Sahara India Pariwar Collaboration With Korea East West Power Company

Sahara India Pariwar is one of the prominent India based organisations which is found and managed by Subrata Roy Sahara. This company has varied business interest and that includes Life insurance, mutual funds, housing finance, infrastructure housing, consumer products, media and entertainment, information technology and more. Sahara Power, an entity of Sahara Pariwar, in collaboration with Korea East West Power co. Ltd., a Government of Korea has decided to set up 6000 MW of power plants through mega projects in India. Mr. Ashok Bhargava, CEO of Sahara India Power Corporation Ltd has signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with Mr. Lee, Dil Gu President & CEO of Korea East West Power Company Ltd.
Sahara India Power Corporation Ltd and Korea East West Power Company Ltd. have entered into an agreement to jointly contribute in tariff based bidding for Ultra Mega Power Projects (UMPPs) and other opportunity in India to add up to a total Capacity of 6000 MW. This agreement was further extension of an earlier agreement of setting up 2x 660 MV (1320 MW) Power Plant in Titlagarh between Sahara India Pariwar and Korea East West Company Ltd. The 2x 660 MV (1320 MW) Power Plant in Titlagarh was based on Supercritical Technology. The approximate investment in that project was Rs. 8000 Crores.
Setting up 6000 MW of power plants through mega projects in India is a great initiative of Subrata Roy Sahara, Chairman of Sahara India Pariwar to bring new and innovative thermal power generation technologies to India. This project can be achieved by optimizing the resources like fuel consumption, heat recovery, waste water resources and recycling. Both these companies will discover possibility of integrating power generation modes i.e. Hydro, Thermal, Solar at one location etc. Both these companies are expecting to lower the emission levels as compare to present India conditions. The advisors and experts of these companies are working together to find out innovative models while keeping in mind the current environment condition of India. They are looking for models that could suit Indian conditions for environmentally friendly technology for thermal power generation.
Subrata Roy Sahara believes that this association will bring in high end technological advancements in power generations. The establishment of 6000 MW of power plants through mega and ultra mega projects in India will help in reducing the power deficit of the India. It is believe that this project will be able to contribute in the development of the India.

Hydro Energy Using the Power of Flowing Water

Hydro Energy is a renewable energy resource that uses the movement of water to rotate a water turbine or wheel which in turn produces a rotational mechanical output. The potential energy of the moving water is released as work because the water is in motion and the best way to put large amounts of water in motion is to let gravity do the work. Then the most important element for the production of "Hydro Energy" is not the water itself, but gravity, as it is gravity that makes the water move.
Hydro Energy is actually one of the most common kinds of renewable energy technology in use today, and with good reason. This kind of alternative energy, in addition to being sustainable, renewable, cost-effective, and environment-friendly, also has the potential for one day effectively producing most of the worlds energy needs.
Today, large scale hydro energy in the form of dams and reservoirs supply about 15% of the world's electricity needs, with some countries such as New Zealand producing over 70% of its electrical energy just from hydro power stations.
Hydroelectric power is a clean, natural power producing no carbon dioxide or other harmful emissions compared to fossil fuels and/or gas. Hydroelectric power generated by moving water can be less expensive than electricity generated by fossil fuel. In most cases, the natural flow of the water is more than enough to generate a good supply of electricity for the home but in other cases, a funnelling of the water along canals and penstocks may be required to increase the waters speed and therefore its potential energy output.
The theory of hydro energy is very similar to that of wind energy but instead of using the wind to rotate the turbines blades, we use the constant flow of water. Previously water turbines had only been used for pumping the water or for the irrigation of land, but due to technological changes over the last few decades, we can now use water turbines to generate electricity in the form of small scale hydro power plants.
The moving water rotates a water turbine or water wheel thus converting the kinetic energy of the movement of the water into a usable mechanical energy. This is then turned into electrical energy through the use of a generator. The amount of electricity generated is determined by how far the water falls, called "head height" and the average volume of water flow. These "run-of-river" small scale hydro power plants can be very efficient and very simple to install if there is running water near your home.
However, for most people it is highly unlikely that they will have a small stream or river big enough to provide a good enough source of water flowing through their land which could be used to power even a small scale hydro power system but if you happen to be one of the very lucky few who have a reasonable size stream running past your garden or land then a small scale hydro power system may be for you as building even a small dam and adding an electrical generator in a reasonable river can provide a good amount of energy for your home.
Hydro energy has one big advantage over other renewable energy sources you may be considering to power your home. The main advantage is that a small scale hydro system can generate power 24 hours a day, 7 days a week unlike other forms of solar power such as wind turbines or photovoltaic panels as the wind does not always blow or the sun does not always shine. But as long as there is gravity, the water will always keep on flowing flow down a stream or river both day and night and the faster the water is flowing, the more free energy that can be generated.
Whether you install a simple water wheel and DC generator or a more complex small scale hydro power plant, using hydro energy to power your home can be easier than you think. With a grid connected system you can even sell excess electricity you do not use back to the utility company who have been selling it to you for all these years giving you an additional income. Alternative Energy Tutorials is dedicated to showing you what you need to make Hydro Energy a reality!

