Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
The government of India is strategically
promoting renewables. The 12th Plan envisions
installing 100 GW of new capacity of which
30 GW is projected to come from renewable
energy sources, of which wind would account for
15 GW. According to the Planning Commission
report, historically the Indian wind energy sector
has met and occasionally exceeded its allocated
target. During the 10th Plan period, the target set
was of 1,500 MW, whereas the actual installa-
tions were 5,427 MW. Similarly, during the 11th
Plan period, the revised target was for 9,000 MW
and the actual installations were much higher at
10,260 MW (GWEC
2012
). Globally, it is
observed that there are several drivers driving
growth of renewables. Some of the drivers are
discussed here:
and wind. Wind power entails no direct GHG
emissions and does not emit other pollutants
(such as oxides of sulphur and nitrogen); addi-
tionally, it consumes no water (IEA
2013
).
5.2
Uneven Spread of Fossil Fuel
Fossil fuels are not uniformly spread in terms of
reserves. At the end of 2012 in terms of proved oil
reserves, the Middle East had a share of 48.4 %
followed by South and Central America (19.7 %),
North America (13.2 %), Europe and Eurasia
(8.4 %), Africa (7.8 %) and Asia-Pacifi c (2.5 %).
However, in 2012 Asia-Pacifi c was the largest
consuming region with a share of 33.6 % of total
crude oil consumption. India consumed 4.2 % of
total global crude oil consumption while India's
share in terms of proven reserve is only 0.3 %.
Another Asian giant, China is the second largest
consumer of oil with only 1 % of total reserve. As
far as coal production is concerned in 2012, China
produced 1,825 Mtoe of coal followed by the
USA (516 Mtoe), Australia (241 Mtoe), Indonesia
(237 Mtoe) and India (229 Mtoe) (Table
4
). Coal
production in China has gone up drastically from
775 Mtoe in 2002 to 1825 Mtoe in 2012 (Table
4
).
In 2012, coal consumption (1875 Mtoe) was
almost met by the domestic production. This is a
very clear indication that China has been very
much dependent on coal for energy production,
mostly producing electricity. Coal production in
the USA exceeded consumption (437.8 Mtoe) in
2012. A common perception is that India is rich
with coal reserves and production can meet the
demand. However, the popular perception is not
true. India consumed 302 Mtoe of coal compared
to production of 229 Mtoe having a defi cit of
73 Mtoe, which means 24 % import dependence
for coal. In 2012, coal consumption in India
increased by 9.9 % over 2011 (270.6 Mtoe), and
8 % of global coal consumption came from India.
Natural gas has a better geographical spread in
terms of proved reserves compared to oil. At the
end 2012, Iran had 18 % share with 33.6 trillion
cubic metres (TCM) of proved natural gas reserve
followed by the Russian Federation (32.9 TCM,
17.6 %), Qatar (25.1 TCM, 13.4 %), Turkmenistan
5.1
Environmental Sustainability
In many countries across the world electricity
generation has been fossil fuel (i.e. coal, oil and
gas) based. When fossil fuels are burned, they
release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere that
contributes to global warming. Incidentally,
burning one ton of coal will produce between 1.5
and 3.5 tons of CO
2
, depending on the carbon
content of the coal, implying that a big coal
power station produces 15-30 or more thousand
tons of CO
2
daily. Global CO
2
emissions status
suggests that few developed and developing
countries contribute close to 50 % of CO
2
emis-
sions. In 2012, China contributed 26.7 % of
global CO
2
emissions followed by the USA
(16.8 %), India (5.3 %) and the Russian
Federation (4.9 %). In the case of India and
China, CO
2
emissions grew by 6.9 % and 6 %
(Table
3
), respectively, over 2011. In rapidly
growing economies like China and India, energy
consumption is bound to go up and so are emis-
sions of CO
2
and other greenhouse gases. As of
June 30, 2013, about 69 % of total installed
capacity for power generations in India was coal,
oil and gas based. This is an indication that pri-
mary energy is driven by fossil fuel in India. In
order to reduce greenhouse gases (GHG), India
should invest in greener technologies like solar
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