All sources of energy need to be tapped

For the last several weeks oil price and the Indo-US nuclear deal have dominated the media space in this country. We need to take a closer look at the potential that alternate energy holds to bail us out of the likely energy vulnerabilities that we may face in the coming years. It would be a mistake, however, to address our energy security challenge by viewing the problem as oil vs nuclear vs renewable energy. The key advantage that renewable energy holds over nuclear is the potential for deploying it on a large scale in a relatively short period of time. Sceptics tend to equate renewable energy to solar energy and dismiss the option as too expensive. While this may be true for the end-user, in the long term solar energy is economically effective. The farmer who uses diesel pumps to irrigate his fields spends Rs 10-12 to generate the equivalent of one unit of electricity - almost the same as the cost of electricity from a solar system. Installing solar roof top systems in urban areas with a net metering system could improve grid performance during normal hours. A well designed programme could see a solar capacity of about 10,000 MW becoming available in the country in less than 5 years. With a capacity of nearly 8,000 MW, India is already among the top five countries producing electricity using wind energy. The nuclear option is equally important for the country, but would see fruition only in the medium to long term. It is short- sighted to look at the contribution nuclear energy would make in the year 2030- the real potential of this form of energy would only start to emerge then. The key question is that if India needs to add nearly 700,000-800,000MW to its generating capacity by 2030 to support ah 8per cent economic growth, then where does the fuel come from? A key 'alternate' energy source that is still neglected is energy efficiency and demand-side management with which we can achieve 25-30per cent reduction in demand. No large scale efforts are yet seen to reap the dividends from these measures. India needs clear integrated socio-economic analysis of the choices available to it, a non-partisan discussion on long term strategy and a clear enunciation of policy that would drive investments - energy and infrastructure - in a desired direction.