulha, and gives excellent light compared to the presently used hurricane lanterns.

The levels of harmful carbon monoxide from these lanstoves are less than three parts per million whereas those from regular chulhas are 80 to 130 times more, according to the study.

"Thus the lanstove is an extremely clean device and equivalent to the LPG stove," Rajvanshi told IANS.

The lanstove has been designed so that kerosene is pressurized and stored in a small separate cylinder from where it flows into the combustor and burns cleanly just like in the LPG cookstove.

This detachable cylinder can be filled up in kerosene dispensing shops, the same way an LPG cylinder is now charged.Xenon HID Worlds make hid lighting affordable to everyone and for all your vehicle needs.

However, despite its advantages to the people in India's rural areas, the lanstove cannot be introduced at present on a large scale because of unavailability of kerosene, Rajvanshi says.

Today, below poverty line (BPL) families get only five litres of kerosene per household every month whereas lanstove users need at least 15-20 litres of kerosene per month. What is therefore needed is an enlightened policy that makes at least this much kerosene available to rural poor at subsidised price, the NARI report says.

Rajvanshi points out that around 300 million Indians are without electricity. Solar- powered light emitting diode (LED) lanterns promoted by various agencies and also government departments are not only costly and difficult to maintain but the LED light has recently been shown to be harmful to the eyes producing irreparable damage to the retina. "Besides, unlike lanstoves, these solar lanterns cannot cook," he says.

Although kerosene is a fossil fuel, there are extensive efforts currently the world over to produce kerosene-like fuel from agricultural residues so as to make it renewable, says Rajvanshi. "I hope these efforts are also undertaken in India which has a huge amount of agricultural residues."

All his life Mahatma Gandhi studied and wrote under the light of kerosene hurricane lanterns and he also used to apply kerosene to his body as a mosquito repellent, says Rajvanshi. "I am sure that if he were alive today,A solar lamp is a portable light fixture composed of an LED lamp, a photovoltaic solar panel, and a rechargeable battery. he would have wholeheartedly embraced the lanstove and promoted its use among the rural poor."

Click on their website www.hmhid.com for more information.

Gas boom

APS and SRP plan to add almost twice as much capacity from natural-gas power plants as they do from solar and wind over the next 10 to 15 years to meet customer demand.

APS and its customers will add about 2,200 megawatts of capacity from renewable forms of energy by 2027, according to its resource plans. In that same time, APS will add about 3,712 megawatts of capacity from natural-gas power plants.

SRP’s resource plans call for 415 megawatts of new capacity from wind, geothermal and solar power by 2020, and once the economy rebounds, nine new gas-fired turbines with a capacity of 819 megawatts by 2023.

Both utilities will get close to 25 percent of their electricity generation from natural gas, and about half from coal and nuclear.

Because they are not adding significant new coal resources, or any nuclear, the relative proportion of their power from those sources will drop.

One megawatt of capacity is enough power to supply about 250 homes at once while a power plant is running.

Though natural gas is a potential rival to solar as a fuel for power plants, it also complements the use of solar.

Natural gas works together with solar and wind energy to keep the power grid in balance, with gas power plants firing up when clouds pass over solar plants or wind farms miss the breeze.

“They really work in complementary ways,” said Rhone Resch, president/CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association in Washington, D.C. “They rely on natural gas in the evening after the sun has gone down and after the thermal storage (of some solar-power plants) has been exhausted.”

Wind farms might only provide their full capacity 25 to 35 percent of the time, depending where they are in the country.

Solar-power plants also only provide their full capacity about 25 to 30 percent of the time, unless they have some sort of heat storage, like the new Solana plant.

When those plants stop making power, utilities rely on natural-gas-burning power plants to take up the slack.

That’s because natural-gas plants can turn on and off, and up and down, much more quickly and cheaply than coal and nuclear plants, which utilities try to run at full power around the clock to maximize efficiency.

Though the two are potential competitors, Resch said solar power, particularly in Arizona, offers several benefits that natural gas can’t.

“We do not anticipate that the expansion of natural-gas production is going to have a significant impact on the solar industry,” he said.

For starters, solar can be installed on homes and businesses, while natural gas can only be built as a centralized power plant.

So-called “distributed” solar on rooftops benefits utilities by minimizing demand on the electrical grid and producing power where it is used, he said.

“The other point is that natural gas, while abundant in certain areas of the country, is constrained by pipeline capacity in others,” he said.

And while cleaner burning than coal, natural gas still emits carbon dioxide, a gas that contributes to climate change.

