Addressing the nation on the eve of 59th Independence Day, the core theme in President APJ Abdul Kalam’s address dwelt on the all important issue of energy security. The First Citizen stressed the need for achieving “Energy Independence” by evolving a comprehensive renewable energy policy. Delving on the issue of energy, Kalam said: “Energy Independence” has to be India’s “first and highest priority” and the country must be determined to achieve this within the next 25 years.
Noting that India has 17 per cent of the world’s population but just 0.8 per cent of the world’s known oil and natural gas resources, the President’s call for developing energy security can hardly be ignored considering it is the lifeline of modern societies. Even after 58 years of political freedom India is yet to achieve self-sufficiency in energy. Only then can we talk about being self-reliant and ensuring that its citizens have access to energy supply at affordable costs at all times.
One underlying theme brought out by Kalam in his address was that in order to enable the country to achieve energy independence, its economy would need to function with total freedom from oil, gas or coal imports. Considering that India is primarily dependent on import of oil with a major chunk of her revenue going on paying for oil bills, the strategic goals for energy independence by 2030 as pointed out by Kalam would call for a shift in the structure of energy sources.
This calls for a major shift in moving away from conventional sources of energy such as fossil fuels to renewable energy sources in the near future. Energy from fossil fuels is exhaustible and found in limited amounts. As a result of unlimited use, they are likely to be exhausted one day. With the vast expansion of industry and agriculture sectors, the available sources of conventional energy and their supply has come into question. Besides, they are associated with environmental problems. The shift towards renewable energy sources should therefore be seen within the objective of ensuring adequate energy supply at a minimum cost, achieving self sufficiency in energy supplies and protecting the environment from adverse impact. This calls for utilizing energy resources in a judicious manner.
The need for tapping energy from renewable sources make sense since they are mostly biomass-based and available in unlimited amount in nature and they can be renewed over a relatively short period of time through sustained planning and management. In this context Kalam’s reference to generating power from municipal wastes indicates that as much as 5800 MW of electricity can be generated by setting up 900 plants spread over different parts of the country.
Also that bio-fuel has a significant potential to lead the country towards energy independence only goes to highlight the future of energy from non-conventional sources if we are to meet the demand for a sustainable supply of energy. Only then can the country achieve energy independence by the year 2030 as laid out by President. The next step therefore calls for evolving a comprehensive renewable energy policy for energy independence and self sufficiency.