Energy is the key input to drive and improve the life cycle. Primarily, it is the gift of the nature to the  mankind in various forms. The consumption of the energy is directly proportional to the progress of the mankind. With ever growing population, improvement in the living standard of the humanity, industrialization of the developing countries, the global demand for energy is expected to increase rather significantly in the near future. The primary source of energy is fossil fuel, however the finiteness of fossil fuel reserves and large scale  environmental degradation caused by their widespread use,  particularly global warming, urban air pollution and acid  rain, strongly suggests that harnessing of non-conventional, renewable and environment friendly energy resources is  vital for steering the global energy supplies towards a sustainable path.  The demand for power increases with the economic development in the world. The major fuel in use today are coal and oil or petroleum and natural gas but in some cases other fuels including wood, peat and nuclear fuels are used to produce power. Water, solar energy, biogas, wind, tidal and geothermal energy are non-conventional energy resources.

Coal

It has been the basis of industrial revolution.

Most of the coal has been formed during the carboniferous period of geological history owing to the submergence of natural vegetation.

It is found in seams in sedimentary rocks.

Its major quality is its combustibility and stability. The coal is divided into 3 kinds on the basis of carbon content.

Anthracite: It is the hardest and free or impurities. It contains above 90% of carbon and gives off little smoke. There are very limited reserves of this type of coal.

Bituminous Coal: It contains 70 to 90 percent of carbon. It is black and shiny. It gives smoky flame. They yield tar when heated.

Lignite or brown coal: It’s carbon content is 45 to 70 per cent. It burns with high smoky flames. It contains higher proportion of vegetal matter.

Peat: It represents the first stage in the formation of coal from vegetation. It is light brown in color with high humidity content. It does not have any industrial importance because it is most inferior coal.

The USA, CIS and China are the leading Coal Producers. Germany, CIS and West Germany are the main Lignite Producers.

Distribution of coal in world:

China: China ranks first in the world in coal production. Nearly 38 per cent of world’s coal output is from China. All types of coal are found, including anthracite, bituminous coal and lignite. Although coal occurs in every province of China, but its greatest concentration is in Shanxi and Shaanxi (Shansi and Shensi) along with manchuria region.

USA: The United States of America is the second largest producer of coal in the world. It produces about 17 per cent coal of the world.  The main coal-producing areas of USA are : The Appalachian Coalfields: Eastern Interior Coalfields, Rocky Mountain Coalfields

India: India is the third largest coal-producing country in the world. Its production is 7.2 per cent of the total world production of coal. The Indian coalfields is mainly found in Jharia, Raniganj, Bokaro, Giridh, and valleys of Mahanadi and Godavari.

Australia: Australia ranks 4th in coal production in the world and its contribution in world’s production is 6 per cent. In 2007, it produced 251 million metric tons of coal. The largest coal producer in Australia is New South Wales, which contributes more than half of the Australian production. The other notable coal-producing regions are Queensland, Victoria and Tasmania. Both bituminous coal and lignite are produced in Australia..

Russia: Russia is the fifth largest coal-producing country of the world. Its share in world production is 5 per cent. The main coal-producing areas are Kuznestsk basin, Ural-region, Moscow-Tula region, Pechora basin, Eastern Siberia and Northern Siberia. Kuznestsk basin is a coal region of southern Siberia and produces about 25 per cent of the country’s bituminous coal. Moscow-Tula region produces about 22 per cent of country’s output. But most of the coal produced in this region is of low grade. Pechara basin is having limited quantity of coal but it is of high grade.

Europe: In Europe coal-producing countries are Poland, Germany, United Kingdom, France, Belgium and the Netherlands.

Petroleum[1]

Petroleum Production (million barrels per day)

It supplies half the world’s energy requirements. It is easily obtained, can be cheaply distributed and occurs in great abundance. It is referred to black gold.

It is derived from the rocks where, it flows freely in either liquid or gaseous state.

The modern petroleum Industry recognizes three principal grades of crude oil.

1.       Paraffin-Base oil: It contains a higher percentage of methane and produces petrol and high grade lubricating oils.