Penticton downtown projects selected for improvements

Now the downtown revitalization is part of Penticton’s official community plan, the city is setting to work implementing the first of a number of improvement projects planned for the coming years.

The city has already earmarked $1.25 million to upgrade Martin Street and a few blocks along Westminster Avenue where the two cross. Besides enhancing to the western entrance to the downtown core and Martin Street entertainment district, this project was selected to help build momentum and excitement about the downtown revitalization, according to Anthony Haddad, the city’s director of development services.

“Enhancements are simple but have a significant impact over what exists today in this area of the downtown,” said Haddad. The enhancement includes new trees, street furniture, decorative street lighting and new sidewalk, made from decorative pavers that will extend into the parking areas along the 200 block of Martin, to create what Haddad calls a flex parking area.

The concept is to let business owners make better use of the space in front of their buildings. Posts marking off the parking areas can be shifted to allow room for sidewalk cafes, outdoor sales or other activities.

“Martin Street is currently the fastest route to exit the downtown core. It is not a desirable or comfortable place to walk,” said Haddad. “The esthetic of Martin Street will be significantly improved with the enhancements of the flex space.”

The city expects to recover about $300,000 of the $1,249,533 estimated cost of the project from property owners in the affected areas, charging them 25 per cent of the cost of the above-ground beautification works, from curb to property line, with a 15-year payback plan.

Haddad said the proposal and funding formula has been greeted well by the majority of the property owners approached. But Philip Locke, a property owner along Martin Street, let his views be known when council adopted the downtown plan at their June 17 meeting.

“Downtown is as beautiful as any shopping centre I have been to. I don’t know why you would want to spend millions of dollars in this time of restraint, when that isn’t even the problem,” said Locke. “I’ve just finished paying for the last one. Now you are going to ask me to pay for the new one.”

Locke and any other property owners opposed to the project will have a 30-day window to join in a petition to stop it, which would require 50 per cent of the property owners and 50 per cent of the assessed value to reject it.

While the city can upgrade the street esthetics, Haddad said they are looking at incentives to encourage business owners to do the same and upgrade their facades to match.

“It is difficult to require private owners to upgrade their buildings,” said Haddad. “We have heard from a lot of property owners who are interested in incentives that will help move them over the line to get facade improvements done.”

High Schools on Saipan show they are ‘schools for environmental change’

This past month, the Mariana Islands Nature Alliance hosted climate change workshops for teachers and students from various high schools on island as part of MINA’s “Schools for Environmental Change” program.

Because climate change has become a growing concern worldwide, MINA decided to increase awareness in the CNMI through educational workshops with presentations from environmental experts on island.

Participants included students and teachers from Marianas High School, Saipan Southern High School, Mount Carmel High School, Northern Marianas Academy, and AmeriCorps.

The presenters at the workshops included Robbie Greene of Coastal Resources Management; Greg Moretti of the Pacific Marine Resources Institute; Kaitlin Mattos of the Division of Environmental Quality; Andre Kozij of Northern Marianas Academy; John Furey, long time Environmental Educator; and Wayne Andrew, former Palau Delegate and environmental activist.

Lectures and activities included the causes of climate change, its effects on land and sea, and what the community can do about it.

“I liked the presenters,” one student commented. “They provided us with a lot of good information that many of us were not aware of.”

In addition to the workshops, participants were taken on a field trip to Managaha to learn about beach erosion and how to monitor coral bleaching through “Coral Watch,” a methodology used to assess the extent of bleaching.

A student praised the trip, “I loved everything about the field trip. All the activities were great!”

One of the most important components of MINA’s “Schools for Environmental Change” was the development of Conservation Action Plans or CAPs.

These CAPs were developed by the students to help their respective school ameliorate the causes of climate change or help their school adapt to the effects of climate change.

Students presented their CAPs this past Saturday, March 23, at the American Memorial Park auditorium.

“The students came up with great Conservation Action Plans that I think will really help their school move in a positive direction towards changing their views about the environment and climate change,” said Rica Dela Cruz, one of MINA’s project managers, “It’s these smaller initiations that can really create big changes. I’m so proud of these students.”

The CAPs of the schools included planting more trees on campus, installing more recycling bins, switching classrooms and school offices to solar street lighting, controlling paper usage, and increasing student body general awareness of climate change through surveys and climate change knowledge quizzes. In order to facilitate implementation of their plans on campus, the participating schools will receive $300 from MINA to buy the necessary supplies.

“I’m very happy with the CAPs that will be implemented in the participating schools,” said Sam Sablan, MINA’s executive director, “They have shown that they really are ‘Schools for Environmental Change.’ ”