How Much Oil Is Really Out There, Not Even the Ferrangi Really Know

Well, everyone is talking about the price of oil again, and we are in an election year, and at a time when our government is spending money to prop up the economy. Of course, it's hard to hold the economy up when it's being dragged down by the price of fuel. Indeed, maybe it's good that we are talking about the cost of energy right now, it should always be an issue, as it is a major component of our economy, and a major flow in our civilization. So let's talk about it shall we?
You probably heard all the theories about peak oil, and you probably noted the hard work that everyone is doing to foster alternative energies other than fossil fuels. But have you ever asked yourself how much oil is really in the world? We seem to be going after all the easy to get stuff, that crude oil which is near or at the surface, and often seeps out of the ground by itself if we don't stick a straw there to pump it out.
Still, what happens when we get all the "easy oil" and then we have to go after the hard stuff, in places where it's not so easy to get at, therefore it ends up costing us so much more money? And when might that be? Do we even know? Does anyone know? And if those people who know aren't telling us the truth, then who can we believe?
According to a report by Colin J. Campbell and Jean H. Laherrare, published in Scientific American on March 1998 entitled; "THE END OF CHEAP OIL," there was an alarming fact, as there was a; "Suspicious Jump in reserves reported by six OPEC members added 300 billion barrels of oil to official reserve tallies yet followed no major discovery of new fields."
Why you ask? Simple, because each nation in OPEC has agreed that it can produce and export for sale a percentage of its total reserves, based on the total of all OPEC country reserves each year. By cheating or lying, they can sell more, and get more money in the near term. And the article goes onto state;
"There is thus good reason to suspect that when, during the late 1980s, six of the 11 OPEC nations increased their reserve figures by colossal amounts, ranging from 42 to 197%, they did so only to boost their export quotas."
Well, maybe this is a more compelling reason that we need to be energy efficient, drill our own oil, and perhaps even put in the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada. All that makes sense right? And yes, whereas that oil from the tar sands in Canada is a messy proposition, and costs a lot more per barrel to produce, and refine them the light sweet crude near the surface in places like Saudi Arabia, we still must consider a time when we will need it, regardless of the higher cost. Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.

Was Global Nuclear Power Really Only One Disaster Away From Demise?

Okay so, my grandfather was a nuclear physicist at SLAC or Stanford Linear Accelerator and so, you can imagine that his grandson is pro-nuclear power. Some say that nuclear power costs far too much per kilowatt hour, but I would disagree, rather I would suggest to you that some of the regulations, and the difficulty in getting a nuclear generation power plant established due to EIRs or environmental impact reports is what is driving a good bit of that cost.
Also, we all know that the storage of spent nuclear fuel rods isn't cheap, and there's that whole challenge with Yucca Mountain. Nevertheless, there are some new types of nuclear generation plant options. For instance the Gates Foundation has funded and new technology which allows the nuclear fuel rods to be spent up to 90%, meaning they provide power for a lot longer, and the half-life, hazard, cost, and quantity is significantly reduced when it comes time for storage.
It is unfortunate that knee-jerk reaction to the Fukushima disaster in Japan. Nations across Europe decided after that accident that they would no longer use nuclear generated power. That is significantly unfortunate for a group of people who proclaim global warming is going to kill off most of humanity if we don't do something about the CO2 emissions. Nuclear is a clean way to generate power provided it is done carefully and properly.
There was a somewhat troubling article on March 6, 2012 in the Wall Street Journal, an opinion piece titled; "Fukushima and the Future of Nuclear Power - There's no evidence that low doses of radiation are harmful and no reason to paralyze our economy out of fear of nuclear power," by William Tucker. Mr. Tucker duly notes and I quote:
"All 54 of Japan's reactors absorbed an earthquake of 9.0 on the Richter scale-the biggest in Japan's recorded history. Though the shock exceeded design specifications, the steel reactor vessels and concrete containment structures remained intact. The problem occurred when the subsequent 50-foot tsunami wiped out the backup generators at Fukushima, crippling the cooling system and causing the four operating reactors to overheat."
He makes some outstanding points in the article, and yet, I have an even more compelling set of questions myself. Was global nuclear power really only just one disaster away from its total demise? If so, that's a real problem, and also speaks to the mass mob of hysteria in cited by the media. Nuclear generation can be done safely, and we are a lot better at doing it that we were back in the 1970s would have plant was made in the first place. Okay so, I'd like you to please consider all that and think on it.

