India and its energy needs

We are a country of 1.2 billion people, more than half live below poverty line which implies their total energy consumption is far and far lesser than the upper middle class and rich class of people which is roughly 20-25% of the total population. Their is huge disparity between the rich and poor in energy consumption which is also one of the index of poverty measure according to me other than food, health and education. According to World bank 40% f Indian households are without electricity. Since we are developing, our energy needs are growing at faster rate. Poverty eradication also resulted in more consumption of power, since India's per capita income is doubled in just a 5 years interval which reflects the more energy consumption. Their is very good correlation between energy consumption and income level of an individual and the economy as a whole. Because of increasing industrialization, Urbanization and more consumerism lead to more energy needs. There is huge energy deficit growing of our country. We are highly relying on the imports which is giving extra stress to our Forex reserves.

Currently our country is mainly dependent on two kind of sources of electricity - Coal/Thermal power and Hydro power. Coal power accounts for 80 % of our energy requirements , hydro power around 16 % and nuclear source around 2 % and rest with other sources which is around 2%. Even after venturing out many projects by GoI and state govts. , India is still facing huge shortages of electricity.

Now India govt is planning to venture out Nuclear power plants for meeting the energy needs. Argument is that it is a clean source of energy, helps is environment conservation because hydro power projects cause heavy deforestation and huge soil erosion, it takes lesser time to complete the project implies time efficient and many others. But there are many issues pertaining to this Nuclear way of energy.

I was reading one of the article in Hindu which says that most of India lies in seismic zone 4 and 5 (max. level is 6) and many of our Nuclear plants are located in these zones. Take an example of Jaitapur, it is located very near to Bhuj where terrible earth quake occurred few years ago. Narora plant and Rawat bhatta plants are located very near to Delhi i.e zone 5. Now what happened in Japan in Fukushima should be an eyeopener for all the policy makers to think twice while taking any decision about the location the plant. Germans have already started protesting against increasing the time permits of running nuclear power plants and their is public opinion against the nuclear energy which led to fall of incumbent party in local elections because of their apathy to nuclear concerns. I guess we have to learn something from there.

Secondly , the variety of Nuclear reactor which is supplied by companies like Areva i.e EPR reactors have a big loophole in their design which is even claimed by their own govt. Means we are giving invitation to our own destruction. Indian authorities are giving contradictory statements on this issues. Instead of bickering over issue they should work for more safety of the reactor. Instead of getting a second hand technology, go for most advanced and safest technology.

Third issue is about the civil nuclear liability. India is buckling under the pressure of USA , Russia and EU countries. India's civil liability act itself put very less liability on the agencies who are supplying equipments and most of the liability is putting on the operator i.e NPCIL which is a PSE of GoI which means payment of liability through public exchequer. We should learn from Bhopal gas tragedy.

Most important issue is the environment. What will do with that nuclear waste which is produced out of nuclear plants. Usual practice is dumping this waste in the sea. Their is very slow progress in the R&D of nuclear waste management because this will make the cost effective nuclear power a costly affair. This dumping will lead to destruction of our coasts, wetlands which is very essential for our eco-system balance. This will impact the livelihood of millions of fishermen and also impact out marine food production. Apart from these the surrounding habitats will be exposed to nuclear radiation which can cause many hereditary diseases.

Indian govt should work on a comprehensive energy policy which not only addresses the energy production issue but also its optimum consumption and also wastage issues. India has a huge potential of energy from renewable sources - Solar energy ( because in India 8 months are around clear weather day), Tidal energy (huge coastline) , Wind energy, Bio-mass , Geothermal energy and others. Though I don't opt out the option of nuclear energy but it needs a meticulous approach to mitigate the safety concerns and environmental impact.

What we can do as a citizen is especially - rich and upper middle income groups - try to change attitude towards consumerism because I feel India is not in a position to adopt American way of consumerism. What I feel is - "India doesn't need SUVs , Harley davidson, Iphone , Ipads , Mcdonalds , Pepsi and coco cola because neither they are our requirements and nor they are our needs, they are just our wants". We really need modern and state-of-art technologies for agriculture to achieve food security, for Industries which generate huge employment, a well developed education structure and robust health system. According to Hans Rosling in one of his talk, it is possible for us to reduce our net energy demands even after poverty eradication and that should be ours approach.