Before I turn to the first question, can I just advise members that I have had the opportunity to ask all party leaders, or to be in touch with all party leaders, to ask for shorter questions and answers this week. That will give more space for backbenchers to make contributions. I hope that it will also make for snappier and more effective contributions. I live and I hope that my exhortation is adhered to, and on that note, Jackson Carlaw. Well after that lengthy introduction, thousands of Scots every day commute across central Scotland into Edinburgh and Glasgow. Could the First Minister explain to them why a car park tax imposed on them by a local authority whose politicians they don't elect and in whose region they don't live is a good example of local decision making? Of course, that would be a discretionary power for councils, a power that under a Tory Government councils in England already have and the kind of localism that Tories have been demanding in this chamber for some time. I noted that Jackson Carlaw launched a campaign in Edinburgh this morning and he's mentioned Edinburgh in his question, which I thought was really interesting. Just a few months ago, there was a motion passed at the Transport Committee of Edinburgh City Council that said this, to note the merits and principle of pursuing the power for Edinburgh to introduce a workplace parking levy. It was tabled by Councillor Nick Cooke, Conservative, seconded by Councillor Scott Douglas, Conservative and voted for by Councillor Graham Bruce, Conservative. Will Jackson Carlaw care to explain that? How can I put this delicately? Inconsistency. The First Minister wants to talk about Edinburgh City Council. Tory councillors noted the need for an economic assessment. What the entire country has noted is that you want to impose a £500 car park tax on them with no assessment whatsoever. Do I support a back-of-the-fag policy that threatens low workers with a regressive tax? No, I do not. Does the First Minister not understand what that means to ordinary people across Scotland? That is the equivalent to many people's monthly rent. I assume from the First Minister's answer that she is now the cheerleader-in-chief for people being punished for going to work with no say far less a vote over that decision. The SNP's position on the car park tax is more confused than that. On Wednesday, SNP Minister Kate Forbes said that a key principle born of Adam Smith is that taxes should be proportionate to the ability to pay. Can the First Minister explain how this entirely admirable principle, which has so rightly inspired Kate Forbes, is even remotely met if a call centre worker earning less than £20,000 a year has to pay the same car park tax as a company director earning five times as much? The First Minister is well knows that the SNP Government would not impose anything on anybody. That is a discretionary power that councils in England already have. It would be a proposed levy that councils could propose on employers not employees. That is what the Tories used to believe. We believe that decisions should be taken as locally as possible and that powers should lie with politicians elected as locally as possible. I am not sure when they changed their minds on that, but I have been wondering if there was a reason other than naked hypocrisy for the Tories' position on that. I wonder whether it might be something to do with this. Just at the end of last year, the Tories on Angus Council introduced car parking charges at 33 public car parks in Cernostey, Arbroath, Forfer, Ciri Muir, Breakin and Montrose. On Easton Bartonshire Council, the Tories last year increased car parking charges and scrapped free parking. In Argyll and Bute Council, the Tories imposed on car parks in Arrecar an 800 per cent increase in car parking. So here we have it, Presiding Officer. The Tories don't want to give powers to councils because clearly the Tories don't trust Tory councils. Jackson Carlaw. So it's the Henry McLeish defence. It was, namely, a counsellor of what done it. But you are responsible, First Minister, because you and the SNP MSPs are going to vote for it this afternoon. Every single Scottish Conservative council group leader has now emphatically said that they will not support a car park tax in their area. Every single Scottish Conservative MSP will oppose the car park tax in their constituency or region. But what about the First Minister? She's a constituency MSP in Glasgow. So what's her view? If, as a result of powers voted for by SNP MSPs, the SNP leadership of Glasgow City Council proposed charging hundreds of pounds each year for workplace parking, would she support them, yes or no? First Minister. That is up to local councils to do the assessment and to make the case. That presumably is what you mean by decisions taken as locally as possible and power lying with politicians elected as locally as possible. Let's get to the heart of the Tory position here. The Tory position, as I understand it, is if the SNP Government devolves a tax to councils and councils decide to use that power, that becomes an SNP Government tax. Is it the case that, given that the Tory Government devolved income tax powers to the Scottish Government, is the Scottish Government's use of those powers a Tory tax? That sounds ridiculous, but that is the logic of the Tory position. This afternoon, in the budget debate, I look forward to all of us calling the income tax decisions of this Scottish Government a Tory tax. That is the logic of Jackson Carlaw. Jackson Carlaw. So bluntly, it sounds as if the First Minister does not know if she is in favour of her own policy being imposed on her own constituents by her own SNP council. We will oppose the budget deal when it comes before Parliament this afternoon and, frankly, SNP members should too. As it breaks their own manifesto promises on both the council tax and on the basic rate of income tax, as we learned earlier this week, it risks precious tax revenue that pays for our schools and hospitals being lost to Scotland as people take their money elsewhere. Worst of all, it is a tax that says to people across this country trying to do the right thing, trying to juggle school drop-offs with work, trying to keep Scotland going and, in many cases, working unsociable hours when there is no public transport provision, that they are to be punished. All week, we have seen SNP ministers desperately distance themselves from the car park tax, and now even the First Minister won't say whether she backs it or not. It's a simple question. If they don't back it, why should anybody, why should we? First Minister. I back councils having the power to decide, because we don't just preach localism and empowering councils, we practise that principle. A discretionary power that councils could use to help tackle pollution, cut emissions and, yes, invest in public transport. I say again, Presiding Officer, exactly the localism that Tories have been demanding and exactly the power that a UK Tory Government allows councils in England to already have. Isn't it the case, Presiding Officer, that I've got a wealth of evidence—I've gone through some of it here today—that the Tories do not oppose giving this power to councils in principle, they only actually oppose it when it is the SNP proposing it. It is, Presiding Officer, to coin a phrase, hypocrisy on stilts. I hope that Jackson Carlaw had more success when he used to sell second-hand cars than he will have in peddling that line. Just yesterday, school pupils across Argyll and Bute took to the streets to protest against cuts to local youth services. They understand the impact that £230 million worth of cuts to Scotland's councils will mean. I, as we saw last week, always applaud young people taking an interest in the decisions that affect their lives. That applies to young people in Argyll and Bute, as it does to young people campaigning for greater action on climate change. Richard Leonard is just wrong when he talks about cuts to the local government budget. This afternoon, in the budget, we will propose a budget that increases the resources that councils have to spend. We will ensure that councils have more resources in revenue terms, more resources in capital terms, more resources overall. In addition to that, we will give councils, as we have just been debating, more flexibility in the revenue that they raise. That is a good thing. It is incumbent on Richard Leonard when he did not bring forward a single proposal for any changes to the budget to say why he will vote against that this afternoon. Richard Leonard. The First Minister talks about more resources for Scotland's councils, so let us examine what more resources for Scotland's councils looks like on the ground. Later today, SNP Run Dundee Council will propose a budget that will cut children's education in the city. That will mean cutting education resource workers, cutting pupil support workers, cutting primary and early years assistants, even cutting 26 teaching posts from the city's primary schools. All of that at a time when school roles in the city are rising. So can the First Minister explain why she stands up in this chamber claiming that education is her top priority and then sets a budget that out in the real world means cuts, cuts to teachers and cuts to education? Let me just, yet again, give Richard Leonard the facts. The budget proposed that Parliament will vote on this afternoon increases local government day-to-day spending for local revenue services, including education, of £287.5 million, an increase in capital spending of £207.6 million and greater flexibility to raise revenue. Those are the facts, but I will give Richard Leonard a final opportunity. The final vote on the budget will take place at 5 o'clock today, so he still has a few hours. If he wants us to spend more on local government, which line in the budget should we take that money from? Should it be health? Should it be social care? I'm waiting. He's got the opportunity now to do it. Let's hear what his proposal is. Richard Leonard. Here's a fact. It's not just Dundee where cuts to council funding are hitting children's education. In SNP-run Clackmannanshire, Scottish Government cuts are so deep that council officers propose closing both Culls Norton and Fish Cross primary schools. Only a campaign led by parents stopped them, but children in Clackmannanshire still face cuts. School transport is being axed. Class sizes are being increased and two and a half hours is being cut from the school week. Nicola Sturgeon came into office promising to cut class sizes, but 12 years on too many children will be in bigger classes because of her budget and they will be spending less time being taught in those classes because of her budget. First Minister, if education is your defining mission and young people are your sacred responsibility, why are you imposing £230 million worth of cuts on Scotland's councils? To put it bluntly, we are not. I guess that if we wound the clock back to roundabout this time last year, Richard Leonard would be standing up again claiming that education budgets across the country were going to be cut. Here is what happened in this financial year. Local authorities set education budgets this year that were 3.8 per cent higher than the budgets that they set the year before. That is a 2.3 per cent real-terms increase in their planned spend on education. Those are the facts. No matter how hard Richard Leonard tries, he cannot negate those facts. Again, one last chance. Before five o'clock today, if he wants us to spend more on local government, he has an opportunity to come forward and say where that will come from. The only proposal that came from Labour benches was ruled out by Richard Leonard. He has no credibility in asking for more money if he won't say where that money is going to come from. We have a number of constituency questions. The first is from David Torrance. Yesterday, Ellis Laundrie announced a closure of its factory in