2.       Asphalt-Base oil: It consists mainly of the heavier hydrocarbons. It yields little motor-oil during distillation so it is of less commercial significance.

3.       Mixed-base oil: It consists of mixed properties of the lighter and heavier oils. It carries a high percentage of naphthalene. It is used both for lubricants and fuel oils.

OPEC

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is an international organization made up of Algeria, Angola, Congo, Ecuador, Equator Guniea, Gabon, Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatarr, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela. The Vienna-based organization has maintained its headquarters there since 1965, hosting regular meetings between the oil ministers of its member states. The Organization now has twelve member states. They are listed below with their affiliation dates. Note that although the official language of a 7-nation majority of OPEC member-states is Arabic, OPEC's official language is English. Only one-member nation (Nigeria) has English as an official language. OPEC headquarters in Vienna.

In September 1960, the governments of Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela met in Baghdad to discuss the reduction in price of crude oil produced by their respective countries. As a result, OPEC was founded to unify and coordinate members' petroleum policies. Original OPEC members include Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela. Between 1960 and 1975, the organization expanded to include Qatar (1961), Indonesia (1962), Libya (1962), the United Arab Emirates (1967), Algeria (1969), and Nigeria (1971). Ecuador and Gabon were members of OPEC, but Ecuador withdrew on December 31st, 1992 because they were unwilling or unable to pay a $2 million dollar membership fee and felt that they needed to produce more oil than they were allowed to under the OPEC quota. Similar concerns prompted Gabon to follow suit in January 1995. Angola joined on the first day of 2007.

Indonesia is reconsidering its membership having become a net importer and being unable to meet its production quota. Although Iraq remains a member of OPEC, Iraqi production has not been a part of any OPEC quota agreements since March 1998. It is estimated that the current twelve OPEC members (account for about 40% of world oil production, and about 2/3 of the world's proven oil reserves.

Natural Gas

The principal constituents of natural gas are a mixture of gaseous hydro carbons of which methane alone may make up 80 to 90 per cent. The larger fields of gas often have no oil. The other gases include ethane, propane and butane. Traces of non-hydro carbon gases may also occur, including helium, nitrogen, carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulphide.

The U.S.A. accounts for about 42% of the world’s production of natural gas. Russia, China and the European Union are other major producers.

Though there are 50 countries that produce crude oil, over 75 per cent of the world’s supply comes from North America, the Middle East states and Russia.

Electricity

Hydro-Electricity

It is generated by running water which drives hydro turbines to generate hydroelectric power (H.E.P.)

The U.S.A. is the world’s leading producer of H.E.P. Russia has large plants in both European and Asiatic sectors of the country.

Thermal Electricity

When power is produced by burning other fuels such as coal, petroleum, or natural gas in thermal generators of specially designed furnaces, it is called thermal electricity.

Since thermal plants are dependent on a supply of solid or liquid fuels they are advantageously sited on coal fields, oil or natural gas fields, or at importing ports where oil is refined.

The greatest concentration is the densely populated and heavily industrialized parts of Western Europe and North-Eastern, North America. The U.S.A., whose annual output of thermal electricity is 2,211,000 million KWh, almost twice as much as any other country, is the leading producer and consumer. Second is Russia, followed by Japan.

Nuclear energy

The first commercial nuclear power stations started operation in the 1950s.

There are over 430 commercial nuclear power reactors operable in 31 countries, with over 370,000 MWe of total capacity. About 70 more reactors are under construction.

They provide over 13% of the world's electricity as continuous, reliable base-load power, without carbon dioxide emissions.

56 countries operate a total of about 240 research reactors and a further 180 nuclear reactors power some 150 ships and submarines.

Sixteen countries depend on nuclear power for at least a quarter of their electricity. France gets around three quarters of its power from nuclear energy, while Belgium, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, Slovenia and Ukraine get one third or more. South Korea, Bulgaria and Finland normally get more than 30% of their power from nuclear energy, while in the USA, UK, Spain and Russia almost one fifth is from nuclear. Japan is used to relying on nuclear power for more than one quarter of its electricity and is expected to return to that level. Among countries which do not host nuclear power plants, Italy and Denmark get almost 10% of their power from nuclear.