Foreign Oil and American Energy

Filling up your tank hasn't been a pleasant experience for motorists this year. Prices have progressively risen since the first of the year, with the current national average of $3.76, up more than $.34 since the New Year.
There's much conjecture as to the cause of these steep price increases from oil futures trading to greedy oil companies; however the answer is actually quite simple: Iran and Syria. While Syria doesn't have an impact directly on the supply of petroleum, it does have an effect on the tenor of the Middle East. Since Syria is the primary partner of Iran and Iran produces a significant portion of the needs of Europe it raises tensions in region. Meanwhile Iran's posture towards U.N. sanctions involving its endeavors to create a nuclear weapon and its increasingly adversarial tone towards the West has had a very negative effect on the oil markets.
Syria has thumbed its nose towards other Middle East countries and is seemly unmoved by U.N. declarations, slaughtering more than 6,000 of its citizens. The recent uprisings against Bashar al-Assad have grown and so has the government's crackdown against its own people.
It is speculated that should Iran not allow full open and unimpeded inspections of its nuclear facilities that it may have sufficient fissile material to make one or more nuclear weapons by the end of this year. Iran has recently demonstrated missile systems capable of carrying a nuclear payload throughout the Middle East; however Iran's target has never been in question: Israel.
When Iran began threatening to close the Straits of Hormuz last fall we began to see a rapid rise in oil prices. At first the price-at-the-pump did not rise precipitously as an abundance of petroleum on the market had a depressing price, but the constant aggressive tone of the Iranian government began to take its toll. Rather than a slow increase in oil prices, after the first of the year the price for a barrel of oil rose at an alarming rate.
Oil traders feed off other oil traders. When the futures market believes the price of oil will continue to rise traders purchase futures for their respective clients to stake a supply before prices jump; the effect of all this buying on the oil futures market further drives up the price. The market predicts that either the demand has increased due to the sale of contracts or concludes a potential impediment to supply; both directly affect the market price of petroleum products.
One of the great misnomers about the price of gasoline at the pump is that oil companies take advantage of the world market price spikes to jack up the price of gas; this is false. Oil companies price their refined product based on the predicted price to replace the raw crude oil. When an oil company refines 100,000 gallons of crude oil, they take into consideration the cost to replace those 100,000 gallons, often already purchased on the futures market. Knowing that their raw product, crude oil, will cost them more they pass the additional expense onto the consumer; every business does this.
Some in the media and many consumers believe that oil company record profits indicate an artificial inflating of the price-at-the-pump, but that's simple naivety. Oil prices have grown more than the price of gasoline since last summer. You may ask then why are oil companies reaping record profits? The answer is simple: they sell more. If you build a widget and your cost is $1.00, and you turn around and sell it for $1.25 you make a $.25 profit; sell a million widgets and you make a $250,000 profit. If your cost increases to $1.10 and you only raise the price to $1.30 your profit per item drops to $.20; but if you sell two million widgets your profits grow to $400,000. Oil demand is constantly growing, not just for the production of fuel, but lubricants and numerous other consumer products. With the development of China the demand for petroleum products has soared allowing oil companies to move much more product.
Oil prices are to some degree speculative. While demand can be predicted fairly accurately, geopolitical forces cannot. If production grows at 5 percent annually but demand grows at 7 percent an increase in price is a predictable; however if the supply of oil is compromised due to natural or manmade events, such as a war or other disruption of supply, costs become unpredictable.
Oil is purchased on a world market and no single supplier controls the price. The market is constantly weighing demand and supply; when a potential change in the balance is predicted prices move.
We've been experiencing this roller coaster ride in prices ever since 2001. From 1980 till 2001 fuel prices rose at a rate less than the rate of inflation. After the 911 attacks, the war in Afghanistan and Iraq, prices have moved far faster and we've experienced a number of spikes that haven't coincided with current supply. Population growth in China and India, as well as other emerging nations, is far more predictable. The effect of growing demand creates a linear increase, but geopolitical effects create wild swings in market prices.
Middle East instability is the number one reason for our current dilemma and pointing fingers at oil companies won't do anything to bring sanity back to the oil markets. Unfortunately, stability and the Middle East is a riddle with no answer. Middle Eastern countries have been at each other's throats for thousands of years; the built up animosities may never be resolved. As long as the U.S. is dependent upon the world oil market for supply we will always be captive to the machinations of lands dominated by tribal motivations.
Solving the U.S. energy cost dilemma means two very simple themes: we must reduce our need for foreign sources of oil and we must develop our own energy supplies. This solution means removing home-grown political influences. The Democrats hate the oil companies because they donate to the Republicans at a far greater rate. Republican's hate green energy because supporters of renewable energy fund Democrats more than Republicans.
Politicians thrown out the "all of the above" phrase like any other of their other promises that are only meant to sway votes; if you read between the lines it's actually, "all of the above, but primarily those that donate to me." When politics interfere with markets the consume loses.
The first step in energy independence is barring all energy companies from donating to political campaigns. Would a law prohibiting such donations be constitutionally legal? Probably not due to historical rulings about the freedom of speech. Then what can we do so that we only institute policies that enhance American energy independence? Remove the donations from the equation by taking lawmakers out of the picture. Allow commonsense Americans, not legislators, to decide how, when and what funding and regulations can be applied to all forms of energy. This "American Energy Board" could be made up of average citizens randomly selected for a 2 year term to review and decide upon the implementation of any government action involving energy production in the U.S. No election nor re-election to be purchased, a finite term of service; hence no influence from political donations. This citizen board would not formulate laws or regulations, would not provide funding, only vote up or down on the actions of Congress. Will anything like this ever be enacted? Probably not, because we keep on sending people to Washington who only care about their future, and not the future of the nation.