India’s Power Potential

Though India has a huge renewable energy potential, availability of renewable energy sources is widely dispersed. In some states the potential for renewable energy is insignificant (e.g., Delhi), whereas some states have abundant renewable sources: wind energy is abundant in Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Jammu and Kashmir; solar energy is concentrated in the northwest region of the country—in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Ladakh, Maharashtra, and Madhya Pradesh; and the small hydro potential in the country is concentrated in hilly states of Himachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Jammu and Kashmir, Arunachal Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh.

Hydropower: The hydropower installed capacity as of March 31, 2011, was approximately 37,367.4 MW.

The estimated small hydro power potential in India is around 15,000 MW. Of this estimated potential only 16% has been developed so far for power generation. In India, 5415 sites with a capacity of 14,305.47 MW have been identified by Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) for the establishment of small hydroelectric projects. The largest numbers of sites have been identified in Arunachal Pradesh with a total capacity of 1,333.04 MW, but the richest state in SHP potential is Himachal Pradesh with 547 sites of total capacity 2,268.41MW.

Wind Energy: India’s wind resources have been mapped by the Centre for Wind Energy Technology (CWET). Sites are classified based on wind speeds (higher average wind speeds having higher class numbers). Most of the Indian wind sites are in Class 2 (200–300 W/m2 at 50 MAGL) and some are in Class 3, with relatively few sites in Classes 4 and 5. Despite the relatively low wind regimes by international standards, India has made significant progress in wind based power generation.

The potential areas for generating power through wind mills are in the states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. As of August 31, 2011 the installed capacity of wind power in India was 14,989.89 MW, mainly spread across Tamil Nadu (6,286.02 MW), Maharashtra (2,400.05 MW), Gujarat (2,337.31 MW), Karnataka (1,773.25 MW), Rajasthan (1,678.62 MW), Madhya Pradesh (275.89 MW), Andhra Pradesh (199.15 MW), Kerala (35.30 MW), and West Bengal (1.1 MW).

During the 2010-11 financial year, India added 2,349.50 MW of wind capacity for a total installed capacity of 14,156.39 MW, which is represented a 19.9% annual growth rate. More recent data showed that India’s wind capacity totalled 14,989.89 MW at the end of August, 2011, which represented 70.96% of India’s total renewable energy capacity. India’s robust domestic market has transformed the Indian wind industry into a significant global player.

Geothermal Energy: The geothermal resources in India have not been exploited commercially for heat or power generation. The geothermal resources, however, have been mapped, and the Geological Survey of India estimates the power generation potential to be in the order of 10,000MW. Most of the current usage of geothermal energy is for direct use, for example bathing and swimming. Dr Chandrasekhar am estimates an installed capacity of 203MW (thermal), with an annual energy use of 1607 TJ/year and a capacity factor of 25%.

Solar Energy: The annual solar radiation over India ranges from 1,200 to 2,300 kWh/m2, with most of the country having radiation greater than 1900 kWh/m2/year, with about 300 clear sunny days. For comparison, in Germany, annual solar radiation ranges from 800 kWh/m2 to 1200 kWh/m2. The area required to meet India’s power energy needs (620 billion kWh in 2005) with solar photovoltaic’s (at an efficiency of 10%) is about 3,000 km2 (60 km by 50 km) which is 0.1% of the land area of the country. The amount of solar energy produced in India is less than 1% of the total energy demand. The grid-interactive solar power as of December 2010 was merely 10 MW. In 2009, solar power contributed approximately 27 GWh to the national electricity supply.

In India, Cochin International Airport is set to become the first airport in the country to use solar power for running its utility grid system. Vikram Solar has installed 400 solar panels with peak capacity of 100kW at the airport in the state of Kerala and energy production is estimated at 148MWh a year, to be used primarily for the air conditioning facility. The project benefits from a 30% subsidy under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission and the airport has invested some INR 6.3 million ($0.12 million), according to officials.

