India is the world’s sixth largest energy consumer, consuming about 3% of the world’s total energy per year.

In the face of growing demand, India’s electricity sector faces problems of capacity, poor reliability, and frequent blackouts. The anticipated electricity shortage is estimated at between 11 and 18%. Currently 79% of electricity comes from fossil fuels, mostly coal.

To solve this growing demand, a new report shows that, the Indian government has put forward an ambitious plan, “Power for All by 2012”, that would need installation of additional thermal power plants to generate 200,000 MW electricity, thereby boosting the demand for coal in the country.

However, not only is coal a finite resource, its burning for energy purposes is harmful to the environment. India accounts for a significant proportion (about 4.2%) of the world’s total fossil-fuel-related carbon dioxide emissions. Since 1990, India’s carbon emissions have increased by over 60%, and they are about nine times higher than they were in 1960. Much of this increase is due to India’s growing use of coal for power generation.

It seems as if India might be re-thinking as rising environmental concerns are turning the interest of power sector away from coal. The Indian government is focusing on utilisation of renewable energy sources to generate electricity and to reduce the dependence of power sector on coal. For this, the government has already launched several programs, such as Green Initiative for Power Generation and Remote Village Electrification.

Additionally, organisations such as DESI Power in India are advocating the decentralisation of power supply and the switch to renewable, locally available energy sources. Another example is the Malavalli biomass power plant in rural Karnataka which has helped resolve local problems of electricity supply, while making use of locally available resources in a more environmentally sound way than burning coal, which is also produced locally. The plant benefits the local community, local agriculture and local industry.