In electricity demand, the need for low-cost continuous, reliable supply can be distinguished from peak demand occurring over few hours daily and able to command higher prices. Supply needs to match demand instantly and reliably over time. There are number of characteristics of nuclear power which make it particularly valuable apart from its actual generation cost per unit – MWh or kWh.

• Fuel is a low proportion of power cost, giving power price stability
•  its fuel is on site (not depending on continuous delivery), it is dispatchable on demand
• it has fairly quick ramp-up
•  it contributes to clean air and low-CO₂ objectives
•  it gives good voltage support for grid stability.

These attributes are mostly not monetized in merchant markets, but have great value which is increasingly recognised where dependence on intermittent sources has grown.

Uranium

It is a radioactive mineral which have great capacity to generate energy through nuclear fission.

There are two primary sources of uranium (1) Pitchblende (50 to 80% uranium content) (2) Uraninite (60% to 80% uranium content).

Canada and U.S.A. are the leading uranium producers.

Thorium

The major sources of thorium are thorianite, allanite and monazite.

Sri Lanka and Madagascar are the main producers of Thorium. Monazite reserves are found in Brazil, Australia, and Malaysia.

Renewable and Non-Conventional Energy Resources

Energy generated by using wind, tides, solar, geothermal heat, and biomass including farm and animal waste as well as human excreta etc is known as non-conventional energy. All these sources are renewable or inexhaustible and do not cause environmental pollution.

Solar Energy

Since most renewable energy is ultimately "solar energy" that is directly collected from sun light. Energy is released by the Sun as electromagnetic waves. This energy reaching the earth’s atmosphere consists of about 8% UV radiation, 46% visible light and 46% infrared radiations.

It is available in plenty in the tropical region for longer periods in a year. This energy can be directly converted into electricity with the help of photo voltaic cells which are made of Silicon. The U.S.A. is the largest producer of solar cells. Now Japan is coming up in its production.

Wind Energy

It Has Been Harnessed for Centuries To Drive Mills And Pumps. Now it is being used to run turbines to produce electricity. Denmark, Germany and China are the leading wind power producers of the world.

Geothermal Energy

Geo-thermal energy is the heat of the earth's interior. That is energy derived for hot springs, emissions of dry or wet stream and from hot rocks at depth. It is most used in Iceland. India also has some sources of geothermal energy.

Tidal Energy

the rising water levels during tides can be utilized to create water reservoirs which then can be used to generate electricity.

Ocean thermal energy

The possible use of the seas is to make use of the heat gradient between Surface and deep-sea water or between warm currents such as the Gulf Stream and adjacent colder water to produce power. India with its tropical seas is very well placed to utilize this option.

Importance of non-conventional sources of energy:

1.       The non-conventional sources of energy are abundant in nature. According to energy experts the non-conventional energy potential of India is estimated at about 95,000 MW.

2.       These are renewable resources and hence can be renewed with minimum effort and money.

3.       Non-conventional sources of energy are pollution-free and eco-friendly.

INDIAN ENERGY SCENARIO

India ranks sixth in the world in total energy consumption, whereas more than 70% of its primary energy needs are being met through imports, mainly in the form of crude oil and natural gas. Coming to the power generation in the country, India has increased installed power capacity from 1362 MW to over 3000000 MW since independence and electrified more than 500,000 villages. This achievement is impressive but not sufficient. It is a matter of concern that 31% of households do not have access to the electricity (Census 20011). The electricity supply is not even sufficient for those who have been connected. The annual per capita consumption of 1010 Kwh is way lower than the 15000 Kwh in developed world. The Ministry of Power has now launched the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana to ensure 100% electrification. The task is daunting but not unachievable. India has a vast hydro potential of 150,000 MW out of which only 17% has been tapped so far. Then there are coal reserves to last for more than 200 years along with other exploitable energy reserves such as oil and gas etc. Even the potential of renewable energy is 82,000 MW. It is significant that the ministry envisions adding 100000 MW up to 2022 through non-solar energy alone.