Ratheesh kaliyadan
Almost all counties and villages of
India are thirsty and hunger for power along their township/city counterparts.
Everybody needs power to energise day to day life with ample facilities. People
are ambitious. If we get one, strive for hundred then shift to thousands.
Ambitions and aspirations add more and more the need and demand of power. The
current scene puts forth shocking data where we are. In India, 50 crore
people have access to less than six hours of electricity every day. Indian villages reel under
immense energy poverty. Almost 50 per cent of households in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Assam, Odisha and Jharkhand are yet to be connected to the grid.
Governments have to look forward for an energy revolution in these areas.
Regarding cooking, 70 crore people do not
have access to clean cooking fuel. Most of them depend bio-mass - fire woods
and materials like cow dung- for cooking. Poor people living in villages are
affected. Kitchen becomes killing places where mortality plays in its top
position due to internal air pollution. This is the second biggest reason for
mortality. The world Health Organisation statistics underline this pathetic
situation. According to B
K Chaturvedi, member, Planning Commission of India that the highest cause
of premature deaths in India is due to asphyxiation because
of household air pollution caused by cooking with bio-mass. Use
of dirty cooking fuel has been responsible for killing 3.5 million women and
children each year, according to a 2013 International Energy Agency report. India holds nearly 25 per cent of the global
population without electricity and 31 per cent without clean cooking fuel.
Traditional power
sectors and energy sources face critical decline due to multifaceted issues. It
is sure that the traditional energy sources cannot meet the upcoming demands in
power sector. Then what is the remedy? It was the big question before the speakers
and listeners in the Fourth Anil Agarwal Dialogue on Energy
Access and Renewable Energy, by Centre for Science and Environment, New Delhi.
Everybody agree with the view that we need to understand how to
mainstream clean energy and energy
access across the country.
Sunita Narain,
director general, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) put forward an idea of decentralised
renewable energy systems could offer the key to solving this state of energy
poverty, in her opening remarks of the dialogue.
Renewables:
The agenda for change
The
growth of renewable energy has changed the energy business in India. In the
past 10 years, installation of renewable energy for electricity has grown at an
annual rate of 25 per cent; as of January 2014, it had reached 30,000 megawatt
(MW).
According
to the Integrated Energy Policy, 2006, India is projected to have 30,000 MW of
wind and 10,000 MW of solar power by 2031-32. The 12th Five
Year Plan (FYP) document has projected a four-fold increase in the installation
of renewable power by 2021-22. The resource allocation in the 12th FYP
reflects the priority accorded by the government to renewable energy. Of the
total plan outlay for the energy sector -- Rs 10,94,938 crore -- during
2012-2017, the outlay for MNRE is Rs 33,003 crore, or about three per cent of
the total plan outlay. However, this is not enough. Due to policy paralysis and
uncertainty, the period of 2011-12 saw a significant dip in investments in this
sector – from US $13 billion in 2011 to US $6.5 billion in 2012.
For
Dr. Farooque Abdulla, Union minister for new and renewable energy has no doubt
that the Renewable Energy is the future not only in India, but the whole world.
He pointed sharply that the forest should not be ruined in the name of
renewable energy. To tackle the issue, he suggests roof top solar panels. Every
house becomes power houses today or tomorrow. It is a must to provide better education, health,
and life. India has to stand over its own foot in energy scene, so renewable
energy is a vital part of it. But the current scene is not so much positive,
because big business tycoons in energy business import third rate products from
china and other countries and imprinting the Indian organizations’ brand name
over it. We have to develop indigenous technology and promote research and
development projects to make available of renewable energy products cheap. We have
to proactive in this sector. Dr. Abdulla became emotional when he joined with
the aspirations of the environmental enthusiasts and commented: “I may not see
it, or my children, but we have to work for clean energy and clean fuels. Insha
alla, I hope I will see the lights shining over my tomb one day which is
working by clean energy and connected to the grid.” Let’s have a shift of wind
mills from land to coasts. The dream is to make an energy efficient nation
without depending other nations, he added.
Renewable
Energy is on the center stage of discussion among environmentalists and policy
makers because it is the clean energy. All advocacies for Renewable Energy lay
behind this single point. At policy level India is committed to reduce green
house gas emissions through proclaiming the commitment through Kyoto Protocol
and other related climate change mitigations. But large scale renewable energy
projects can have major ecological impacts if they are installed without
proper environmental
assessment and management. Chandra Bhushan,
deputy director general points out that “Renewable energy must benefit the
local community -- citizens must have the first right over electricity from
renewables and they must benefit from the installation of renewable energy on
their land.”
It is not only a
question of power generation but should be question of uplifting of the poor. Whenever
discussions start up, people will go behind subsidies. Does it help us? Subsidy
should be there but limit it to the poor ones. Governments should not go for
subsidy for middle class and elite those who are capable to pay for energy
consumption. Big business players are now being focused in clean energy
business. Oil giants and others are entering to the field. Government policies
also support the same partnership in coming years. Then there will be a scope
for big scam in the sector. It is the environmentalists’ duty and right to be
the watch dogs in this regard and assure renewable energy for the support to
the poor in making a better life. This is a big challenge before the
governments, industrialists and the watch dogs.
