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: Sample this: India’s total installed capacity of power is about 1.28 lakh megawatts. Of this, the capacity for generation of renewable energy from sources such as wind, hydro and biomass is just about 9,225 megawatts (solar energy is negligible and hence not included in this figure). This implies that the journey of drawing power or energy from renewable sources hasn’t been impressive so far in India. However, the hope is that it will pick up in the future even as the country’s energy needs surge and the threat of depletion of conventional resources, namely, fossil fuels, increases.
According to the International Energy Agency’s World Energy Outlook 2006, much of the demand for global primary energy in the next 20-25 years will come from developing countries such as India and China. The growth in demand, according to the study, has been estimated at 53% between now and the year 2030, with India and China along with other developing nations clamouring for over 70% of this energy. This means that the pressure on coal, oil and gas — key fossil fuels — will only increase in the coming years as these countries look to sustain their economic growth.
Its no rocket science that with this kind of pressure the depletion of natural resources will only get hastened not to mention the ensuing issues of global warming and climate change on account of the excessive burning of fossil fuels. Already, the emission of carbon dioxide and allied greenhouse gases over the last hundred years has resulted in world temperatures rising by about 1.3 degree Fahrenheit, according to the Paris-based Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). This could only get worse as more fossil fuels burn. The question then is can alternate energy help secure the needs of the world, especially, in countries such as India and China?
At least in India, the general feeling among analysts and observers is that alternate energy, at best, can supplement power drawn from conventional resources, but can never really fully replace it. That’s because, by its very nature, alternate energy tends to be unreliable, as analysts put it, ‘not a very firm source of power’. Also, alternate energy projects lack the size and scale that conventional energy projects have. Moreover, they are highly capital-intensive pushing up cost of production and hence tariff levels (check chart for cost break-up of conventional and non-conventional energy). Says G N Kamath, managing...
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