Biomass Energy: Being an agrarian nation, India has considerable potential to use many forms of biomass. The total potential for biomass-based power generation is estimated to be 21,000 MW. Current utilisation amounts to approximately 2,735.2 MW, with various technologies and projects currently in development to increase this. For example, Singapore-based All Green are investing in 10 biomass gasification plants in the country, expected to be completed within the next two years.

Policy Financing and Implementation of Non Renewable energy sources in India

The energy policy of India is largely defined by the country’s up-and-coming energy deficit and augmented focus on developing alternative sources of energy, particularly nuclear, solar and wind energy.

The energy consumption in India is the fourth largest after China, USA and Russia. The total primary energy consumption from crude oil (29.45%), natural gas (7.7%), coal (54.5%), nuclear energy (1.26%), hydro electricity (5.0%), wind power, biomass electricity and solar power is 595 Mtoe in the year 2013. In the year 2013, India’s net imports are nearly 144.3 million tons of crude oil, 16 Mtoe of LNG and 95 Mtoe coal totaling to 255.3 Mtoe of primary energy which is equal to 42.9% of total primary energy consumption. About 70% of India’s electricity generation capacity is from fossil fuels, with coal accounting for 40% of India’s total energy consumption followed by crude oil and natural gas at 28% and 6% respectively. India is largely dependent on fossil fuel imports to meet its energy demands — by 2030, India’s dependence on energy imports is expected to exceed 53% of the country’s total energy consumption. In 2009-10, the country imported 159.26 million tonnes of crude oil which amounts to 80% of its domestic crude oil consumption and 31% of the country’s total imports are oil imports. The growth of electricity generation in India has been hindered by domestic coal shortages and as a consequence, India’s coal imports for electricity generation increased by 18% in 2010.

Due to rapid economic expansion, India has one of the world’s fastest growing energy markets and is expected to be the second-largest contributor to the increase in global energy demand by 2035, accounting for 18% of the rise in global energy consumption. Given India’s growing energy demands and limited domestic fossil fuel reserves, the country has ambitious plans to expand its renewable and nuclear power industries. India has the world’s fifth largest wind power market and plans to add about 100GW of solar power capacity by 2022.India also envisages to increase the contribution of nuclear power to overall electricity generation capacity from 4.2% to 9% within 25 years. The country has five nuclear reactors under construction (third highest in the world) and plans to construct 18 additional nuclear reactors (second highest in the world) by 2025.

Energy conservation has emerged as a major policy objective, and the Energy Conservation Act 2001, was passed by the Indian Parliament in September 2001, 35.5% of the population still live without access to electricity. This Act requires large energy consumers to adhere to energy consumption norms; new buildings to follow the Energy Conservation Building Code; and appliances to meet energy performance standards and to display energy consumption labels. The Act also created the Bureau of Energy Efficiency to implement the provisions of the Act. In the year 2015, Prime Minister Mr. Modi launched a scheme called Prakash Path urging people to use LED lamps in place of other lamps to drastically cut down lighting power requirement.

India imports nearly 75% of its 4.3 million barrels per day crude oil needs but exports nearly 1.25 million barrels per day of refined petroleum products which is nearly 30% of its total production of refined oil products. India has built surplus world class refining capacity using imported crude oil for exporting refined petroleum products . The net imports of crude oil is lesser by one fourth after accounting exports and imports of refined petroleum products.

During the financial year 2012-13, the production of crude oil is 37.86 million tons and 40,679 million standard cubic meters (nearly 26.85 million tons) natural gas. The net import of crude oil & petroleum products is 146.70 million tons worth of Rs 5611.40 billions. This includes 9.534 million tons of LNG imports worth of Rs. 282.15 billions. Internationally, LNG price (One mmBtu of LNG = 0.1724 barrels of crude oil (boe) = 24.36 cubic meters of natural gas) is fixed below crude oil price in terms of heating value. LNG is slowly gaining its role as direct use fuel in road and marine transport without regasification. In the year 2012-13, India consumed 15.744 million tons petrol and 69.179 million tons diesel which are mainly produced from imported crude oil at huge foreign exchange out go. Use of natural gas for heating, cooking and electricity generation is not economical as more and more locally produced natural gas will be converted in to LNG for use in transport sector to reduce crude oil imports. In addition to the conventional natural gas production, coal gasification, coal bed methane, coal mine methane and Biogas digesters / Renewable natural gas will also become source of LNG forming decentralised base for production of LNG to cater to the widely distributed demand. There is possibility to convert most of the heavy duty vehicles (including diesel driven rail engines) in to LNG fuelled vehicles to reduce diesel consumption drastically with operational cost and least pollution benefits.

