India’s Challenges On Energy Front Formidable – OpEd

It is generally said that energy consumption level is an indication of industrial, economic and social conditions in the society. This is so, since use of energy is essential for industrial, agricultural, services, transport, power and other sector, growth of which would inevitably reflect on economic growth and social development.

With impressive growth of Indian economy, particularly in the last ten years, energy consumption has been steadily increasing in the country. To generate energy, fuel is required. The major source of fuel is crude oil or natural gas or coal.

Requirement of crude oil / natural gas/ coal

India is heavily dependent on import of crude oil and natural gas for use as energy source.

India’s present requirement of crude oil is around 250 million tonne per annum and domestic production is only around 30 million tonne per annum. Therefore, around 220 mllion tonne of crude oil per annum is being imported.

India’s present requirement of natural gas is around 75 billion cubic metre per annum and domestic production is only around 35 billion cubic metre per annum. Therefore, around 40 billion cubic metre of natural gas per annum is being imported.

Domestic production of crude oil and natural gas is virtually stagnant during the last several years and is likely to increase only marginally in the coming years, inspite of government’s proactive policies to increase the domestic production of crude oil and natural gas.

The consumption of crude oil and natural gas is steadily increasing by 7% per annum and consequently, import also has to increase at the same rate.

The global price of crude oil and natural gas are fluctuating due to geo political factors and any increase in the global price cause serious problem for India due to heavy outflow of foreign exchange.

India has large deposit of coal which is an alternate fuel. During the last few years, domestic production of coal has increased significantly with production likely to reach 1000 million tonne per annum in the next few years, due to several proactive measures and policies initiated by Government of India during the last ten years. Around 60% of power generation in India is done by using coal as fuel.

Environmental issues

Crude oil and natural gas are used as feedstock for production of derivative products and also used for the production of fuel such as diesel, furnace oil and petrol. Use of these fossil fuel for transportation and as fuel in industrial process operations and for power generation leads to emission of noxious gases such as carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane.

Using of coal as fuel for generation of power and for other purpose also result in emission of such noxious gases.

The emission of these noxious gases upset the climate conditions adversely and cause global warming that would lead to several disastrous consequences.

India has promised during the global climate conference that it would achieve zero emission of these noxious gases by the year 2070, which mean that the use of crude oil / natural gas based petroleum fuel and coal have to be completely stopped in India. In the present conditions, it is difficult to visualize a scenario, where India would stop using petroleum fuel and coal in the next few decades.

Alternate eco friendly fuel

While the above challenges facing the Indian energy scenario are daunting, there are some opportunities to overcome the impending energy crisis and reduce the generation of noxious gases in the country by initiating appropriate measures.

Government of India has taken several measures to develop and install capacity for generation of alternate energy that would not use fossil fuel. However, it is doubtful whether these alternate energy source can completely eliminate use of fossil fuel.

Renewable Energy (solar, wind and hydro power)

During the last ten years, capacity for renewable energy , particularly solar power and wind power have substantially increased and now it is around 185 GW. India has targeted to increase the capacity of renewable energy to 500GW by 2030. In the financial year 2024, capacity generation for renewable power has increased by 4%.

However, renewable energy generation such as solar power, wind power, hydro power generation are seasonal and depend on weather conditions, Further, capacity utilization of renewable power industry is only around 20% or less as against 60% for thermal power based on coal.

Nuclear power

Apart from renewable power, India is targeting to increase the nuclear power in a big way, particularly since generation of nuclear power would not cause emissions and need no conventional fuel like petroleum fuel or coal. The present nuclear power capacity in India is 7 480 MW . To increase the nuclear power generation, as of July 2024, India has 21 reactors at various stages of implementation, with total capacity of 15,300 MW. .

However, environmentalists are registering protest against nuclear power due to safety issues and issues relating to disposal of nuclear waste. Such protests have often resulted in delay in the choice of site and construction of the project.

Green hydrogen project

Government of India is now focusing on green hydrogen projects and green hydrogen is produced from water by electrolysis process. Green hydrogen is a eco friendly source for power generation.

At present, India has large generation of hydrogen power using natural gas or crude oil as feedstock source.

While green hydrogen would avoid the use of crude oil /natural gas or coal as feedstock, the cost of production of green hydrogen is several times more than the production cost of hydrogen from natural gas / crude oil.

In such conditions, it is necessary to ensure that the production cost of green hydrogen would be brought down to the level of the production cost of hydrogen from crude oil / natural gas. At present, this appears to be a very difficult task , though several technology efforts have been initiated to reduce the production cost of green hydrogen. At this stage, one has to keep the fingers crossed.

Biofuel

There are excellent prospects for production of biofuel from various natural sources.

Algae biofuel is an appropriate fuel for India that can be produced from algae crop. Cultivation of algae crop requires only waste water and good sunlight and it uses carbon dioxide for growth of algae crop. India’s climate conditions are very suitable for algae crop, which can be grown in waste land that would not come in conflict with the cultivation of food crops.

However, steps taken to produce algae biofuel in India have not been adequate.

Ethanol

Government has taken steps to blend ethanol with petrol to reduce the consumption of petrol, that would also benefit environment. However, there are doubts expressed by discerning observers whether this is appropriate, since ethanol can be a strong building block for the production of several derivative products , which are presently produced from coal or natural gas. Further, in its anxiety to boost ethanol production, Government of India is permitting ethanol to be produced from food crop such as rice , maize and so on. Many wonder whether this is appropriate with India’s population continuing to increase.

Ethanol can be produced from sugar cane molasses or beet molasses which is produced from beet sugar. Cultivation of beet crop requires much less water and cultivation time is only half of the sugar crop. However, no appropriate steps have been initiated in India so far to cultivate beet crop. This appears to be an opportunity that has not received adequate attention.