Energy resources can be broadly categorised as renewable and depletable. Renewable resources are available every year whereas depletable resources are stored ones whose availability keeps on decreasing depending on use. Examples of renewable resources are hydro energy, solar energy, wind, biomass, energy from wastes (biogas, agro-wastes, industrial wastes etc.). Examples of non-renewable sources are petroleum products, coal, uranium, etc. Fire-wood is in a peculiar position - if our consumption per year equals our annual 'Production', it is a renewable resource; if the consumption exceeds annual growth, then it gets depleted. There are also other categorizations like commercial and non-commercial; conventional and non-conventional. Non-conventional forms are the recent developments in energy conversion and generation, examples being biogas, direct solar utilization devices like cooker and water heater, wind generators, etc.

Energy resources are also classified as primary or secondary ones - coal, firewood etc. being primary ones and electricity a secondary one. When energy is converted many times, an inherent problem is the loss incurred. Each convertion converts only a part of energy input as a usable output, the remaining part being lost to atmosphere. Estimates of the ratio of actual energy used in output to the total amount of energy spent gives values of about 0.05 - 0.1. This means that about 5% or 10% of total energy input is used, the remainder not used. Centralised systems normally invoke many conversions compared to decentralised systems.

Because of the complex nature of interlinkages of energy in various forms to many societal aspects, we will restrict our attention to mainly those aspects of the energy scene in Karnataka which directly effect its environment. In this sense, the main focus is directed towards the most important and oldest fuel-firewood. It is used in large quantities in almost every part of the State the technology needed being very simple - three stones. It is very closely linked to our ecology - the disappearance of our "forests" and areas of tree cover.

Hence we are emphasizing the use of firewood in Karnataka and the steps being taken to reduce firewood consumption by;

i) employing alternate sources like solar devices, biogas etc. and

ii) improving efficiency of end use devices.

Part I of this article will appear unbalanced - in concentrating its attention on the common man's fuel. Similarly emphasis has been placed on domestic use of energy rather than industrial uses. It is intended to focus our attention on industrial consumption in the successive articles (part II and III).

This article covers broadly the following aspects;

i) A general picture of consumption of energy in Karnataka;

ii) Potential of renewable energy sources in Karnataka;

iii) Developments in the use of renewable energy in Karnataka;

iv) Firewood consumption;

v) Affirmative policy measures to improve environment;

vi) Energy conservation strategies.

Even though these aspects do not cover the entire spectrum of energy usage - an important aspect like transport is missing - they present a picture of activities pertaining to environment related energy problems.

Any discussion on energy should lead to the solution of the question "what should be the State's energy policy?" This is after an assumption on our part that a "policy" must exist. A policy blending the need for development and the need for maintaining the fragile balance of our already marginally stable ecosystem must be evolved. Fortunately, many alternatives exist to solve the energy problems of a State, many of them having a benevolent impact on our environment. Hence a good energy policy, instead of being a dog in manger policy with adverse impacts on environment and satisfying the cry for a skewed form of development raised by individuals, should be an affirmative one leading to development of devices, technologies, incentives, diffusion mechanisms and organisations, support systems for maintenance and operation, with the objective of meeting energy requirements of every sector in a balanced manner and at the same time maintaining a very stable ecosystem. It is our hope that based on these reports, environmentally sound, renewable energy technologies for energy conversion and energy efficient devices should be encouraged and promoted not on a small scale but with a conscious effort.