Geography

Non-Conventional Energy Sources
1. These are non exhaustible.
2. They are renewable sources of energy.
3. They do not cause environment pollution and are freely available.
4. The energy resources are in great demand but production of fossil fuels is limited, so non conventional sources of energy are hope of the future.
Solar Energy :
1. Photovoltaic technology converts sunlight directly into electricity.
2. It is expected that solar energy plant will be able to minimise the dependence of rural households on firewoods and dung cake, which is turn will contribute to environmental conservation and adequate supply of manure in agriculture.
3. The largest solar plant of India is located at Madhopur, near Bhuj, to sterilise milk cans.
Wind Power :
1. India now ranks as a ‘wind super power’ in the world.
2. The cost inputs are only at the initial stage and the power generation starts immediately after commissioning.
3. Once the generation starts, cost free power is available for about 20 years.
4. The largest wind farms cluster is located in Tamil Nadu from Nagarcoil to Madurai. Apart from these Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujrat, Kerala, Maharashtra and Lakshdweep have important wind farms.
Biogas :
1. Shrubs, farms waste, animal and human waste are used to produce biogas.
2. Decomposition of organic matter yields gas, which has higher thermal efficiency in comparison to kerosene, dung cake and charcoal.
3. Biogas plants are setup at municipal, cooperative and individual level.
4. The plants using cattle dung are known as ‘Gobar gas plant’. These provide twin benefits to the farmers in the form of energy and improved quality of manure.
5. It burns without smoke and is the cheapest gaseous fuel.
Tidal Energy :
Oceanic tides can be used to generate electricity. Flood gate dams are built across the inlets. During high tide water flows into the inlet and gets trapped when the gate is closed. After the tides falls out side the flood gate, the water retained by the flood gate flows back to the sea via a pipe that carries it through a power generating turbine.
In India, the Gulf of Kucch, provides ideal conditions for utilising tidal energy.
Geo-Thermal Energy :
Geothermal energy refers to the heat and electricity produced by using the heat from the interior of the earth. Geothermal energy exists because, the earth grows progressively hotter with increasing depth, where the geothermal grading is high, high temperature are found at shallow depth ground water in such areas absorbs heat from the rock and becomes hot and turns into steam. This steam is used to drive turbines and generate electricity.
Two experimental projects have been set up in India. One is located in the Parvati Valley near Manikaran in Himachal Pradesh and the other is in the Puga Valley, Ladakh.