The state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) acquired shares in oil fields in countries like Sudan, Syria, Iran, and Nigeria – investments that have led to diplomatic tensions with the United States. Because of political instability in the Middle East and increasing domestic demand for energy, India is keen on decreasing its dependency on OPEC to meet its oil demand, and increasing its energy security. Several Indian oil companies, primarily led by ONGC and Reliance Industries, have started a massive hunt for oil in several regions in India including Rajasthan, Krishna Godavari Basin and north-eastern Himalayas. India is developing an off shore gas field in Mozambique. The proposed Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline is a part of India’s plan to meet its increasing energy demand.

India has the world’s 4th largest coal reserves. In India, coal is the bulk of primary energy contributor with 54.5% share out of the total 595 Mtoe in the year 2013. India is the third top coal producer in 2013 with 7.6% production share of coal (including lignite) in the world. Top five hard and brown coal producing countries in 2013 (2012) are (million tons): China 3,680 (3,645), United States 893 (922), India 605 (607), Australia 478 (453) and Indonesia 421 (386). However, India ranks fifth in global coal production at 228 mtoe (5.9%) in the year 2013 when its inferior quality coal tonnage is converted in to tons of oil equivalent. Coal-fired power plants account for 59% of India’s installed electricity capacity. After electricity production, coal is also used for cement production in substantial quantity. In the year 2013, India imported nearly 95 Mtoe of steam coal and coking coal which is 29% of total consumption to meet the demand in electricity, cement and steel production.

Gasification of coal or lignite produces syngas or coal gas or coke oven gas which is a mixture of hydrogen, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide gases. Coal gas can be converted in to synthetic natural gas (SNG) by using Fischer–Tropsch process at low pressure and high temperature. Coal gas can also be produced by underground coal gasification where the coal deposits are located deep in the ground or uneconomical to mine the coal. CNG and LNG are emerging as economical alternatives to diesel oil with the escalation in international crude oil prices. Synthetic natural gas production technologies have tremendous scope to meet the transport sector requirements fully using the locally available coal in India. Dankuni coal complex is producing syngas which is piped to the industrial users in Calcutta. Many coal based fertiliser plants which are shut down can also be retrofitted economically to produce SNG as LNG and CNG fetch good price by substituting imports. Recently, Indian government fixed the natural gas price at producer end as 5.61 US$ per mmbtu on net calorific value (NCV) basis which is at par with the estimated SNG price from coal.

Gasification of bio mass yields wood gas or syngas which can be converted in to substitute natural gas by Methanation Nearly 750 million tons of non edible (by cattle) biomass is available annually in India which can be put to higher value addition use and substitute imported crude oil, coal, LNG, urea fertiliser, nuclear fuels, etc. It is estimated that renewable and carbon neutral biomass resources of India can replace present consumption of all fossil fuels when used productively.

Huge quantity of imported coal is being used in pulverised coal fired power stations. Raw biomass can not be used in the pulverised coal mills as they are difficult to grind in to fine powder due to caking property of raw biomass. However biomass can be used after Torrefaction in the pulverised coal mills for replacing imported coal. North west and southern regions can replace imported coal use with torrefied biomass where surplus agriculture/crop residual biomass is available.

The former President of India, Dr. Abdul Kalam, is one of the strong advocaters of Jatropha cultivation for production of bio-diesel. In his recent speech, the Former President said that out of the 6,00,000 km² of waste land that is available in India over 3,00,000 km² is suitable for Jatropha cultivation. Once this plant is grown, it has a useful lifespan of several decades. During its life Jatropha requires very little water when compared to other cash crops. A plan for supplying incentives to encourage the use of Jatropha has been coloured with green stripes.