Cercodi by the beginning of April with an unanticipated loss of 86 jobs. Can the First Minister please advise what the Scottish Government can do to support employees' face from redundancy? I was very concerned that Ellis Laundrie has announced the closure of its factory in Cercodi with the potential loss of many jobs. I understand that the proposals at the site will close at the end of March, and the business will transfer to in Shinnon. The PACE partnership has already engaged with Ellis Laundrie and has worked with the employees affected over recent weeks. I can assure David Torrance that the partnership will continue to provide the support that employees need to help them at this very difficult time. A constituent in Highland Perthshire has asked me to raise concerns about ambulance cover in the area. On 20 January, a 999 call for an ambulance in a life-threatening situation took one hour and 46 minutes for a rapid response unit to attend, and two hours and 14 minutes for an ambulance to follow up. Fortunately, the patient in question has recovered, but does the First Minister consider that those timescales are acceptable, and what steps will be taken to improve the level of ambulance cover in rural Perthshire? I am grateful to Murdo Fraser for raising that. Can he please pass my good wishes back to his constituent? Our ambulance service does an excellent job, and I am sure that members across the chamber would want to recognise that. I do not know all the details of that particular case, certainly from what Murdo Fraser has narrated. That kind of response time does not appear to me to be acceptable. However, I will ask the health secretary to look into the circumstances to discuss them with the Scottish Ambulance Service and to write to Murdo Fraser when she has more information. Monica Lennon, to be followed by Brian Whittle. First Minister, after the clinical waste company healthcare environmental services limited ceased its services to the NHS, boards continued to pay the company, and it has been reported that boards still owe HES £450,000. Meanwhile, HES workers still have not been paid their final wages after they were let go at Christmas. Does the First Minister agree with me that any outstanding payments from the NHS boards to HES should be used to create a special fund for HES staff who cannot afford to be out of pocket any longer? I understand the sentiment behind her question. I think that we would all share the sense of anger when any employees are treated less than ideally, which is certainly the case here. On the issue of the payments, my understanding is that any payments that were made to this company were for services that had already been delivered before the companies went into its administration, and therefore health boards were contractually legally obliged to make those payments. I am sure that Monica Lennon can understand that position. We will continue to do everything that we can to help the employees concerned. I am sure that the health secretary would be happy to talk to Monica Lennon further about the further actions that the Scottish Government is able to take. Brian Whittle, to be followed by Rhoda Grant. I would like to draw the First Minister's attention to the Tobolton landfill site, which has now gone 250 days since the company that was running that site went into liquidation. Since then, pumps have been switched off and there has been no flaring, and there is increasing evidence of contaminants leaching into the ground and into the air and into the water. At a recent stakeholders meeting, it was unclear where the responsibility lay for that health and safety. I wonder if I get the opportunity if the First Minister could tell me where those lines of responsibility lie in keeping that site safe. I am not able to give all that information to Brian Whittle right now. I will undertake to raise this with the environment secretary and to come back to him as quickly as possible about our understanding of where lines of accountability are and also the action that the Scottish Government can take to try to reach a resolution of what certainly seems to be a deeply unsatisfactory situation. I can understand that people in the local area will be very concerned about any prospect of contamination, and it is absolutely necessary that all relevant agencies and organisations respond as quickly as possible. Rhoda Grant A woman in Caithness has bravely shared her experience of giving birth under the current maternity provisions there. She was pregnant with twins when she was into labour at 30 weeks. She went to the Caithness general hospital to be told after examination that she would be transferred by road to Inverness over 100 miles away on a two and a half hour drive. Halfway into that journey, they had to stop at a community hospital in Galsby, where the first twin was born, Breach. The air ambulance was then tasked, but because it would take two hours to arrive, the first twin would be sent by road to Inverness. The helicopter could not land. Another air ambulance was tasked, but that would take too long. Therefore, a second ambulance resumed the journey to Inverness where the second twin was born. Thankfully, after a prolonged stay in hospital, all are now doing well. However, it begs the question why was the air ambulance or emergency retrieval team not tasked initially air lifting the mum from Caithness? Will the First Minister investigate that, and will she make sure that the air ambulance treats such situations as a priority? First Minister. Yes, I will investigate that specific question. First, I can ask Rhoda Grant to convey my good wishes to the family in her constituency. As Rhoda Grant knows, mothers about to give birth would be transferred from Caithness only when that was considered to be in line with patient safety. Why the air ambulance was not immediately tasked in this case is not something that I have the information on now in the chamber, but I will ask the health secretary to look into that this afternoon and come back to Rhoda Grant, both with an explanation of that, but also any further consideration that we think is required in light of that to ensure that where possible the right method of transferring mothers is tasked at the earliest possible opportunity. New information suggests that John Yew could have survived if the police had responded to an emergency call in time. However, we know that he and Lamarra Bell died when they were left at the side of the M9 motorway for three days. The accident happened four years ago, but there is still no fatal accident inquiry. They are not alone. Our research has found that families across Scotland wait for up to eight years for a fatal accident inquiry into the death of their loved ones. Can the First Minister tell those families why on earth it is taking so long for them to get the answers that they deserve? I thank Willie Rennie for raising the issue. I would take the opportunity, given that he had raised the issue, of once again placing on the record my deepest sympathies to the families of John Yew and Lamarra Bell. What happened in that case was unacceptable. There has been a great deal of investigation and lessons learned that will be applied for the future. On the specific issue of fatal accident inquiries, I absolutely understand the frustration that families will often feel about the length of time for fatal accident inquiries to begin. I do hope that Willie Rennie understands that point. I am sure that he will. The decision to hold a fatal accident inquiry but also the timescale for initiating the inquiry is a matter entirely for the Lord Advocate. In that capacity, the Lord Advocate operates independently of Government, so it would be wrong for me to seek to second guess that decision-making process. Depending on the circumstances of a case—I am not talking about any particular case here—a death investigation can be complex, technical and can often involve a number of different agencies. I know that the Crown Office is committed to prompt investigations but I also know that it accepts that in some cases the time taken to complete an investigation has been too long. Finally, the Government has made additional funding available to the Crown Office, and it is using some of that to allow the Scottish Fatalities Investigation Unit to try to reduce the time required to complete death investigations. I hope that that is helpful in the way of an answer. I hope that Willie Rennie is assured that this is an issue that both the Crown Office and the Government take seriously. I understand that, but how can any lessons be learned when it takes years to get the answers? It may be that the failure to maintain experienced call handlers in the Bilston Glen Police Service Centre is one of those lessons from the M9 crash, but mistakes are about to be made again at Bilston Glen, alongside other centres in Motherwell and Govan. Police staff on night and back shifts are about to lose thousands of pounds a year in changes to their shift allowances. I am told that morale is at rock bottom. We cannot afford to drive experienced call handlers out of the police, so can the First Minister step in to prevent those damaging changes? That is a change that is still under discussion. The majority of police staff will see an increase, but, nevertheless, those are important issues that the Government must properly consider. On the points about fatal accident inquiries, I have answered that as fully as I can. I will not repeat what I have already said. It is in the interests of everyone that investigations and inquiries take place as quickly as possible, but it is also important that the right processes are followed. We know that the average number of days to complete fatal accident inquiries is reducing. That is of no comfort to any family who is still waiting for one to start, but those are issues that we take seriously and continue to work with the Crown Office to address. That is the case in terms of the other changes that Willie Rennie has mentioned. The First Minister may be aware that the Conservative Party's spokesperson on social security this morning stated that there is no such thing as the bedroom tax. Given that the Scottish Government provides an average of £650 in bedroom tax relief for over 70,000 families in Scotland, is the First Minister concerned, as I am, that the Tories would take away the support for families in Scotland because they believe that that tax does not even exist? I am aware—I have not seen the details myself—that Michelle Ballantyne, the Tories' social security welfare spokesperson, said at a committee this morning that the bedroom tax does not exist. I think that that will come used to the many people that are subject to the bedroom tax or would be subject to the bedroom tax, but for the mitigation action that the Scottish Government is taking to make sure that nobody in Scotland has to pay the bedroom tax. Perhaps Michelle Ballantyne later on this afternoon will want to explain her comments. I would hope that Jackson Carlaw would want to take a very close look at her comments, but it does not augur very well if the Tories do not even understand the basics of what people across the country are experiencing in terms of their welfare policies. What chance do we have of persuading them to change them? It is an appalling comment, if indeed it was made, and I hope that Michelle Ballantyne will retract it at the earliest opportunity. Discrimination is more than just about hate crime. It impacts life chances and outcomes. Today, with the support of SPICE, a publisher report that shows that Scotland's diverse minority communities are chronically underrepresented in the civil service and public sector bodies. Only 1.8 per cent of civil servants are from a diverse background. Only 10 of the most senior posts are from a diverse background, and two thirds of local authorities employ less than 1 per cent from a diverse background. Will the First Minister commit to a full and regular audit of Scotland's public sector? Will she support the implementation of the Rooney rule, which means that at least one ethnic minority is shortlisted when a vacancy arises? Will she agree to expand the very welcome general representation on public boards act to ensure that a public sector bodies reflect Scottish society? I absolutely agree with the sentiments behind Anna Sarwar's question. In terms of the specifics that he has asked me there, I will ask the permanent secretary to consider all of them, and I will be happy to ask the permanent secretary to write to him on how we will take forward all the specific points there. However, let me assure him and the entire chamber that the Scottish Government, as an employer, is absolutely determined to increase the numbers of ethnic minorities working within the organisation. They are underrepresented in the Scottish Government right now, as will be the case for many organisations and employers. Just as it is important that we redress that imbalance in gender, it is also vital that we do so for ethnic minorities. The Scottish Government, as an employer, is committed to doing so, and committed to encouraging other employers to take similar action. The First Minister will recall that the Saltire prize for marine energy was first launched in 2008 by her predecessor Alex Salmond amid characteristic fanfare. Mr Salmond then went on to relaunch the prize on a regular basis over subsequent years before it was quietly abandoned and unclaimed in 2017. Given the role that tidal energy needs to play in our future energy mix, as well as in meeting our climate change targets, what assurance can the First Minister give that the latest version of the Saltire prize is actually winnable and not simply an exercise in window dressing? The First Minister I think that this is a legitimate question for Liam McArthur to have raised. The reason that we have recast the prize is to make sure that it matches developments in tidal energy. The Saltire prize was not doing that. That was nothing to do with the situation when that prize was launched. The developments of tidal energy have not developed in a way that people then thought. We are determined to ensure that the recast initiative helps those who are seeking to develop tidal energy. Over the past couple of weeks, as I have been promoting Scotland internationally, I have spoken to a number of people active in renewable energy, and certainly some of them that I have spoken to were very warmly welcoming of those changes, because they thought that it better reflected the work that they were doing. So, hopefully, Liam McArthur can be reassured by that and we can all get behind renewable energy generally in Scotland, but tidal energy in particular. Annie Wells Thank you. On Saturday, another shooting took place in Glasgow in Springburn, the area where I live. That was almost a year after the victim's brother was shot in the same street in one of the many shootings that I have taken place in Glasgow over the last two years, something that I have raised in the chamber before. What action will we take to reassure residents that steps are being taken to clamp down on gun crime? First Minister Well, that is primarily an operational matter for Police Scotland. I know from the discussions that I have with Police Scotland that gun crime and gang-related crime in the city of Glasgow is something that is a real priority for them. For the Government's part, we have a duty to support police, which is why we are increasing the revenue budget of Police Scotland to enable them to do the job that they are tasked to do. The justice secretary and I are regularly briefed by Police Scotland on developments around serious and organised crime, and that is an issue that I am sure will continue to be one of great priority, because I think that that is required in order to give the reassurance to people living in Glasgow, which is where I live and where my constituency is, and that is an important point to have raised. Question 4, Kenneth Gibson. Thank you, Presiding Officer. To ask the First Minister whether she will provide an update on our recent visits to Canada, the United States and France. In the face of Brexit, it has never been more important to demonstrate that Scotland is an open, outward-looking country, and that we are open for business. I visited the US, Canada and France markets that are worth more than £8 billion to Scotland's economy to promote us as an attractive place to invest, visit, work and live. During my visits, I opened new hubs in Canada and France, part of our programme for government commitments to grow our relationships with other countries, and hosted events to promote Scottish food and drink. I met with companies including Marriot, Accor, Morgan Stanley, IBM and BNP Parba, all important stakeholders in some of our key economic sectors. I also spoke at an event at the UN that was hosted by the Assistant Secretary General for Human Rights to discuss Scotland's commitment to gender equality and human rights. Kenneth Gibson. I thank the First Minister for that answer. Does he agree that by promoting trade and investment and launching new innovation in investment hubs in Orton and Paris, the Scottish Government is working to show Scotland as an attractive place to invest, visit, work and live, and that Scotland is building positive international relationships as we are taking it of the European Union against our will? Instead of taking the isolation's view of the parochial Tories who quibla any attempt by Scotland to raise its profile on the international stage, even as we strive to attract investment and jobs into Scotland? It has always been important for First Ministers to represent and promote the country abroad. By coincidence, at Edinburgh airport, when I was going to France on Monday, I ran into Jack McConnell, who was reminding me about how important it was when he was First Minister. It is even more important now because of Brexit, so I make no apology. I will continue to do everything that I can to promote Scotland abroad. Interestingly, the Tories have been criticising it. I noticed that the Secretary of State for Scotland seems to agree with me rather than with them. In the last couple of years alone, David Mundell has visited Iceland, the USA, Uruguay, Chile, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Japan, Norway, Paraguay, Argentina, Germany, Belgium, Myanmar and Singapore. Do you know what I back him to do it? I think that the only question is, why did nobody notice that he was gone? To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's responses to reports that alterations have been made to ScotRail's satisfaction targets over the last two years. The Government puts the interests of the passenger first, which is why the franchise contract includes requirements to meet passenger satisfaction targets. Only a few rail franchises require that. The Government holds ScotRail to account for matters within the franchisee's control, but it is only reasonable and required contractually that we also take account of impacts beyond the control of the franchisee. The targets for overall satisfaction have been adjusted as required by the contract for two reasons. First, to take account of a change in survey methodology by passenger focus, and secondly, to take account of increased disruption levels from extended route closures due to track renewal works in the Queen Street tunnel and delayed electrification works. The extent and impact of the disruption was not known at the time of the bids for the ScotRail franchisee. ScotRail's contractual satisfaction target is 88.5 per cent, but over the past two years, the Scottish Government dropped those targets to 84 and 85 per cent. Surprise, surprise, the operator met the newly lowered targets, and thus avoiding triggering an event of default. We also know that ScotRail is unlikely to meet its PPM performance targets perhaps for months, if not years to come. The First Minister told her chamber in December that services were unacceptable and she apologised to passengers for dismal performance. What message does the First Minister think that it sends to any franchisee holder that moving the goalposts and lowering the targets is how this Government will deal with it not meeting its contractual obligations? Given that satisfaction is at 15-year low, passengers have had repeated apologies from this Government. What is the First Minister's message to passengers today? First, as I said a moment ago, the ScotRail franchisee is one of just a very few rail franchises to require them to meet passenger satisfaction targets. That is a good thing. In terms of amendments or adjustments, I am not sure if Jamie Greene is seriously proposing that ScotRail should be held to account for factors that are outside of its control, factors that are down to the failure of network rail, for example, which is not devolved to this Parliament. Thirdly, and finally, we continue to hold ScotRail to account. The results of the national rail passenger survey led to a formal remedial plan notice being issued by Transport Scotland on 8 February, requiring them to submit a remedial plan. We have robust arrangements in place, and the Scottish Government will do what requires to be done to ensure that ScotRail is held to account against them. Can the First Minister give an indication of what proportion of any delays are linked to network rail? Would the First Minister agree that it is high time that Opposition members, MSPs and the Scottish Parliament join in the call for the full devolution of Scotland's railways? The Opposition does not like that, but Richard Lyle's question is absolutely on the money. The KPI's target for overall satisfaction was adjusting to take account of increased disruption caused by the delay to network rails electrification works. The adjustment also took account of the delay to track renewal works in the Queen Street tunnel. Again, that is the responsibility of network rail. Those issues are outwith ScotRail's control. They are outwith the control of the Scottish Parliament, given that responsibility for network rail is not devolved. Overall, more than half of the delays on the network over the past year have been the responsibility of network rail. If the Opposition wants to be able to do more about that, it needs to get behind our calls to devolve network rail to this Parliament. Mike Rumbles First Minister, there is no good blaming network rail. Half of the problems of network rail are down to weather, and they do not change. Can you hear the question, please? We have heard that customer satisfaction rates have dropped to a 15-year low. That is the customer. Performance indicators are still well below the level with financial penalties that should have been levelled by the Government, and they provide an unacceptable service still. Will the First Minister accept that the public has lost confidence and a belly hole as the operator of the £7 billion ScotRail franchise, and that the franchise should be ended at the first breakpoint in the contract? First Minister. First Minister, ScotRail should be held to account where it fails. It is held to account where ScotRail is appropriate for failures in its performance. Of course, it is only down to the actions of this Government. It was opposed for a long time by the unionist parties in this Parliament. We now have the power to ensure a public sector bid for franchises in future. Mike Rumbles is not seriously suggesting, as I think he was there, that when more than half of the delays on the network are the responsibility of network rail, then we should not blame network rail. Let us hold ScotRail to account when it is their failures to blame, but let us hold Network Rail to account when it is them to blame, and let us give ourselves the ability to properly hold them to account by devolving responsibility to this Parliament. To ask the First Minister what steps the Scottish Government plans to take to help vulnerable energy consumers. First Minister. We are disappointed that the UK Government continually fails to create an energy market that serves consumers fairly, particularly the most vulnerable. As the member knows, fuel costs are the biggest driver of fuel poverty, not one that we have power over. When we do have powers, we are taking action, including bringing forward the fuel poverty bill and our energy efficiency route map. We are pleased of GEM's latest findings show that no customers were disconnected in Scotland in 2017, and fewer Scottish customers are repaying energy debts, but I still believe that more should be done. That is why we have recently written to the CEOs of the big six energy companies, urging them to build on that and inviting them to engage with us on how we can support more people. Almost one-quarter of people are already living in fuel poverty, but on April 1, more than 1 million households in Scotland are looking at an average, £110 increase a year rising their bills after the energy watchdog of GEM increased the cap for those on the default, otherwise known as the variable tariff. It questions whether or not you can argue that there is a cap any longer, but the energy companies are supposed to have a priority services register, but there is currently no standard qualifying criteria for a vulnerable household. I am pleased that the First Minister has said that she has written to the big six companies. Will she further pressurise them to ensure that they have a strategy for vulnerable customers and try to force them to take them on the highest tariffs to protect their interests? I agree with Pauline McNeill. I agree with her point about the cap. The cap is controlled by the UK Government. We do not have control over that, but we will continue to engage with the energy companies to persuade them to do everything that they can to help vulnerable customers. We will take whatever other action that we can within our power to help vulnerable customers, because the increases that she has referred to are completely and utterly unacceptable. To ask the Scottish First Minister what the Scottish Government's response is to the youth strike for climate. The threat of climate change can sometimes seem overwhelming, but we should all be optimistic about Scotland's record in almost halving our emissions and the actions of young people last week. Given the impact that climate change will have on young people, it is essential that we listen to them carefully. I would certainly be happy to meet with the students and I have asked my officials to work with them to try to facilitate that. The targets proposed in our climate change bill mean that Scotland will be carbon neutral by 2050. Last week, the Committee on Climate Change informed us that its next advice on targets will be published on 2 May. If they say that we can now responsibly and credibly set a date to achieve net zero emissions of all greenhouse gases, then we will do so. Ross Greer. I thank the First Minister for that answer and for her words of support for the young people who took strike action, both on the day itself and today. However, as the First Minister herself has previously acknowledged, we are well beyond the point where words are sufficient to deal with this crisis. The young people that I was with in Glasgow on Friday had one key demand, keep it in the ground. On their behalf, can I ask the First Minister if she acknowledges, if the Scottish Government acknowledges, the indisputable scientific reality that the overwhelming majority of all gas reserves in the North Sea and elsewhere must stay there unburnt? We certainly understand the importance of the transition from fossil fuels to a carbon neutral economy, and we support that in so many different ways. At the heart of our proposals, of course, is the concept of just transition to make sure that workers in one industry are not left behind as we make that transition. I absolutely hope that all members in this chamber would understand the importance of getting that balance right. However, absolutely, in terms of tackling climate change, there is no bigger priority. Scotland is already leading the way, and we want to make sure that we continue to do so. Thank you very much. That concludes First Minister's questions. I thank the First Minister and most of the contributors for their brevity. We are going to move on to members' business in the name of Jamie Greene on delivering sustainable and renewable transportation for Scotland. We will just take a few moments, but that will have a short suspension while the member administers and the gallery changes. A short suspension.


So, let us start this day with the lecture 3 that is the continuation of lecture 2 that we have done yesterday. What we were discussing yesterday, if you recall, we looked at the solar radiation possibilities, we looked at how solar PV can be useful for fulfilling all our energy requirement. Then we actually looked, we are looking at the relative motion between sun and earth, so that we can find out at what angle we can collect the maximum solar radiation. Then we have also looked at that two facts that the sun moves always in a plane which is tilted at an angle equal to the latitude angle. So, the angle of the plane is fixed and this plane, so I am talking about the day motion of the sun, so morning and evening and afternoon. So, the sun moves in a plane, but the position of the plane can change and depending on the day. So, there are days which are equinox when the day length is equal to night length and there are days which are solstice where sun reaches to its extreme position either towards the southern hemisphere or towards the northern hemisphere. As a result of that, what we have seen that if you look at, if you look at the horizontal ground and if you are located at angle, so if this is normal to the ground, if you are located at some angle which is latitude angle called phi, then this is going to be the motion of your sun. This is peak position of the sun in the afternoon, this is where it starts and the plane, the angle remains same, the position of the plane will change. So, in the winter time the sun will appear to have the motion in this plane and therefore, this angle is phi and this angle here is delta. I told you the delta is the declination angle, it is the angle between the line joining the center of the sun to the center of earth with respect to the equatorial plane. Sometime delta can be 0, sometime delta can be plus 23.45, sometime it can be minus 23.5. So, in extreme position like this here, in extreme position here, the total angle with respect to normal, the total angle with respect to normal is phi plus delta and the tilt of the panel. Suppose you are installing a panel, so your panel should be perpendicular to the rays and particularly in the afternoon time. Why afternoon time? Because in the afternoon the radiation intensity is maximum and you want to collect the maximum solar radiation at the afternoon. So, if I want to make a solar panel perpendicular to this plane, perpendicular to this plane because the rays will be coming in this direction, then I have to install my panel like this. So, this is my PV panel or for that matter any solar collector. So, your water heater will also actually work on the same principle. Now, this angle I was measuring phi plus delta is measuring with respect to normal, but we can measure this angle with respect to horizontal plane. So, this angle, so this is the tilt with respect to the horizontal, then I would say that and this is referred as a beta, this is referred as a beta. So, this angle is beta which is the tilt of the collector, tilt of the solar panel. So, beta is actually you should have 90 minus because I am this angle phi plus beta with respect to perpendicular. So, I have to take 90 and subtract it. So, 90 minus phi plus delta and I know that my delta can be plus or minus. So, this is then beta is equal to your tilt of the solar collector. For that matter it can be solar photovoltaic or it can be solar thermal also or any other collector. And remember this, the whole equation is true for the noon time, the peak position of the sun, because in the morning sun will be here. So, your angle should be this in the in the before and afternoon your sun will be here. So, your angle should be this, but I am talking about the noon time. So, this is the angle beta equal to 90 minus phi plus minus delta. Phi is the latitude angle and delta is the declination angle, phi is the latitude angle delta is the declination angle. So, this is what we have discussed. So, for yesterday and let us continue our discussion to that. And we will come to this point also that this tilt of the earth with respect to its line joining the center of the sun to the center of earth, the earth axis is tilted by 23.545 degree and because of that there is a cause of season summer and winter. So, for example, this line in the center is the equator, this line at latitude 23.5 is a tropic of cancer and this line below 23.545 south is a tropic of capricorn. So, suppose you are living in a location at a point A, if you are living in a location point A which is at the tropic of cancer. So, your latitude angle is 23.45 degree right. This is extreme position of the earth and then the it will start moving in the other direction. So, at this point if you look at the sun, sun is directly overhead position in the afternoon it will be directly at overhead position which means this point A will get the maximum radiation as compared to any other point on the earth surface right. So, if you go above in the higher latitudes or lower latitudes you are going to get lower radiation. Now, the earth is revolving revolving and after six months it comes to this position. So, it is revolving in this plane. So, after six months it is coming to this position. So, note here that this is the equatorial plane. This plane if I continue this line like this, this is the equatorial plane here the equatorial plane is here. So, if this is my line joining the center of the center of earth my equatorial plane in the one extreme position is like this and in other extreme position it is like this. So, this is my because of the tilt right. Now, consider this position same point A tropic of cancer at 23.45 degree same point, but this point in the same condition is not actually overhead your sun is not on top of you now in the afternoon condition. So, therefore in this position here the sun was a point A or location A was getting a high amount of radiation. So, it will be summer here, but at this point in this time six months later the point A will get the lower amount of radiation you are as compared to this point because now this point is on the top. So, then this will become winter and that also you can understand how the angle of the sun is sun rays is changing. So, if your point A in this time which is June 21st what should be the tilt of your solar collector at this point what should be the tilt of your solar collector because the sun rays are coming exactly on the top sun rays are coming exactly from the tops here collector has to be flat on the ground. So, your collector has to be the flat on the ground, but in this location A in this location A what should be the angle let me draw the situation 21st December winter on a white board. So, if you are if you have this situation this is your line joining the center of the sun.  So, that it becomes clear now this is the tilt and this is your equator. So, this is your equator this is your north this is your south and at 23.45 year topic of cancer and below 23.45 year topic of capricorn. So, now you are sitting at this point and this point is obviously not getting the enough radiation. So, now you want to get the maximum solar radiation which is which will have this directions your collector has to install at this angle. Now, this angle will have actually this. So, you have to tilt by this angle which will be some of this angle will be some of some of the angle between the some of the angle between the line joining with the equator plane this is 23.45 and this is another 23.45. So, you will actually have almost about 47 degree tilt. So, this angle will be about 47. So, remember that one position when the earth was on the other side when the earth was at this side the collector was making a zero angle or the normal was aligned with the sun rays and your collector was flat on the ground in the extreme position here your collector has to be 47.47 degree. So, therefore, the angle of the collector will change from maximum 47 degree throughout the motion. So, this is what depicts here that how the different position of the earth with respect to sun result requires a different tilt of the module to collect the maximum radiation in the noon time and the maximum variation in this tilt will be about 47 degree. So, these are the various latitudes and longitudes that that is that India for example, in the south this point is 8 degree latitude it go to the north it is about 35 degree north. The longitudes varies from 68 degrees to 96 about 96 degree just to be clear. So, that whenever we talk about any location and we want to find out the angle of the PV module tilt then we should know the latitude. One other thing that we should note here is that because we are in the northern hemisphere the sun appears to us that it is always in a southern hemisphere. So, one thing is you have to tilt your collector with respect to the if this is a horizontal ground you have to tilt your collector, but what is the position tilt is this direction or this direction. So, this tilt the face of the module should always be in the southern direction because in the northern hemisphere and opposite is true when you go to the southern hemisphere. So, if you are putting your module in southern hemisphere then the face of your module should be towards the north if you are putting your modules in the northern hemisphere then the face of your module should be towards the south. So, same thing here that we already discussed that this altitude angle the altitude angle or the angle or the tilt of the module should be 90 minus 5 plus minus delta here it should be. So, now the declination angle that we are talking about the declination angle changes throughout the year every day and the equation is given 23.45 sin of 360 divided by 365 in the bracket 284 plus n. As we discussed yesterday the n is the day of the year n equal to 1 for January n equal to 2 for January 2 n equal to 3 for January 31st n equal to 365 for December 31st. So, here I have given some number n equal to 335 for December 1. So, just think quickly what should be the n for June 21st what should be the value of n to which day of the year June 21st is that is equal that is your n think about it quickly which day of the year June 21st is what is the value of n for June 21st. So, it is almost about the middle of the month it will have the value about 170 and 172. So, precise calculation you can do. So, now look at the variation of declination angle. The declination angle as I said on the on the equinox day that the day length equal to night length delta is 0. Delta is 0 means the equatorial plane is exactly in line with the line connecting the center of the sun to center of earth. So, these two days September 21st and March 21st are the equinox day these are the extreme position. So, for example, in December the sun December 21st sun goes to the extreme position. So, extreme what we call the chinion in our Hindi calendar and June 21st it goes to the other side in the extreme position. So, this is how the declination angle changes it crosses 0 2 points it reaches maximum value of minus 23.45 on December 21st plus 23.45 on June 21st. So, this we need to calculate. So, this is what I already discussed that I if I want to tilt my panel to collect the maximum solar radiation in the afternoon and this is what I told that most of the solar power plant in the country are designed are installed in a way that they collect maximum solar radiation in the afternoon because the intensity is higher in the afternoon. So, we are interested now in beta that is beta is the tilt of the module with respect to horizontal plane. So, this is how we can calculate 5 plus delta, but what is the problem now because my delta is changing every day. Remember the delta is a function of n changes every day. So, which means my delta changes every day and if my delta changes every day which means my tilt that is beta also changes every day. Beta changes every day means so which means you have to tilt your module almost on a daily basis. So, you have to tilt your module on a daily basis sorry. So, I think earlier I told you the beta equal to 90 minus 5 minus delta, but actually this is correct the beta is 90 minus theta that is the angle and if I put then beta is actually 5 minus delta or actually this should be 5 plus minus delta because delta can be plus or delta can be minus. So, this is the tilt beta equal to 5 plus minus delta. So, now because my delta keeps changing every day my beta should also keep changing every day. So, which is again a problem because I cannot tilt my modules on a daily basis. In practice it can be done, but it results in adding up the cost it results that extra facility in your power plant to actually adjust the module or even if you are installing a power solar panel on your rooftop you will have to actually do every day now that will become a problem. So, then what we should do then we should actually take the average value of the delta. So, if I take a average value of delta so this is how the delta is varying throughout the year. If I take a average value of delta what it will be? So, what do you think the average value of delta will be? So, that is the area of the curve positive side and negative side. So, because it is a symmetric curve the average value of delta over a period of year will be 0. Now, if you take a so you said fine. So, average value of delta over a period of year will be 0 which means if your beta is equal to phi plus minus delta and delta average delta average is equal to 0 over a year right. For the whole year if I take delta average is equal to 0 which means beta is equal to phi very simple. What does it mean? That it means the tilt of your module should be equal to the latitude angle of the location. So, if I am in Mumbai latitude angle of Mumbai is 19 degree then the I should always put the modules at tilted at 19 degree in which direction. So, if I am putting my module with respect to ground at 19 degree. So, this is my south and this is my north. So, module should always face towards the south the module should always face towards the south. So, this is the location but think about your location. So, if you are in the southern if you are in the down south then your angle can be you know 8 9 degree 10 degree depending on the latitude or if you are in the further north Delhi etcetera then your angle will be about 23 degree. So, this is the thumb rule that if you want to just fix your collector for once and if you do not want to change throughout the year then you should take the average value of delta and average value of delta is 0 or the declination angle is 0. And therefore, your beta that is the inclination of module is equal to 5. So, while the cases are simple but then you are going to lose some amount of radiation right because you know if you are fixing at this angle you know in the summer your sun will be on the top here. So, you are not collecting maximum in the winter your sun will go here. So, you are not collecting maximum radiation. So, therefore, some people what they some people what they do is that let us I cannot change the tilt of a module every day, but let me change the tilt of module once in a month. So, if you want to change the tilt of a module once in a month what you should do take the average monthly value of the delta what you should do take the average monthly value of the delta. So, then the average monthly value of the delta for summer will be a positive for winter it will be negative. So, then you can answer this question yourself what should be the fixed collector inclination in summer what should be the solar water heater inclination in the summer. Now, when you are when you are actually trying to install a solar water heater in the summer you do not want so much hot water, but you want more hot water in the winter. And therefore, you should optimize your tilt for the winter. And because the sun is more in the southern hemisphere tilt is more in the southern hemisphere you should actually tilt your module more for the winter location. And in winter and what happens in winter they are equal to beta equal to phi minus delta and the delta itself is a delta can be either plus or minus. So, in if I am taking winter situation then I have negative value of delta. So, then I have to have minus and then I have to put negative value of delta which is in winter the summer for example, it can be minus 23.45 then I will actually phi plus 23.45 degree. So, basically if you are installing your module for winter if you want to make a highest generation or highest collection of solar radiation for the winter case then and the extreme winter then you have to add 23.45. So, as a result that is why you will see that when you look at the solar water heater the angle of the solar water heater is normally more than the angle of the solar PV panels. Because in solar water heater you want to maximize your collection in the winter while for the solar PV panel you might want to maximize your collection in the summer because you want more electricity. But otherwise if you say if you are ready to change the angle every if you are ready to change the angle or the inclination angle every month then you should take a average value of you should take an average value of delta and that average value will change. So, therefore, so this is we already discussed that average delta is 0 over the year therefore, beta equal to phi, but otherwise beta average inclination should be phi minus delta and the delta by the way is already taking care of the plus and minus sign. So, I hope it is clear to all of you now that depending on the case when you want to maximize the collection you can actually decide the tilt and do the inclination of your collector accordingly and this applies to both solar water heater and a solar PV panel. So, this is an comparison that I show shown here that normally this horizontal line here is the case when you are installing your module at the latitude angle you are fixing you are not changing any time. So, this is a horizontal line now is suppose you are changing the tilt every month then what will happen.  So, now latitude is minus 15 for the June-July you are going to get more collection. So, if you want your generation to be more and this is still case of the fixing. So, you are fixing it, but you are not fixing it to the latitude angle, but if you are fixing it to the latitude minus 15 degree on an average and therefore, your collection will be better in June and July, but look at the other case that is latitude plus 15. Latitude minus 15 means what? Latitude minus 15 means actually if this is the latitude angle you are actually putting at minus 15, putting it more trying to put it more horizontal, but if you are saying latitude plus 15 means if this is the normal angle then you are actually trying to put it more towards the south more tilt. So, this is 5 plus 15 degree case and this is 5 minus 15 degree case. So, because in the summer the sun is sun almost comes to the overhead position. So, this will give you more generation in summer. So, this is suitable this setting is suitable for summer and this setting because sun goes south, sun goes down in the south direction in winter and therefore, this setting will be more suitable for winter location, winter season. So, that is what is shown here in this graph. So, this was so far simple what we have discussed was simple because we are talking about one position of the sun that is afternoon position. So, all over this discussion so far is about the position of the sun at the noon time, but actually the angle made by the sun with respect to the solar rays at any given time on a same day are different. So, for example, if I if this is your module, this is your module they installed. Now, sun moves in a plane. Suppose, the sun is moving in a plane like this. So, this is the afternoon position, this is the morning position, this is the before noon and afternoon position. So, now look at the angle that is meant. So, now you normally you actually inclined your module for the afternoon position. So, in the afternoon this is the normal to the normal to the panel. So, the normal to the panel the angle is perfectly 90 degree here and this is what you want that rays should be perpendicular to this, but look at the morning position. So, morning angle is not optimum the rays will come from this direction, then it will come from this direction, it will come from this direction, then it will come from this direction. So, the if you are fixing a module then of course, you design it for the afternoon position, but if you are not fixing your module position then actually you will you want to collect the good radiation in the morning also, you want to collect good radiation at 9 o clock also, you want to collect the good radiation at 10 o clock also and so on. And your job is always to make that make sure that the solar radiation is always perpendicular to the solar panel in that case you are collecting maximum radiation. So, then it is called the trekking, then basically you have to follow this angle.  So, basically it means that your solar radiation the angle of the solar radiation falling on the on the solar panel depends on other parameters also right. So, few things are very clear to us. So, let me repeat now we are thinking about following this in every minute every second. So, far earlier discussion was only to fix a module so that you can get a better collection at the afternoon, but now we are thinking that all the all the time I should get a better collection. So, the many parameters and this is actually long topic and what I have told you so far is good enough and we will not go into the details of this, but just to give a brief introduction that if you really want to calculate the angle that sun ray is making with respect to the normal to the plane, this respect to the normal to the plane. Look at here what is the normal this green lines is the normal to the plane and this is the sun position here. So, this angle theta this angle theta between the normal to the plane and the sun ray is what is important and you want what do what is the value of theta you want this angle theta here is the angle between the normal to the plane and sun rays. But what do you want the value of this angle this angle should be 0 all the time morning afternoon evening before noon afternoon summer winter anytime if you want maximum collection the angle theta that is the angle between normal to the plane and the sun rays should be 0. So, now we should see how theta depends on other angles. So, look at what are the other angles first term angle the beta which is the tilt of the module is one of the important angle fine. This is the angle which is called the gamma which is the if you take a dew south angle between the dew south or the angle between the dew south direction and the projection of the normal to the plane with respect to the dew south. So, basically with respect to south how is your how is your panel right. So, if your panel is exactly looking south then the gamma is 0 if your sun rays is in the morning in the east suppose this is east if sun rays are here and your panel is looking this way. So, you are making a 90 degree with respect to that in the evening sun will go the other side and you will make a 90 degree, but the the sign will be different. So, that is called gamma. So, that is orientation of the plane that gives gamma what are the other factors that will change your value of theta the factor that will change the value of theta is the latitude of the location. So, depending on the location that will change day of the year a declination also changes the angle right because declination defines the how how down the sun is or how up the sun is in the sky in the afternoon. So, there is a declination angle that will determine the angle time of the day you are talking about a 6 o clock 7 o clock 8 o clock 12 o clock or the morning and the beta n gamma already discussed. So, the theta which you always want to be 0 when you are completely following the sun will depend on the 5 different angles and this angle a latitude can vary plus minus 90. So, you can go to 90 degree north and 90 degree south surface azimuth angle or the orientation of the panel surface azimuth angle is this angle by the gamma with respect to south due south where is the sun rays that can vary 360 degree. So, one side 180 degree other side 180 degree our angle basically the time is given the time is given in terms of the angle. So, in a one day there is a 360 degree rotation. So, 360 divided by 24 hours. So, basically you will get 15 degree per hour rotation. So, the time of the day is measured in terms of angle because we are all talking about the angles here. So, 12 o clock is considered 0 hour angle and 11 o clock will be a 15 degree minus 15 degree hour angle 10 o clock will be minus 30 degree hour angle if you go to the afternoon time it is positive. So, 12 o clock is 0 hour angle 1 o clock is plus 15 degree hour angle 2 o clock is plus 30 degree hour angle and so on. So, 6 o clock is minus 90 degree in the morning and 6 o clock in the evening is plus 90 degree slope of the surface or the collector can be 0 or 180. 0 means it is lying flat on the ground. So, with respect to ground the angle of the panel is 0. So, it is lying flat on the ground and 90 degree is 90 degree means your panel is vertical and the declination angle as I said can vary minus 23.45 to plus 23.45. So, these are the various angles that can vary and I will come back to this slide, but I just want to give an idea that and we are not going to look at the details of this calculation. I just want to give it an idea that if you know the theta, if you know the theta you can find out the intensity of the light falling on your surface. So, here so, I b cos theta is the intensity of the light falling on your collector. Now, this value of theta cos the value of theta that we are interested is a function of all these angles and here is the simple equation that you can get or rather complicated equation. So, the value of angle that sun rays makes with the normal to the plane which is theta. So, this angle depends on so many other angles there are five angles. So, there is phi delta beta gamma and omega. So, the simple or the equation is this and if you can find out each angle at any given time at any given day at any given location at any given tilt of the collector you can find out what is the angle of the sun rays with respect to normal and remember what you want to do we want to make this angle theta as low as possible and preferably 0.  All the time means morning to evening all the seasons summer and winter all the location equator and the northern side or the southern side etcetera. This is the extra somebody wants to learn more about the radiations I am just giving you few slides and when you have time after this course you can actually go through this solar radiation and actually use this equations to estimate the amount of solar radiation availability given location and this is estimation only because the exact measurement requires long time. So, many people actually estimate. So, I very quickly go through the slide, but do not worry you are not supposed to learn this our main job here is to find out how much amount of the solar radiation and how to inclined a module for a year for a year or a month. So, these are the various equations that are there that are used in the estimation of the solar radiation you have to find the hour angle you have to do the various calculations. When you do all these calculations when you do all this calculation you can actually find out the find out the solar radiation. This is the main formula and again please do not worry about this I am just giving you this extra information in case anybody want to learn more about the solar radiation. This is also discussed in my book which is given to all the participants. So, when you have time after this course you can go through this slides and learn more about the radiation, but because we have to this is a PV course and we do not have enough time. So, we cannot afford to go through all these slides fine. So, let me come back to the solar radiation. So, far we have learned that if I want to install my collector at a fixed angle throughout the year I do not want to change then it is equal to the latitude angle it should be south facing, but if I want to maximize it for the summer then it is latitude minus 15 degree I should install. If I want to maximize the collection in the winter then it is a latitude my plus 15 degree I should install or if you want to maximize at a given month then I should take a average value of the delta the clinch angle for that month and then I should take proper care for the sign plus or minus and 8 to the phi and get that date. When we are talking about solar radiation solar power plants solar PV system we should always know what is the available fuel for us available fuel is basically solar radiation. So, solar radiation is now given in a various ways represented in various what are the ways solar radiation are many times it is also referred as insulation solar insulation for a given location is given on hourly basis many times you do not need hourly basis it can be given on a daily basis. So, solar radiation when you said daily basis means basically it is a total solar radiation energy calling on a given day which means you are actually integrating the total energy from morning to evening. So, basically we are when you are integrating means you are talking about the energy available solar radiation energy available for a day you can integrate over a month. So, you can get the monthly solar radiation energy available and you can integrate of course, over the year. So, this is one way of doing it per hour per month per year. Other way of talking about the solar radiation is whether it is a diffuse radiation direct radiation or a global radiation. So, you should know that whether the radiation given is diffuse direct or global fine. Other way of saying is whether the solar radiation is given in terms of the direct normal solar radiation it is always direct normal normal to the sun rays always always normal to the sun rays. If your collector is here then you are talking about this. So, sun rays basically is angle of the sun rays changes all the time. So, you are actually collecting the radiation all the time perpendicular to the sun rays and that is referred as a direct normal solar radiation. Direct normal solar radiation is particularly useful for concentrated technology because your concentrator optics can only concentrate the light which is coming perpendicular to the plane or the parallel rays only. So, therefore, many concentrated technology particularly concentrated solar thermal technology will require knowledge of DNI direct normal insulation. The normal global insulation will not do the job. Solar radiation can also be given in terms of the radiation whether it is at horizontal plane or the radiation with respect to some other plane. So, because as we discussed that your solar modules are installed normally not on the horizontal plane not flat on the ground normally they are inclined at some angle. So, rather than knowing the solar radiation on the horizontal plane it is more important to know the solar radiation at a inclined plane. So, that will give the correct picture. So, solar radiation can be represented in many ways and we have to be careful while using the information. So, let me go through again. So, it can be daily basis hourly basis monthly basis yearly basis it can be a diffuse direct global it can be a direct normal it can be a solar radiation on the horizontal plane or any other given plane. And that theta the complicated equation of theta that I have showed you actually if you know if you can use that equation you can find out any radiation that you want. So, when we say solar radiation when you say instantaneous value of solar radiation it is given remember as a given as a we were discussing yesterday as a solar constant what was the unit of solar constant instantaneous value of the radiation. The instantaneous value is what per meter square right and we also discussed that air mass 0 ok. So, instantaneous value air mass 1.5 we discussed yesterday that is 1000 watt per meter square ok. So, this is watt per meter square ok. This instantaneous will, but when we are talking about the daily or hourly or monthly solar radiation then we are actually talking about the integration of this instantaneous value over that period right. So, we are talking about daily solar radiation means we have to integrate the instantaneous value of solar intensity throughout the day. And once we integrate basically what we are doing we are multiplying with the time and when we multiply with the time what you will get watt you have to get multiply with the hour right. So, when you are multiplying with the hour this your watt per meter square will become watt hour per meter square ok. And typically this are presented in kilos. So, kilo watt hour. So, solar radiation value can easily be or the radiation or the radiation energy I would say is given in terms of kilo watt hour per meter square. And then depending on this case it can be per meter square per day it can be per meter square per month it can be per meter square per year ok. So, the daily solar radiation can be kilo watt hour per meter square per day monthly kilo watt hour per meter square per month and yearly kilo watt hour per meter square per year ok. Typically in India the solar radiation varies between 4 to 7 kilo watt hour per meter square per day ok 4 to 7 kilo watt hour per meter square per day. And if you multiply by 365 you will say that solar radiation value varies from 1400 to 2500 kilo watt hour per meter square per year. This is very good amount of solar radiation by the way ok that is why you might have heard several times now that India is placed with the solar radiation ok. Because our radiation intensities are very good and because your fuel density is higher your energy per unit area per unit year is higher your cost of electricity in India is lower than the cost of solar electricity in Europe for example right because your fuel is higher. So, this is an example of the solar intensity every solar intensity for the for India. I do not know if you can read this, but the darker side here represents about over 6 kilo watt hour per meter square per day ok 6 to 6.5. This lighter yellowish side represent here about 5 about 5 or little less than 5 kilo watt hour per meter square per day ok. This is very low intensity 4 4.5 kilo watt hour per meter square per day. But in general if you look at the overall country you will see that the solar radiation in general is pretty good and it is between 4 to 7, but more or less it is between 4.5 to 6 kilo watt hour per meter square per day ok. You can also look at the world map ok. So, this is in terms of the per day, but as I say an annual solar radiation if you look at India will vary between about 1400, 1500 kilo watt hour per meter square per day to about 2500 kilo watt hour per meter square per day. Remember this numbers are very important because when we are doing the solar PV system design you should know that what is the daily radiation or what is the monthly radiation or what is yearly radiation. If you do not know the precise number at least you should have the idea about how much is the solar radiation variation because you are going to use this number in our calculation in your tutorial also. So, remember this numbers. So, we can similarly have the world map that I have shown you yesterday, but I can have a look at today also. So, similarly in the world the solar radiation varies from very low values of 500 kilo watt hour per meter square per year by the way this numbers are per year and then it can be as high as 2500 watt hour kilo watt hour sorry per meter square per year ok. So, India is somewhere here and this belt which is the equatorial belt as you can see receives lot of solar radiation. So, as I told yesterday also that there is a plenty of sunshine that is available and if you use very fraction small fraction of it that all normally is good enough to generate all our energy requirement. So, with this I would like to stop this discussion on the solar radiation. I hope it has given you very brief idea about the solar radiation how it varies it has particularly given the idea about how to install a solar PV module particularly when you are installing a module fix you are not taking it when you are installing module at fixed angle then how to calculate that angle for a give optimum for a given month or a given year. So, you can actually calculate the value of delta and find out that angle ok. We also learnt the motion of the sun in a given plane and that plane keeps on changing depending on the day and the day is represented by angle delta which can be calculated ok. So, with this brief discussion I am sure that if I ask you to find out what should be the tilt of a solar panel on let us say March 31st to get a maximum solar radiation in the afternoon I am sure you should be able to do that ok. So, be ready with that kind of problems solve your problems and very simple you need to know just phi and delta and can discuss with your colleagues and find out that what is the solar what is the solar PV module is tilt for a year if you want to fix it for a year for your own location you for whatever village or city you are coming you can do that calculation for the same and it is going to be a simple calculation ok fine. So, let me take the question Amrita Coimbatore. Sir, the position of the sun is varying over a year. So, if you want to find the inclined angle is there any statistical method to calculate that. Yes sir, I want to generalize to that angle. Yes generalization is not possible you know because your latitude is different for different locations. So, there cannot be a single angle and it will vary with the latitude.  So, therefore, you cannot generalize and also your delta value changes every day ok, but so you have to take a you know delta phi and delta into account, but in general you have to you have to keep orientation towards the south and if you are fixing your module for the whole year then the angle is equal to the latitude angle, but as I said you can optimize your collection either for the summer or for the winter. If you are optimizing your collection if you want more collection in the summer then you should have the latitude angle minus 15 degree. If you want more collection in the in the winter then you have latitude angle plus 15 degree, but generalization is not possible this two parameter you must take into account. Sir you have said that during the tilt of the earth the angle that is 23.5 degree is that angle is same sir anywhere. So, 23.45 degree is an angle which is the extreme position of the plane equatorial plane with respect to the line joining the center of the sun to the center of earth ok, but yeah it and that is the extreme position at any given location that angle will change between plus 23.45 to minus 23.45. So, total variation in that angle will be 47 degree and at any given and at any given at any given location at any given location on earth that total variation in angle will always be 47 only whether it is equator or any north or any south the total variation is always be 47 degree ok, Naiti Surat. Basically I am a designer of wind solar hybrid system and in our hybrid configuration we do not have a good wind during winter. So, sorry it is advisable to have the angle as per the solar water heater for solar PV panel can you throw some light on that. For the wind you are talking about. No, not for wind turbine sir see for best consistency we do the hybrid of wind solar and in that the solar angle I think should be just like that of water heater during winter because in winter the wind is having a slack season and during summer wind is good even in monsoon it is good. Yeah. So, can you throw some light on that. Yeah. So, you are very correct that because your wind is low in the winter and you want more collection you want your panel to produce more power for for you in winter and if you do not want to change the angle of your panels then the best tilt for your panel will be that of corresponding to latitude angle plus 15 degree and that is that is what normally solar water heater do right they collect maximum in winter and what you are saying is true that it has to be latitude angle plus 15 degree. One last question I will take from Paramati. Is there any is there any mechanical sun tracking system instead of micro control? Yes, there are mechanical sun tracking system people have designed which is based on for example heating up a fluid and or it is similar to what is the time machine that you know we have seen the time machine. So, there are systems people have installed but actually because of the low cost and the more accuracy of electronic system normally for the sun tracking people go for electronic system but definitely it is possible to have the mechanical system also. There are there are many steplard is people use for the solar cooking where they use arrangement of similar to what we have the arrangement of the clock in the old clock you see that where the pendulum is is is using to maintain the time that kind of arrangement is possible. So, yes mechanical tracking is also possible. Okay, KG Somaya Mumbai. Is it true that in India catch receives maximum amount of solar radiation which will which can generate electricity which is sufficient for the whole country? Yeah definitely it is true and based on the numbers that I have given you you can yourself calculate the area now you know I have told you that suppose yesterday if you remember I told that if you just cover a 100 kilometer by 50 kilometer area of a of any catch region for example that will be sufficient to generate the whole electricity that India is generating today. Okay, and now we are using only 100 by 50 square kilometer and typically the area of the catch is much much more. Okay, so I think you all participant can also do the same calculation assume that your solar radiation is let us say 2000 kilowatt hour per meter square per year. Okay, take a 10 percent efficiency of that then you will find out that you will have 200 kilowatt hour per meter square per year that is the energy that you can generate. Now you divide whatever is your energy requirement if your energy requirement is 100 or 1000 billion units that is 1000 billion kilowatt hour divide it by 200 kilowatt hour per meter square you will get the area of your module in meter square. Right, so any participant should be able to do this calculation it is very simple calculation how much area is required to generate a given amount of energy. Okay, so do this calculation on your own and you will find precisely what how much area is required. I mean this is the for the country but you can see only in Mumbai for Maharashtra if you want to generate your electricity then how much area of the Maharashtra is required. Okay, some people can do it for Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka etc. So this is a simple calculation you should be able to do here. Okay, so let me stop here. Thank you.


Namaskaram, my best wishes to all the earthlings on this world earth day. Well, earth's diameter is approximately 7,800 miles and its circumference is 24,000 miles. But, eighty-seven percent of the life on this planet happens from just twelve to fifteen inches or maximum eighteen inches of topsoil. The topsoil or the soil is the cream of this earth. Unfortunately, this cream is turning sour. The necessary life that is needed to keep this cream alive and as a foundation and source of life for all of us is fast vanishing. Approximately twenty-seven thousand species on the planet are going extinct per year. At this rate, we could be in serious peril in the next thirty to forty years' time. On this day, let's commit ourselves to ensure that we don't get there because we are in a cusp of time when we have the necessary opportunity that we as a generation, if we make up our minds, we can turn this around in the next eight to twelve or maximum fifteen years' time. Because each one of us can get into action, well, I want to fix my garden, I want to compose my vegetables, very cute of you. But it's not a solution because seventy percent, nearly seventy percent of the earth's surface is formed right now and four point two percent is urban lands. So, totally seventy-six percent of the land is either plowed or paved. The most important thing is there should be more photosynthesis. What photosynthesis means is that it takes in carbon dioxide and releases oxygen for us and carbon sugars for the microbial life. Many... Before photosynthesis started nearly a billion years ago, the oxygen content on this planet or in this atmosphere was just over one percent, definitely we could not exist in that. But today, the photosynthesis or the area of photosynthesis in the world, in the last thousand years has come down by eighty-five percent. So this is the important thing, we need to make policies in every nation to ensure the land must either have crops or cover crops or bushes or trees, something green, which is doing this miracle called photosynthesis, which both enriches the soil and the atmosphere. Soil with carbon sugars, atmosphere with oxygen and also holds the water and moisture in the soil where it should really be. So take this commitment on World Earth Day that you will be a source of inspiration, you will be a source of galvanizing this movement, ensure that the world speaks about soil because soil is the basis of pure water, soil is the basis of clean air to breathe, soil is the basis of the very life that we are, the very body that we carry is soil. Can we get this now or get it when we are buried? This is the question on this World Earth Day.


we come to data storage. This is a pretty big topic. I think I might have made jokes like the real problem with computing is data not computing, which may not be quite true for every field, but quite often it is. So would you summarize like where should you let there was a good question in the HackMD earlier that like they have a lots of data that they want to process with Matlab, where should they storage? So, well, I would first start by asking what kind of data. So I guess there's several categories. One is original raw data that's irreplaceable. So usually you would not have your only copy of that on the cluster. It will be in some secure storage system. And by secure, we mean not on your own laptop's hard drive. But for example, also there's these project file systems that are network drives and they're backed up. They're replicated to another data center in another city, all that kind of stuff. If you put it there, it's pretty secure. And then you'll have a copy of the original data on Triton. And then once you go to Triton, you have the scratch file system. And this, like it says, is sort of scratch data. So unlike some clusters, our scratch data is not automatically deleted, but it's not backed up. It's not snapshot. It's not replicated or anything. So if it's on there... I'll quickly mention that what the original means, but it's not replicated. It's not like it doesn't have a backup to just secure against like human error from your side.  It would not be economically feasible to have it under constant backup. But it's very reliable. We have paid a lot of money for the system so that it should not ever break in. It's not only one hard drive. It's full shelf of hard drives and lots of redundant servers and the redundant systems that make certain that the system is very reliable. But what Richard is saying is that you should not put all of your thesis data there if it's like four years of work and the only place they are is in the scratch file system. We could say it's safer than your laptop's hard drive, but less safe than say the project storage area. And it's safer because scratch is not going to get lost and not going to it has hard disk level redundancy. It's RAID 6. But neither of them save you from deleting it yourself. Okay. And then we have things... There might be data that's just yours or might be shared. You have things like your home directory, which is small in four configuration files. Maybe we can go to... Well, here's some... Yeah. I would quickly summarize that if you have any... If you go into Triton or any cluster, any cluster, there's a fast work drive that is shared among the compute nodes. In our case, it's this scratch work drive. And there you can go to... You have a personal work folder where you can put your stuff, like big stuff, talking about gigabyte or more up to gigabytes of stuff, depending on your quota. There's usually a quota there. So if you go to your work directory, you can put whatever stuff you have there. And then usually there's project level directories, at least in our system, where you have a different quota. And basically, it's for shared data among a research group. And those directories are better suited for data that belongs to multiple people or data that... Or projects that need to be worked on by multiple people. So you don't have to replicate the data to everybody's work folders. So you have a personal folder, but then you have usually a group folder. But everything like this is on the fast and big network drive that is shared among the compute nodes called work directory. Yeah. The section about think about IO before you start. So oftentimes when programs run slow, it's not because of the processor of the computer, but it's because of the speed of getting data into the processor. And this could be because of where the data is stored or how it's formatted and so on. It could be because of limited capacity between the storage system and the processor. But you can read about that. So now we finally get to the summary of data storage options. Let's see. Yeah, maybe we've seen more sort of hinting at some of these, but maybe we can go over them. So this is the example from Triton. And yeah. Yeah. So usually, like in a cluster environment, you have a home folder, which is like a place where you store, let's say these SSH keys that allow you fast access to the cluster and stuff like that. Like this kind of like stuff that needs to be secure, like keep it hidden, keep it safe. That's in the home directory, like something that that is like configuration keys. Like let's say you want to download the Docker image and convert it into single like an image you need, like an access key that you need to store in the home folder, like that kind of stuff, like all kinds of like API keys and stuff like that if you need to access web services. And those are usually stored in the home folder. And then you have the work folder, which is the actual like where the where the meat of the data is, where the actual data is stored. And that work folder is like you have a personal work folder and then you have like group work folders. Like in in CSC's machines, they have these different accounts, each account, like project account has different work folders. So in our system, we have like a user has its own work folder and different projects have their work folders. Yeah. And if it's stored in the work folder that no one else can access it, which is not great because you're probably going to leave your current place, and will your group be able to continue with what you're doing. So it's better to go straight to the next step, which is the scratch or shared group folder. Yeah. So so there's some historical naming things that make it maybe less less clear than it is supposed to be. But but basically, like your work folder and your home folder are something that we will we want to access and we want to give access to other to other people than you. So basically, that's your stuff.  So they're your collaborators or everybody else, they cannot access it. But so that's why like if you're working in a project with other researchers, create a project for your or let's ask us for a project for your work, and we will create your project with a quota that you can fit your data in. Yeah. Then comes the local temporary disks on every computer. How does that work? Yeah, so like Richard mentioned, like sometimes the bottleneck is the data like data like transfer becomes a bottleneck. So often you might want to like if your code creates like three, it needs temporary disk in many of our nodes, they have either temporary disk in the memory, or they have a separate temporary disk, especially the GPU nodes, because in the GPU world, you need a lot of data and the data usually you need to have it as close to the GPU as possible. So you need to have it on the local drive. We have fast SSDs there in the nodes themselves so that you can use them as like this fast, the temporary, temporary data just for the job. And that is quite common in all clusters, you have like in the nodes themselves, they have like some temp folder or something that you can use for having the data that you're willing to lose after the job has finished. But by then you have copied the data, like the actual results back to your work folder. Yeah. Then there's a few special cases here. For example, the persistent data on individual nodes, that's basically only on certain groups, group servers, or RAM FS, which is looks like a storage place, but it's actually in memory. Yeah, these are very specific, but only relevant if you have like, let's say, like a local database that you want to access fast or something like that. And if we go down, we see a more detailed description of all of these. There's quotas, which is the limit of the number of space and files that is in there. The quota command will show what the current status is. And then there's some exercises if you're interested. I think maybe the most important part of this whole lesson is that there's this memory hierarchy. So it would be incredibly expensive to get something as large as a scratch system and backed up like the home directories. So once you get to this large professional scale, you basically have to have these different storage tiers. And you have to be able to move your data across the different storage tiers as necessary. And it all goes into the memory hierarchy. So at the top of the tier is the main memory of the computer or the CPU registers or CPU cache and so on. Okay. Yeah, I would quickly add to that. So in simple terms, I would say that try to differentiate what is important and what is not. We talked about a bit yesterday, but try to find what is the important original data, put that into a system that is under backup, and then may put your work data into the folder where you're working in and then you're good to go. Yeah. And make it certain that you know what data is what data, put labels on it. Yeah. Yeah. And we could talk about data management forever, but well, let's go on and finish.