Environment and Energy Sustainability: Mission Possible for India

By: Dr. Manoj KumarAssociate Professor, GCCBA, Chandigarh

Sustainability: DefinitionSustainability could be defined as

an ability or capacity of something to be maintained or to sustain itself. It’s about taking what we need to live now, without jeopardising the potential for people in the future to meet their needs (Land Learn NSW)

We all want this to Happen"China will overtake the US to

become the world's largest economy by 2020, which in turn will be overtaken by India in 2050," according to Wealth Report 2012 by Knight Frank & Citi Private Bank.

Objectives of the Study

The paper tries to address following objectives the country need to address for its environment and energy sustainability:

To know the total primary energy consumption of India and some other countries in the world.

To know the current position and future trend of CO2 emission in India and some selected countries of the world.

To know the present position of electricity production mix and its future trends in India.

To suggest measure for environment and energy sustainability in India.

Total Primary Energy Consumption of Top 15 Countries in the World

(Quadrillion Btu)Countries 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

China 41.20 43.48 49.98 57.91 64.42 70.39 74.85 78.94 85.99 94.92103.6

5105.8

8United States 96.17 97.65 97.94

100.16

100.28 99.63

101.32 99.29 94.60 98.02 97.46 95.06

Russia 25.71 26.66 27.40 28.14 27.89 29.05 29.05 29.55 26.81 30.00 30.41 31.52India 13.84 13.71 14.16 15.38 16.48 17.66 19.06 19.69 21.57 22.45 23.48 23.92Japan 22.20 22.11 22.11 22.76 22.57 22.89 22.70 21.81 20.60 21.79 20.91 20.31Germany 14.62 14.31 14.17 14.33 14.09 14.31 13.80 14.10 13.21 14.02 13.48 13.47Canada 12.82 13.05 13.43 13.77 13.81 13.72 13.70 13.52 13.06 12.98 13.40 13.35Brazil 8.45 8.55 8.64 8.99 9.28 9.50 10.01 10.47 10.39 11.46 11.89 12.10Korea, South 8.13 8.40 8.71 8.92 9.21 9.34 9.72 9.90 9.98 10.82 11.31 11.52France 11.09 11.02 11.11 11.31 11.38 11.40 11.22 11.32 10.75 11.03 10.84 10.69Iran 5.39 5.89 6.19 6.41 7.45 7.93 8.14 8.51 9.36 9.23 9.51 9.64Saudi Arabia 5.14 5.38 5.76 6.21 6.53 6.85 6.90 7.41 7.67 8.32 8.86 9.31

United Kingdom 9.88 9.75 9.79 9.85 9.82 9.71 9.37 9.26 8.73 8.92 8.43 8.63Mexico 6.33 6.35 6.45 6.47 6.71 6.94 7.17 7.27 6.95 7.29 7.76 7.75Italy 7.62 7.65 7.90 8.09 8.13 8.07 7.97 7.90 7.35 7.66 7.50 7.17

World400.5

9408.0

4421.4

6441.3

2455.1

5467.5

6478.7

3485.7

2480.0

0507.9

8520.2

7524.0

8

Primary Energy Production & Consumption in India

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 20120

5

10

15

20

25

30Q

uadr

llion

Bri

tish

Uni

ts

Total CO2 Emissions from the Consumption of Energy(Million Metric Tons)

Country

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

China 3227 3422 3960 4597 5116 5575 5908 6167 6816 7447 8127 8106USA 5755 5799 5853 5974 5999 5924 6024 5841 5430 5630 5483 5270India 1016 1008 1022 1121 1181 1281 1366 1449 1643 1715 1753 1831Russia 1442 1501 1552 1600 1588 1636 1578 1629 1479 1662 1710 1782Japan 1194 1200 1250 1256 1241 1240 1254 1216 1105 1181 1200 1259Germany 878 855 851 849 834 837 812 813 758 801 784 788S. Korea 452 468 480 486 494 484 503 522 524 581 650 657Iran 334 365 388 408 451 477 489 512 563 564 594 604S. Arabia 301 312 347 389 402 402 393 422 438 469 551 583Canada 562 568 597 612 610 597 590 574 545 541 552 551Brazil 349 347 347 356 371 384 401 427 407 449 477 500UK 573 562 573 583 583 585 570 564 516 529 488 499S. Africa 393 380 413 442 432 444 457 490 478 474 472 473

Indonesia 273 289 291 313 326 350 372 370 406 415 450 456Mexico 380 379 388 378 398 419 444 453 421 431 446 454

World2413

22457

92568

82696

82787

62861

82926

72964

52943

63105

93215

53231

0

Total Electricity Net Generation in India(Billion Kilowatt-hours)

Type   2001200

22003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009 2010 2011

2012

Renewable   77.0 72.3 85.5 96.0 115.

