With an enormous requirement of about 6-7 lakh MW of additional power in the next about 2 decades to cater for the country's energy security, the Indian energy security could easily be the next gen growth engine and the route adopted to realise this security could lead to the status of economic super power provided the polity and the government take nationalistic decisions without getting cowed down by the economic and political power of the advanced western countries. In this highly competitive world no country is a well wisher of any other country. Every body is looking after its own economic benefit first, the other may gain as a by product. India and for that matter no country that has a potential of jeopardising the economic super power status of advanced countries in any field of economic activity has to be doubly careful for the direct and indirect strings attached, visible or hidden to any help that is being promised. Giving technologies to smaller countries like Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, Thailand etc. that too in inconsequential fields of garment, apparel, shoe making industry, home appliances, computer hardware,electronics and auto mobile ancillaries to save on their own manufacturing costs. The small population of these countries could be easily elevated beyond the poverty levels and see some benefits of industrialisation and prosperity accruing to them.
We have been witness to the horrendous effects of dependence and reliance on the technology and consumable resources in all walks of life, energy and power generation being no exceptions. We have seen the effect of cartelisation by the oil producers who have made full use of increased global demand by increasing the prices of oil many many folds. In the last decade India tried to depend on imported coal for its power generation requirements and coal prices have been doubled up by the exporting countries without even resorting to any cartelisation. Imagine what will happen if these countries also form an OPEC (Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries) like body to squeeze maximum benefits out of their natural resources.Why is India forgetting its own old experiences of nuclear power plants. India had sunk in a lot of money in nuclear power plants during seventies and eighties of twentieth century but could never run them efficiently ( so much so even today we are running them at 50% of the installed capacity ) because of consumable and critical technology denials by the same countries who are now claiming to be willing to help India out with nuclear power stations. What are the safeguards against the same story not being repeated again either through denial or asking for exorbitant prices for consumables and critical components. Incidentally India is even now being denied research tools that are available with some of their own universities even. In such a backdrop Is Nuclear Power Option a Wise Option or A Fraud on the Nation .In any case Indian Energy Security, through nuclear power route is neither the next gen growth engine nor the means to attain economic super power status for the country. It is definitely the route to maintaining the economic super power status of western world by letting them fleece an aspiring India through sale of defunct and obsolete technology which is out of sync with realities of twenty first century and in the process building up their strengths in the various fields of renewable energy to harness the economic prowess of eternal in situ available energies.In fact they want to make best use of the huge opportunity that exists in an energy starved nation of 1 billion plus. Can Indian politicians and government make full use of this colossus opportunity of becoming global leaders and an economic super power knocking at their doors and not waste it in raising the prosperity level of its masses by a notch or two.
Renewable energy is the answer for all futuristic Energy security not only of India but of entire world and that is why the countries with vision like Germany, Japan etc. are bent upon phasing out nuclear power option at a rather rapid pace and adding up solar at a feverish pace..The yearly additions of renewable energy particularly of solar and wind energy are growing exponentially in spite of fossil fuel and nuclear energy cartels trying their best with powerful misinformation campaigns advocating their importance for global energy security. The reasons can be summed up as follows:
- No deleterious effects on environment and thus ability to contribute in reducing global warming in the short run and taking it back to early twentieth century level in the long run.
- In situ availability
- Eternal availability in comparison to limited availability of all fuels.
- Suitability for standalone requirements as also micro,mini and large grid systems requirements.
- Immunity against inflation and other kind of price escalations as far as energy from the source is concerned.
- No infra and logistics spends required to gain access at the power plant site as is required in case of all fuels.
- With passage of time, power produced by renewable energy sources is only going to be cheaper and better through researches in the fields of better energy conversion, hybridisation, storage etc.
