India’s CO2 emmissions among the world’s lowest: power minister
07 Dec 2007
The International Energy Agency’s, Key World Energy Statistics – 2007, has estimated that per capita CO2 emission in India at 1.05 tones is amongst the lowest in the world. In comparison, per capita carbon emission by US has been 19.61 tonnes and that of China has been 3.88 tonnes.
This was stated by union power minister Sushilkumar Shinde in the Lok Sabha today. He outlined the steps taken by the government for the development of clean and efficient energy sources:
- Enactment of Energy Conservation Act, 2001 and establishment of the Bureau of Energy Efficiency.
- Enactment of Electricity Act, 2003, which stipulates that distribution companies must buy part of their electricity purchases from renewable sources.
- Launching of Energy labelling programme for major energy consuming equipment and Energy Conservation Building Code.
- Promotion of Super Critical Units for thermal generation.
- Priority to development of hydro potential in the country and launching hydro power initiative of 50,000 MW in 2003.
- Participation in Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) programme and Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum (CSLF).
- Partnership in the Future Gen Project of the United States to develop an emission free coal fired power plant.
NTPC Ltd. has also undertaken the following steps for emission reductions in CO2:
1. Massive afforestation has been undertaken at all NTPC Ltd. sites, which acts as sink for CO2. Till date, 1.8 crore trees have been planted.
2. Adopting super critical technology in its upcoming power projects with unit sizes of 660 MW and above. Super critical units have higher efficiency (about 2.5 per cent) and consequently result in lower CO2 emissions (about 0.5-1 million tonnes per annum for 3x660 MW project). Even in sub-critical units, the reheat temperature of steam is being increased to improve efficiency and consequently reduce CO2 emissions (about 10,000-15,000 tonnes per annum for 500 MW unit).
3. Diversification into hydro sector and several hydro power projects are under implementation / various stages of development. Implementation of hydro projects will reduce average carbon intensity of the company.
4. NTPC Ltd. is also venturing into the area of renewable energy sources. NTPC Ltd has formulated its business plan of capacity addition of about 1,000 MW through renewable sources by 2017.
5. NTPC Ltd. is undertaking Renovation and Modernization (R&M) of old power plants to improve their efficiency and to reduce carbon intensity.
Shinde also pointed out that the United Nations Human Development Report of 2007-08 similarly reports that the per capita carbon dioxide (CO2) emission in India was 1.2 tonnes per year as against global average of 4.5 tonnes per year in 2004.