4129.

8140.

4131.

4131.

9 143.9 173.0 160.0

Hydro   73.0 67.7 80.0 89.6 106.8

119.2

126.6

115.6

112.0 121.8 142.2 124.

6

Non-Hydro

Solar, Tide and Wave

0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.8 2.1

Biomass and Waste

1.8 1.8 1.9 1.9 1.9 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.1 4.0 5.0

Wind 2.2 2.7 3.6 4.5 6.6 8.7 11.8 13.7 17.8 19.9 26.0 28.3Nuclear   18.2 17.8 16.4 15.0 15.7 15.6 15.8 13.2 14.8 20.5 29.0 29.7Fossil Fuels   461.6 486.

5512.

6533.

8544.

6582.

0619.

7651.

5709.

4 747.9 804.3 862.9

Total   556.8 576.5

614.5

644.8

675.7

727.4

775.9

796.1

856.1 912.3 1006.

31052

.5

Coal Based Thermal Power GenerationDespite its abundant reserves of about 286 billion tons, the world’s fifth-largest according to BP PLC, coal production in India has failed to keep pace with demand from utilities for several years now, leading to chronic power shortages that have crimped economic growth. (The Hindustan Times, 2013). India needs to develop its own coal blocks as well as invest heavily in the coal mines in Australia, Mongolia, Indonesia and Russia to get coal for its industries in the times to come. Indian companies are doing it to avoid the situation of coal shortage by cancellations of allotment of coal blocks. India is expected to add more than 1,03,000 MW clean coal technology-based power generation capacity during the 2016-2025 period, says a report by Global Data Consulting (Guneet, 2015). Country’s clean coal installations are at nascent stage, many recent ultra-mega power projects have adopted “super critical technology” that is more efficient technology, therefore help arrest GHG emission. Some of the old thermal power plants have to be decommissioned due to expiry of their useful life. We need to continue with the same pace to increase thermal power generation capacity with improvement in technology.

Solar Power Generation Capacity

India is blessed with good solar insolation throughout the year in most of its parts. Regions receiving Global insolation of 5KWh/m2 per day and above can generate at least 77W/m2 (on actual onsite basis) at 16% efficiency level. Hence, even 0.1% of the land area of the identified solar hotspot (1897.55 Km2) could deliver nearly 146 GW of SPV based electricity (379 Billion units) considering 2600 hours of sunshine annually. This power capacity would enhance considerably with improvement in the efficiency of SPV technology (T.V.Ramachandra, 2011). Besides rooftop SPV both grid-connected and isolated have potential to generate 127 GW if only 10m2 SPV is installed on 50% of 330 million houses in India. Though, it will take time to have social acceptability yet we can save reduce GHG emission substantially. With such a tremendous scale of SPV installation the technology will become very cheap as we have no dearth of silicon in our country that is used in manufacturing of SPV cells.

What We are DoingGovernment of India, Ministry of Power has set a target of generating 1,75,000 MW from renewable energy sources by 2022. 

Out of this, lion's share of 1,00,000 MW will come from solar power, 60,000 MW from wind, 10,000 MW from biomass and the remaining 5,000 MW from small hydro projects (The Economic Times, 2015).

If this target can be achieved then we can think of adding 700GW of new renewable electricity generation facilities from 2022-50 with the same pace.

If with proper R&D we could increase the efficiency to 50% the total power generation will increase to the tune of 6500-7000 Billion units per annum from renewable source only.

Big hydropower projects has potential of adding 40000 MW of new capacity by 2050.

Hydroelectric power is said to be the cheapest source of power as well as zero GHG emission after installations.

Our Sagar-ManthanEnergy potential of our seas and oceans well exceeds our present energy needs.

India has long coastline with estuaries and gulfs where tides are strong enough to move turbine for electric power generation.

A variety of different technologies are currently under development throughout the world to harness this energy in all its forms including waves (40000 MW), tides (9000 MW) and thermal gradients (180000 MW).

Development is currently limited but the sector has potential to grow.

If 50% of this initial potential can be developed by 2050 it can contribute to the tune 114500 MW of electricity generation capacity.

Conclusions The above discussion clearly gives us guidance that

India can well balance the trilemma of energy security, energy equity and environment sustainability.

The total estimated electricity generation capacity of 1631 GW will have potential to make India energy surplus country with 100 percent reach.

Besides use of energy efficient equipment has potential to reduce energy requirement to the tune of 30-50 percent.

This will ease the condition of the global warming. If will of implementing authority and private player

and public at large be strong to achieve this target of environment and energy sustainability, the mission is possible for India.

Thank You & Wishing Mission

to Solve Energy Trilemma

Possible for INDIA