Study Projects India's Coal Consumption To Quadruple By 2030 - NYT

[hatrack]

EDIT

While environmental groups in developed nations talk of a coming world based on solar, wind and other forms of renewable energy, India's 8 percent economic growth rate is powered by coal. Its consumption is projected to increase by at least 400 percent by the year 2030, according to the government's 2005 Integrated Energy Policy report.

This means that in the next 20 years, India will extract, transport, import and burn coal at record rates. It could emit between 4 billion and 6 billion tons of carbon dioxide per year and approach the United States' current emission levels, according to the report. "While others are worrying about global warming, India's energy elite fret mainly about how to secure enough coal," David Victor, a professor at the School of International Relations and Pacific Studies at the University of California, San Diego, recently wrote in the Boston Review.

About 70 percent of India's electricity comes from coal-burning plants, and that fraction is likely to grow, according to Victor. At the moment, India's power supply is running about 12 percent behind demand, resulting in frequent blackouts. There is also a shortage of coking coal needed to feed the demands of cement and steel manufacturing. "From the Indian perspective, which is driven primarily by economic needs at this point, the fact that coal is cheap and abundant has really led it to be the fuel of choice," said Jeremy Carl, a research fellow at the Program on Energy and Sustainable Development.

The Ministry of Coal predicts that India may need to mine about 2 billion tons of coal per year by 2030. Coal India Ltd., the state-owned mining company, now extracts 550 million tons. India has 70 billion tons in reserves (although estimates vary), but most of it is inaccessible because it is located below forested and inhabited land.

EDIT

http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2010/02/04/04climatewire-indias-roaring-economy-is-hitched-to-a-gallo-20341.html

[phantom power]

1. K+R

[kristopher]

2. Not having much luck with ramping up those thorium reactors, eh?

Maybe they should focus on distributed renewables instead...