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Why in the News?
In April, the Union Finance Minister had said India’s transition away from coal as a fuel for power would be hampered by the Russia-Ukraine war.
Why is the ‘move away from coal’ so important?
The threat of global warming looms over the planet, promising to bring about unprecedented natural calamities.
An effective way to keep the danger at bay is to cut the use of fossil fuels — coal, natural gas and oil.
About 80% of the world’s energy requirements are met by these three fuels.
They trigger the emission of carbon dioxide. However, the worst culprit of them all is coal, which emits nearly twice as much carbon dioxide as natural gas and about 60% more than oil, on a kilogram-to-kilogram comparison.
Combusting coal also leaves behind partially-burnt carbon particles that feed pollution and trigger respiratory disorders.
The consequence of these chemical reactions gains great significance because the power sector in India accounts for 49% of total carbon dioxide emissions, compared with the global average of 41%.
India’s dependence on Coal:
As of February 2022, the installed capacity for coal-based power generation across the country was 2.04 lakh megawatt (MW).
This accounts for about 51.5% of power from all sources.
According to the IEA’s Coal Report 2021, India’s coal consumption will increase at an average annual rate of 3.9% to 1.18 billion tonnes in 2024.
So, it is not easy to shift away from coal overnight.
How has war made India’s move away from coal difficult?
Natural gas has been dubbed as the transition fuel in India’s plans to move away from coal.
The international cost of natural gas has increased in the recent past from a level that was considered already too high to be financially viable.
Last year in India, the government put in place a committee to ensure that natural gas prices remained stable.
Of the 25,000 MW of gas-based power plants, about 14,000 MW remains stranded, or idle, because they are financially unviable.
While renewable energy sources are cheaper than coal, their ability to generate power consistently is subject to nature — the wind and the Sun.
Storage technologies are still not mature enough to help renewable energy sources become reliable generators of power.
News Source: The Hindu
