IAS Prelims GS Questions and Answers - June 09, 2016

ANSWER: One Nation One Grid One Price

Explanation:

• For achieving One Nation One Grid One Price , Ministry of Power said that to make this happen there are three key elements namely UDAY enabling Discoms to increase volume of power purchase , planning sufficient Renewable Energy generating capacity in all regions and reducing coal imports by increasing coal production in the country .
• To strengthen the interstate transmission lines, the government has initiated an ambitious programme.

ANSWER: An initiative by US and India

Explanation:

• The United States is committed to bring to bear its technical capacity, resources and private sector, and is jointly launching with India new efforts, to spur greater investment in India’s renewable energy sector, including efforts that can serve as a model for other ISA Member Countries.
• In particular, the United States and India announced: the creation of a $20 million U.S. - India Clean Energy Finance (USICEF) initiative, equally supported by the United States and India, which is expected to mobilize up to $400 million to provide clean and renewable electricity to up to 1 million households by 2020;
• There is also a commitment to establish the U.S.-India Clean Energy Hub as the coordinating mechanism to focus United States Government efforts that, in partnership with leading Indian financial institutions, will increase renewable energy investment in India;

ANSWER: Crystalline form of methane and water

Explanation:

• In chemistry, a hydrate is a substance that contains water in its constituent elements.
• Gas hydrates are crystalline form of methane and water.
• They are envisaged as a viable major energy resource for future.
• Methane hydrate is a mixture of natural gas and water that becomes a solid in cold, high-pressure conditions in deep sea-beds (where the temperature falls to 2 degrees centigrade).
• It is also found in onshore deposits in the permafrost of northern Canada and Russia. Heating the deposits or lowering the pressure (the technique used by Japan Oil Gas and Metals National Corporation) will release gas from the solid. One litre of solid hydrate releases around 165 litres of gas.

ANSWER: All of the above

Explanation:

• They exist in shallow sediments of outer continental margins.
• Gas hydrates with their abundant resource potential is emerging as a potential fuel resource.
• The preliminary assessment of geological condition and limited available seismic data suggests high possibility of occurrence of large quantity of gas hydrates within the EEZ of India.
• India has long been known to have massive deposits of methane hydrate. These are tentatively estimated at 1,890 trillion cu. m.
• An Indo-US scientific joint venture in 2006 explored four areas: the Kerala-Konkan basin, the Krishna-Godavari basin, the Mahanadi basin and the seas off the Andaman Islands.
• The deposits in the Krishna Godavari basin turned out to be among the richest and biggest in the world. The Andamans yielded the thickest-ever deposits 600 metres below the seabed in volcanic ash sediments. Hydrates were also found in the Mahanadi basin.
• With an estimated amount of trillions of cubic metres of methane gas available in the Gas Hydrate deposits in the Indian waters, Gas Hydrates can be the future source of energy for India.

ANSWER: Gas hydrates

Explanation:

• Japan Oil Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC) succeeded in extracting natural gas from sea-bed deposits of methane hydrate popularly called “fire ice" because it is a white crystalline solid that burns.
• India has some of the biggest methane hydrate reserves in the world. It will reap a bonanza if technological progress allows gas to be extracted from hydrates economically and safely.
• Hydrates influence ocean carbon cycling, global climate change, and coastal sediment stability. Localized melt­downs have caused massive continental slope failure, which can present a geological hazard for shelf oil and gas production. Massive hydrate dissolution events, releasing vast amounts of the greenhouse gas methane, are possible causes of some of the abrupt climate chang­es seen in the geologic record.

ANSWER: 1, 2

Explanation:
Basic infrastructure to take up studies on Gas Hydrates in India has been set in three collaborating National laboratories in India. They are –

• National Institute of Ocean Technology, Chennai
• National Centre for Antarctic & Ocean Research, Goa
• National Geophysical Research Institute, Hyderabad.

The Geological Survey of India (GSI) in collaboration with National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) has launched an exploration to locate traces of gas hydrate reserves off the East Coast, particularly in the Krishna-Godavari offshore basin. However entire infrastructure is in the above three institutes.

ANSWER: Both 1 and 2

Explanation:

• Methane is a potent greenhouse gas. Methane released from gas hydrate may therefore play a significant role in climate change.
• It is important to distinguish between the climate change aspects of methane released naturally from gas hydrates and those of methane produced from gas hydrates for energy use.
• By burning methane or using it in fuel cells, the methane is converted to carbon dioxide, just like burning coal or oil.
• Combustion of methane, however is more carbon dioxide efficient than that of any other hydrocarbon, e.g., twice as efficient as burning coal. Hence, using methane from gas hydrate as an energy resource would be, compared to other hydrocarbons, relatively climate friendly.
• This is the reason why natural gas is considered a cleaner fuel.

ANSWER: Finance small solar projects in poorer rural areas

Explanation:

• There will be a $40 million U.S.-India Catalytic Solar Finance Program, equally supported by the United States and India, that, by providing needed liquidity to smaller-scale renewable energy investments, particularly in poorer, rural villages that are not connected to the grid, could mobilize up to $1 billion of projects;
• This would help in expansion of handholding support to Indian utilities that are scaling up rooftop solar and continuation of successful cooperation with USAID on "Greening the Grid”.