Tuesday, August 12, 2008

The Future of Energy Security

India has understood the importance of renewable energy as sustainable energy source in early 1970. The political will followed, in 1982 by forming , Department of Non-conventional Energy sources. In early 1992 , the department was upgraded into full fledged Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources (MNES) , now re-christened as Ministry of New and Renewable Energy since Octobor 2006 .

India's effort in renewable energy can be divided into three distinct stages

1.1970 - 1980 - Capacity building and R&D , largely in National laboratories and Educational Institution

2. 1980-1990- Large scale demonstration of renewable energy which involved , Non -Governmental Organization (NGO) , Self Employed Groups (SEG) and grass root organization . This programs are often subsidized by Governess funds.

3. 1990 - 2008 :
Application of mature technologies for power generation based on wind,small hydro,biogass co-generation and other bio mass . Further there was industrial application of solar and other forms of energy .There is also a shift from subsidy driven mode to commercial driven mode. This has lead to a rapid change of the sector towards next generation technologies in Solar,Hydro,Fuel cells and bio-fuels.

India has somewhat aligned with the global institutions in making a carbon free economy . It has already contributed on Clean Development mechanism (CDM) and has high level commitment on introducing CDM in a more pervasive fashion. In fact nowhere in the world , there is one dedicated ministry for handling renewable energy . India has also pioneered its effort on the direction of climate change by introducing a larger share of renewable technologies in CDM. It has been observed by the Nobel prize winner Organization Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) that renewable play a great role in environmental friendliness and checking emissions of green house gases (GHG).

There was a policy of developing a private sector around renewable which will give different range of incentives for investment and entrepreneurship in this sector . There has been a lot of major reforms in State Electricity Regulation bodies to enable renewable play a critical in production and distribution of renewable . It has also been seen as a efficient way on rural electrification and solve the energy needs for cooking in rural households.

These entire set of activities around renewable prove a point that renewable will play critical role on the future of our energy security . However , there is a need of a lot more aggressive efforts towards renewable and entrepreneurial action in order to increase the share of renewable in energy production and distribution with the growing environmental concerns around the world.



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