In India, the concept of energy as ‘Shakti’ has
been at the focus of philosophic, scientific and metaphysical thought from time
immemorial. Energy as heat has always been is and would be the prime
requirement for kitchen activities viz. food preparation. Many vintage Indian
food items accounted for a large amount of heat and longer cooking time with
abundant wood availed from then nearby dense forests that served the purpose to
acquire energy to cook and prepare meals. Although
pressure cookers, microwaves and such devices were unheard of in those days but
still innovative cooking methods that made optimum use of the available energy were
employed with which heat utilization, retention (to have proper uniformity in
the cooked food), slow cooling to the ambient temperature (tempering), etc. was
achieved by natural obtained resources as seen from the illustration below in
the preparation of an ancient Indian culinary viz. Dum Dena.
Food preservation was no issue then as every
household would rear livestock wherein such excess food prepared would be
served to them. There would be no dearth of manpower as each household either
employed permanent labor or had enough time to do the after chores themselves.
However, in this modern age, de-forestation issues
rampant around the whole world with the conventional energy sources like fossil
fuels, crude oil, natural gas, etc. dwindling fast, government regulations on
domesticating livestock, inadequate manpower availability, etc. there has been
every necessity of going for alternative means to procure this much needed
energy. This would then finally be via. future electrical devices such as
microwaves, stoves, grinders, mixers, coolers, refrigerators, air conditioners,
etc. in the future kitchens powered by electricity solely generated through
renewable energy sources.
As an example to highlight the growing trend in
such renewable energy applications, let us consider the pattern of energy
consumption in India of late around Year 2012 that showed 55% of total energy
was from the commercial sources like coal, oil, electricity and remaining 45%
was non-commercial energy such as fire wood, charcoal, agricultural residues,
vegetable wastes, cow dung, urban and industrial wastes and forest residue. These
facts and figures when added with other upcoming renewable energy resources
could fuel the Future Kitchens forever as evident from the following given
statistics below;
Table1. Global installed capacity (conventional)
Fuel
|
Installed capacity (End of 2007) in GW
|
Coal
|
1440 (42.06%)
|
Oil
|
445 (13.00%)
|
Gas
|
1168 (34.11%)
|
Nuclear
|
371 (10.84%)
|
Total
|
3424
|
(Source: World Energy Outlook, International Energy
Agency, 2009)
Table2. Global installed capacity (renewables)
Renewable Energy Sources
|
Power generation (GW) existing at end of 2008
|
Large Hydropower
|
860 (75.32%)
|
Small hydropower
|
85 (7.44%)
|
Biomass Power
|
52 (4.55%)
|
Solar PV, Grid connected
|
13 (1.14%)
|
Concentrated Solar Thermal Power (CSP)
|
0.5 (0.04%)
|
Geothermal Power
|
10 (0.88%)
|
Ocean Tidal Power
|
0.3 (0.03%)
|
Wind Power
|
121 (10.06%)
|
Total
|
1141.8
|
(Source: Renewables Global Status Report-2009
Update, REN21)
Table3. Installed capacity in India (conventional)
Fuels
|
Installed capacity (As on Dec’2009) in MW
|
Coal
|
81,605.88 (57.93%)
|
Gas
|
17,055.85 (12.11%)
|
Oil
|
1,199.75 (0.85%)
|
Hydro (Renewable)
|
36,885.40 (26.18%)
|
Nuclear
|
4,120.00 (2.92%)
|
Total
|
140,866.88
|
(Source: Ministry of Power, Gol as on Dec 2009)
Table4. Installed capacity in India (renewables)
Renewable Energy Sources
|
Installed capacity (As on Oct’2009) in MW
|
Biomass Power
|
816.5 (5.25%)
|
Wind Power
|
10,891 (70.08%)
|
Small Hydro Power (up to 25 MW)
|
2519.88 (16.21%)
|
Cogeneration bagasse
|
1241 (7.98%)
|
Waste-to-energy
|
67.41 (0.43%)
|
Solar Power
|
6
(0.04%)
|
Total
|
15,541.79
|
(Source: Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Gol
as on Oct’2009)
To know the need for such a would be transition
phenomena and be ready for it now itself let us learn what is low & high
entropy for energy used in physical transformation processes such as burning of
coal to generate electricity?
