One of the major challenges for the nation is the widening gap between demand and supply of energy for which India needs to increase the production while at the same time reduce the carbon emissions. Renewable energy is the only solution to this problem, National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog member VK Saraswat said at the CSIR-Indian Institute of Petroleum (IIP) 56th foundation day and 125th birth anniversary of BR Ambedkar on Thursday.
Speaking on the topic of energy security challenge, Saraswat pointed at the aspects like the commercialisation of research and development while also underlining the need for indigenous products. Referring to the major challenge of bridging the wide gap between the demand and supply of energy which is slated to increase further by 2031-32, he said that it is the percentage of consumption of energy which defines and differentiates a developed nation from a developing one.
He said, “While we have to increase the production of energy, we also have to reduce carbon emissions. In such a scenario, renewable energy is the only solution to this problem. It is also necessary to increase indigenous production while in addition to all this, ensuring the protection of environment is also of vital importance. For all this, we need to work on advanced products with aspects like low grade heat conversion, supercritical heat release technology, recovery of energy from waste heat, and clean coal technologies as gamma-chargers.”
He also referred to multi feed gasification technology while stressing that India needs a paradigm shift towards technology transformation. Saraswat also talked about the capture and storage of carbon di oxide, which necessitate supercritical coal blend, coal gasification and ultra supercritical carbon capture. While also mentioning India’s three-stage nuclear mission, Saraswat said that thorium was a good alternative energy source. Besides this, he also stressed on bio-mass- which is present in surplus quantities in India, and bio-fuels (bio-diesel from micro-algae).
Referring to the National Solar Mission, Saraswat stressed that ‘grid parity’ was the ultimate solution to all the alternative sources. He also pointed to the potential alternative energy sources like space solar energy, hydrogen, geo-thermal energy and methanol.
Earlier, Saraswat was welcomed by the institute’s senior most scientist MO Garg. In the light of the institute’s foundation day, Garg spoke of the technologies transferred by IIP to the industry sector, adding that and technology developed by IIP is being utilized in 23 refineries of India.