Conclusion

Himachal Pradesh reveals an immense opportunity in harnessing locally available and often wasted renewable energy resources for meeting its energy demands sustainably. Intricate understanding of a region, its landscape, climate, social structure, governance etc is essential for effective decentralized resource planning and management. Similar decentralized energy plan in identifying renewables, estimating their availability and studying their feasibility for utilization so as to meet the local energy demands of a region goes a long way in expanding the renewable energy sector in India.

Solar potential assessment shows that Himachal Pradesh receives annual average GHI above 4.5 kWh/m²/day. The regional variations in GHI are influenced by its diverse topography as well as seasons. The lower and middle elevation zones (<3500 m) receive relatively higher GHI for a longer duration annually. Entire region receives considerably large amount of solar energy. Solar photovoltaic applications with reasonable efficiencies and costs are viable options. These could substantially improve the energy scenario by providing decentralized energy in the isolated and inaccessible pockets. Spatial wind profiles based on high resolution data provide insights to the wind regime that helps in identifying potential sites for wind prospecting. The higher altitude alpine zone in Himachal Pradesh has relatively higher wind speeds compared to lower altitude zones. The minimal but reliable surface measurements in the lower altitude temperate and tropical zones indicate the micro climatic influences and spatial variability in the complex Himalayan terrain. The wind potential in Himachal Pradesh supports small wind technologies like agricultural water pumps, wind-photovoltaic hybrids, space/water heaters etc. This would help in meeting the decentralized energy demand sustainably. The bioenergy resource status of the three districts highlights highly pronounced scarcity of bioresources. Especially in critical bioenergy deficit regions like Lahaul Spiti, with the highest PCFC an energy crisis is imminent. The dwindling forest resources may not suffice the domestic, commercial and industrial needs of an ever increasing population. This results in shortage of fuel wood availability even for sustenance Efficient utilization of fuel wood, agro residues and animal dung could however reduce the pressure on forest resources. This demands site specific and innovative solutions with ultimate priority for the bioenergy deficit regions where even the total estimated bioenergy availability cannot meet the demands of an ever increasing population. Nevertheless, the regions deemed as bioenergy surplus in these estimations should not be marginalized while adopting such methodologies since they are under pressure. Potential bioresource crunch is imminent in the absence of immediate intervention perceptibly leading to deforestation.  Traditional stoves used for burning wood in these hill regions are thermally inefficient.  They emit more smoke causing health hazards to women and children. Energy efficient, smokeless and innovative ASTRA improved energy efficient cookstoves with thermal efficiency above 30% will reduce the fuel consumption by 42-45%. In mountains regions the demand as well as utility of fuel wood varies with altitude and hence the traditional designs differ zone–wise. Biogas from animal residues is an important alternative energy source in fuel wood deficient regions. Compared to traditional burning of animal dung cakes, biogas is efficient, cleaner and easier to distribute in a community based system. The potential of small 1 m³ capacity biogas plants in rural regions is enormous. Dung from stall–fed livestock could be used for biogas generation and the slurry as nitrogen rich manure which is not available during direct burning of dung–cakes. The state has an estimated potential to install nearly 0.332 million family size (2 m³) biogas plants which could produce 0.515 million m³ of biogas per day with energy equivalent to about 1801.1 tonnes of fuel wood. However due to the lacunae in planning, technical, organizational and social aspects, biogas program has not been successful.