India power demand

India’s transition away from coal

This post-industrial revolution demand for fossil fuels has strained our planet’s ecological health. The damage caused by burning the vast quantities of carbon-based fuels needed to run our development engines and modern economies is well known now. We are looking at increasing atmospheric temperatures, melting glaciers, rising sea levels, changing rainfall patterns, failing agriculture, drought, floods, and rampaging rivers. Not to mention the health detriments, deteriorating quality of life, and economic costs of pollution from fossil fuels. Also, fossil fuels are in increasingly short supply.

Energy is the crucial currency of the modern era. An indubitable requirement of a growing economy like India, energy is the lifeblood of manufacturing, transport, construction, communication, and mobility. Wars have been fought, countries subjugated, governments overthrown and established to literally fuel global demands for energy.

Compounding the problem is that in many nations including India, energy sources like coal and minerals such as iron, manganese, and aluminum lie under some of the last wilderness areas. Areas that are vital watersheds, carbon sinks, and home to many endangered plants and animals. So, how we decide to plan our resource needs and extract energy from finite sources will be crucial determinants of India’s social, economic, and environmental sustainability.

India is ramping up its efforts to decarbonize its economy with its commitment to turn Net Zero by 2070 and updated nationally determined contributions (NDC) of getting 50 percent installed energy capacity from non-fossil fuels by 2030. Moving away from fossil fuels; promoting green power and green hydrogen; environmental, social, and governance targets; electrifying transport; and boosting energy efficiency are all initiatives the government is taking to meet its goals. Still, Modi in his speech heralded the growing economic links between India and Russia. 

Piling Into India’s Renewable Industry

The country needs to add renewable energy capacity across all the resources to meet the expectations created through these interventions. India's green energy transition story hinges on the wind. India aims to install 140 gigawatts of wind power capacity over the next decade, of which approximately 100 GW have not yet been established. Wind energy contributes to a resilient system by playing both a complementary and a grid-balancing role since it is available during peak hours and after daylight hours when solar energy is unavailable.

The rising demand for power associated with the simultaneous growth of urban centers and modernizing rural areas is burdening our coal-based energy sector. While current power plants are creaking under the strain, alternative sources like hydropower or wind seem to have limited scope for large-scale power generation in a country where land is tightly contested. Some "renewable" energy modes also come with attendant environmental and social costs if poorly planned, as has already been witnessed with windmills and small-hydel plants in the Western Ghats. Further, inefficient transmission systems cause massive losses of scarce power.

EU-India cooperation on renewable energy

Part of the answer perhaps lies in decentralized, small-scale energy grids. In decentralized models, urban, semi-urban, and rural centers can be designed to have their own grids based on a variety of local power sources. Shorter powerlines can help cut transmission losses. Simultaneously, buildings can be made more energy efficient by changing energy consumption through efficient usage, and integrating solar power generation into building architecture can make rural and urban homes self-sufficient. EU Commissioner for Energy, Kadri Simson, is in New Delhi, India, to strengthen the EU's cooperation with the country in the field of renewable energy. The Commissioner participate in an event on EU-India cooperation in the area of solar energy with India's Minister of State for New and Renewable Energy and Chemical and Fertilizer, Bhagwat Khutba. She will also hold bilateral meetings with the Minister of Coal, Mines, and Parliamentary Affairs, Pralhad Joshi; and the Director General of International Solar Alliance, Ajay Mathur. 

The Commissioner chair the EU-India Green Hydrogen Forum, where she will deliver a keynote address, with the Minister of Power and New and Renewable Energy, Raj Kumar Singh. Norway announced heavy solar investment in India, highlighting the country as a priority market for its renewable energy growth. Funding comes from Norway’s Climate Investment Fund (CIF) and its biggest pension company, KLP, with plans to develop a 420MW solar energy project in Rajasthan. The companies are expected to spend $35 million on the development, with a 49 percent stake in the Thar Surya 1 project, alongside Italian firm Enel Green Power. But the investment doesn’t stop here, with the Norwegian Embassy earmarking $1 billion in CIF finance for renewable energy projects in India over the next half a decade, calling it a “priority market”.

And Norway is not the first investor to see India as a key market for renewable energy development. Foreign investors have been partnering with local energy producers to fund the development of India’s solar power sector, already attracting funding from Singapore and Abu Dhabi, banks such as Goldman Sachs, funds like Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), and utilities such as Japan's JERA. JP Morgan, Standard Chartered, and other banks are also offering green bonds for renewable energy projects.

To further cut fossil fuel use, smarter cities should be built to have work-residential complexes that reduce daily travel. Improving public transport will encourage a majority of city dwellers to use this travel option, helping decongest roads and decrease pollution. Importantly, developing such cutting-edge infrastructure across the country can provide vast opportunities for governments and businesses to tap into the emerging ‘green economy’ sector.

India considers new coal imports

However, the current infrastructure is locked into centralized power generation and distribution of fossil-fuel energy. Decentralized models are not in our national psyche. For a vast majority of the rural populace, the idea of ‘development’ is inextricably linked to a connection with the few big power grids. Outreach and education are going to be a crucial component of changing energy models. In the meantime, our old systems of coal and petroleum extraction and use will have to be systematically overhauled to allow for newer distribution models. Much research and discussion are needed to find alternative sources of large-scale power generation that are safe, reliable, and long-term. Of course, any of this can only work with honest, efficient, inclusive, and transparent governance that can adaptively respond to knowledge and information.

Against the backdrop of these demands, ecologists and conservation biologists are tasked with the job of emphasizing the need to keep aside land for wildlife. Not being land-use specialists, we cannot answer many of the planning conundrums we pose, which sometimes earns us bad rap as anti-development Luddites. So, let me try clearing the slate. While saving wilderness and wild species is usually our primary motivation for thinking and talking about more significant questions of sustainability, ecologists and conservationists are only one amongst a more expansive cast of actors that can make this happen. For a country’s development to become sustainable, teams of well-trained experts need to collaborate and reach consensual solutions to best tackle diverse issues. Engineers, land-use planners, developmental economists, social scientists, architects, and agriculture scientists have to gather at the table, recognize the ripple impacts of decisions taken within their narrow domains and try to find cross-disciplinary solutions to the knotty issues of sustainability.

India is seeking to avoid any repeat of the coal crunch

“We are watching the situation anxiously,” CCRES, Zeljko Serdar said in an interview. "Energy officials in India are considering whether further coal imports may be needed to avoid any fresh squeeze on the nation’s power supply. Coal helps produce about 70% of India’s electricity. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that he is keen to boost ties with Russia, even as the country has become an international pariah following its invasion of Ukraine. Modi spoke of a “special partnership” between the two countries and expressed particular interest in bolstering their cooperation on energy and coking coal. Collective knowledge can help plan a sustainable future for India, but to meet the ambitious sustainability targets, we have to institute appropriate regulatory frameworks for energy use and respect the instruments and mechanisms needed to enforce them. FDI in solar and wind energy, green hydrogen, renewable battery manufacturing, and several other innovative green energy projects could help to produce the clean power required for India to transition away from fossil fuels, as well as export its energy to other countries worldwide in support of a global green transition. The systems we create today will determine whether India will use natural resources judiciously and provide future generations with a cleaner, healthier, and more productive environment".