Breathing Heavy - Issue #76
Why are winds blowing slower than before leaving pollution trapped in the city? Is hydrogen well placed to replace coking coal? Where will the world's largest solar park be?
The Big Question
This newsletter is getting written on an early morning trip from Delhi to Meerut.The signs are clear -- Winter is coming. And so, motoring down the Meerut Expressway, highrises started disappearing into the mist – or early manifestations of Delhi’s infernal winter smog. Air quality, we already know, is starting to dip.
Last Sunday, as per the Indian Express, Delhi’s AQI touched “very poor”. Stage 2 of the Graded Response Action Plan was evoked. Air quality, reported the paper, was terrible in Mumbai as well. “On Monday, Andheri had the worst AQI of 307, followed by 300 in Mazgaon, 208 in Malad, 183 in Chembur, 159 in Borivali, 139 in Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC), 133 in Bhandup, 105 in Worli and 90 in Colaba,” reported the paper. Navi Mumbai, it added, recorded an AQI of 259.
These numbers are a puzzle. Unlike Delhi, Maximum City lies on the coast and, ergo, benefits from onshore and offshore winds. “Stronger surface winds favour faster dispersion and wind reversal cycles of strong sea breezes sweep away air pollutants from the land,” wrote the newspaper. This, however, is changing. “Over the past couple of years, the wind pattern has changed due to which the process of wind reversal is taking as many as 15 days — earlier, this used to happen every two days,” it reported. “Due to the delay in wind reversal, the suspended particulate matter lingers in the lower atmosphere for a longer period of time thus worsening AQI. Also, over the past few years several infrastructure and redevelopment projects have come up, due to which construction is ongoing everywhere, this has increased the proportion of particulate matter in the air, which in turn has worsened the AQI.”
The obvious question rears its head. Why are these winds blowing slower than before, creating an outcome where dust from construction and vehicular emissions remains trapped in the city? In January 2023, a drop in ocean surface temperatures in the faraway Pacific had been flagged as the likely culprit.
This time around, as summer cedes to winter and sea temperatures are kept high by an evolving El Nino in the Pacific, what factors are at play?
Hydrogen finds a foothold
Hydrogen seems destined to replace coking coal in steel-making. This is another straw in the wind which says hydrogen’s use cases in transport, etc, seem more tenuous compared to its suitability for industry. On point, one more manufacturing firm embraced hydrogen last week. The government’s hydrogen policy, that said, is drawing criticism for being low on resources.
Energy PSUs join hands in green drive
Continuing with this subject of powering industrial plants, IOC is setting up a JV with NTPC to set up RE units that will supply 24/7 power to its refineries. “The primary focus of IndianOil NTPC Green Energy Private Limited is to develop renewable energy-based power projects, including solar PV, wind, energy storage, and other renewable sources,” reported Energetica. “These projects aim to ensure a continuous and reliable power supply to meet the energy needs of new IOC refinery projects.”
The joint venture's ultimate goal is to generate a minimum capacity of 650 MW of round-the-clock renewable power, wrote the website, “thereby contributing to the sustainability of IOC's refineries”.
Govt sets sights on Ladakh for world's largest solar park and energy storage project
In other RE news, India’s cabinet has approved a massive RE project in Ladakh -- a 13GW renewable energy project with a 7.5GW solar park and a 12GWh Battery Energy Storage System (BESS). These are stunning numbers. The world’s largest current solar project is the 2.8GW Golmud Solar Park in China. The BESS system too is four times larger than the biggest battery storage system in the world right now. This is a long gestation project – slated to be completed only by 2030 – with power lines connecting these projects to the national grid. One wonders what this project will mean for Ladakh.
Manufacturing mandate incoming?
To push further indigenisation by solar module makers, India wants to make local manufacturing of solar cells mandatory. This push comes at a time when, as we said last week, manufacturers are complaining about cheap imports eating into their sales – forcing them to look outside India for growth.
Other News
The country is not rethinking its hydel expansion – despite the mess created by Teesta 3. For more on that dam, see our long reads. Also see this report on the political blame-fest that has started.
Elsewhere, India is still baulking at using the yuan for its Russian oil payments.
The country has also decided the royalty rate – 3% -- for lithium mining. This is seen as a precursor for auctioning the country’s lithium deposits.
From Chhattisgarh, there is good news and bad news. The Moef has denotified 40 coalmines from the Lemru Elephant Corridor. This is good news. The bad news? This used to be called the Lemru Elephant Sanctuary. One wonders if the proposed elephant sanctuary has shrunk to a elephant corridor.
And, finally, India wants to cover a region the size of Sikkim with oil palm plantations.
Climate Long Reads of the Week
Disaster On The Teesta: Ignoring Warnings Of Melting Glacier, Sikkim Hoped Large Dams Would Earn Money (Article-14)
Grand plan to drought-proof India could reduce rainfall (Nature)
Indefatigable Malini Sunramaniam has reported, yet again, from Bastar. This time about a family haunted by both the security forces and the maoists. Sodi Nande’s brother was executed by the Maoists, her husband killed by the police.
Drought turns Amazonian capital into climate dystopia (Guardian)
“We have definitely lost the battle in the Global South,” said one senior G7 diplomat. “All the work we have done with the Global South [over Ukraine] has been lost . . . Forget about rules, forget about world order. They won’t ever listen to us again.” Rush by west to back Israel erodes developing countries’ support for Ukraine (FT)
In this oped, Saon Ray and Piyali Majumder examine just transitions in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh.