There was certainly an element of surprise in the market when the Indian GDP numbers for the September 2009 quarter were released. India had clocked a record GDP growth of 7.9 percent as against the market expectations of 6.3 percent. The Indian bellwether indexes Sensex and Nifty reached new highs for the year after the announcement of GDP numbers.
India is witnessing a rapid economic growth, and so with it are the growing energy needs of the country. Power demand in the country touched an all-time high of 99,027 MW recently, a year-on-year growth of over 16%. This is in sharp contrast to the situation in US where the overall power consumption is expected to decline by over 1.4%. According to forecasts from Mckinsey and company[2008], India’s demand for power is set to soar to as much as 315,000 MW by 2017 at an average GDP growth rate of 8% per year, which is more than double the demand for power from now. To meet these humongous energy demands the nation has to scale up rapidly its power generating sources.
Currently the power needs of India are primarily met by Thermal power stations followed by Hydro, Renewable (mainly Wind) and Nuclear power stations. Thermal power stations account for nearly 60% of India’s total power generation and these power stations are predominantly Coal based.
India has got domestic reserves of Coal but unfortunately around 80% of coal available in India is characterized by high ash content of 35-45%. Burning of this inferior quality coal results in higher Carbon emissions and lesser efficiency. It also releases hazardous substances like Nitrogen Oxide, Sulphur Oxide, particulate matters, bottom ash and Fly ash. Causes of several diseases like Asthma, Tuberculosis, Black lung, kidney diseases and many more have been attributed to these emissions. Coal mining which is done to extract coal to feed into thermal plants is also hazardous. A Coal mine fire detected in Jharia of Jharkhand state for which illegal coal mining has been blamed, has now risked life of more than 80,000 people and the govt is looking for evacuation and rehabilitation measures. The environmental problems caused by burning and mining of coal are unrelenting.
The operations of Thermal power stations aren't going good either. The plants are now facing newer problems due to insufficient domestic coal supply.India is experiencing shortages in the production of domestic coal and has now started to import coal. Recently around 23 Thermal power stations including the Super thermal power stations like NTPC faced critical coal stock levels and had to cut down their production levels. The power cuts were imminent. As per a study India Inc has supposedly lost Rs.43,205 crore in 2008-09 due to power outages. There are also growing fears now that at the current rate of coal consumption the coal reserves of India may get exhausted by 2040 and India may have to to depend entirely on coal imports.
Relying on imports for domestic energy production?? This is a serious energy security concern for India and is in stark contrast to India's energy independence plans. To recall on the eve of the 59th Independence Day, the President of India had emphasized that energy independence should be India’s first and highest priority, and the nation must be determined to achieve this within 25 years. The President had called for ‘‘an economy which will function well with total freedom from oil, gas or coal imports’’. To achieve energy independence, India has to reduce its reliance on energy sources based on imported fuels and look for indigenous sources of power generation.
If not for the reasons of environmental pollution and global warming, at least for the costs of operating, shortages of coal supply and for achieving energy independence, India has to move aggressively towards non coal based power generation sources. The alternatives available for non coal source are not only much efficient but also much greener. The important ones among the alternatives are Solar Energy, Nuclear Energy, Wind Energy, Natural gas and Biomass. The Carbon emissions from these sources are significantly low compared to Coal based thermal power stations. To satisfy the humongous power demands of the nation and hence for the economic development of India, Going Green seems to be the only way to go.
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