Low entropy refers to a highly ordered physical
structure embodying energy and matter in a readily available form such as a
piece of coal, charcoal. Conversely, high entropy refers to a highly disordered
physical structure embodying energy and matter that is, by itself, in an
unusable form, such as heat and ash. By definition, any matter-energy used in these
economic processes could be considered a low entropy resource whereas unusable
by-products can be considered high entropy wastes. The entropy of an isolated
system as this would always increase and become a maximum at the state of
equilibrium where all the fuel would have been expended and the temperature
would be uniform, leaving no prospect of generating future heat flows and
extracting useful work. Same argument goes for crude oil, LPG etc.
However the prospect of generating future heat
flows and extracting useful work via. solar, tidal, biomass, etc. would also
lead to depletion of the used quantities but could be again and again
replenished as they being renewable no matter how much used. Hence, the concept
of 'Shakti' or energy fuelling the future kitchen works of food preparation,
preservation and cleaning activities through such renewable sources needs more
introspection to help evolve such relevant suitable kitchen devices.
To conclude we have energy when utilized and
replenished appropriately and continuously may help future kitchens to prepare
not just daily meals but such vintage foods that have been forgotten with lapse
of time on account of their large fuel energy and more time requirements. An
assurance of fuel supply can undoubtedly also help redefine people’s attitude
towards such kitchen activities and thereby enable the individual/family a
joyful experience manifestation, driven by a sense of self-confidence and
pleasure in the act of taking time out to preparing food and not a stressful
situation caused by the difficulty in defining what meal to prepare and what to
avoid. Last but not the least as mentioned in the previous blog post
"Future Kitchen Experience' an appropriate dwelling environment based on
Vastu Shastra could do wonders in creative and innovative food preparation
activities.
A list of references, webpage addresses and videos
are given below for further introspection and comments.
1. Engineering Thermodynamics, by P.K Nag, Tata
McGraw-Hill Publishing Company Limited, New Delhi, pp-117 to 119, pp-123 to
125, pp-129 to 132
2. A Course in Thermal Engineering by S. Domkundwar,
Dr. C.P Kothandaraman, A.V Domkundwar , 5th revised & enlarged edition;
Reprint 2005, Dhanpat Rai & Co. (P) Ltd., New Delhi, pp3.30 – 3.33
3. World Institute of Sustainable Energy;
Green Energy, Regulation as the route to development of Renewables, Vol.6 No.1,
Printed and Published by WISE, Pune, Jan-Feb 2010 Edition, pp15, 27-30, 35,
59-61
4. Strategic plan for New and Renewable
Energy sector for the period 2011-17 , February 2011 , by Ministry of New and
Renewable Energy , Government of India, pp 31, 34, 44, 45
5. Indian Renewable Energy Status Report,
Background Report for DIREC 2010 by D. S. Arora (IRADe), Sarah Busche (NREL),
Shannon Cowlin (NREL), Tobias Engelmeier (Bridge to India Pvt. Ltd.), Hanna
Jaritz (IRADe), Anelia Milbrandt (NREL), Shannon Wang (REN21 Secretariat); Pub:
NREL/TP-6A20-48948, October 2010, pp05-06.
(NREL is a national laboratory of the U.S.
Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy,
operated by the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC)
6. Economics, entropy and sustainability, by
George F. Mcmahon & Janusz R. Mrozek, Hydrological Sciences-Journal-des
Sciences Hydrologiques, 42(4) August 1997
7. To operate sustainably or not to operate
sustainability?—That is the long-run question, by Philip Lawn, Futures 36
(2004), pp03
8. Solar Energy, Principles of Thermal
Collection and Storage, by S.P Sukhatme, Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company
Limited, New Delhi, pp-14.
9. Non-Conventional Energy Sources, by
G.D Rai, Khanna Publishers, New Delhi, pp-15.
10.Water and Energy International (Renewable Energy
Section), Vol.67 No.4, Central Board of Irrigation and Power, New Delhi, June
2010 Edition, pp30-38
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appropriate_technology
Inviting opinions, comments,..... on the post that
empathize with the image shown below on the need to harness renewable energy
resources for kitchen works;
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