The Dutigolin Power Plant, built on a salt marsh in southern India, fully reflects the dilemma faced by the world's fastest growing major economies: how to provide reliable energy for 1.4 billion people.
First, as one of the largest power plants in the region, this coal-fired power plant with an installed capacity of 1050 MW should have been closed. The power plant was put into use 40 years ago, but it was too narrow to be modified to meet the pollution standards of the Indian government, prompting the Ministry of Power of India to plan to close the power plant before 2022. However, the power plant is still operating at full capacity, and the utilization rate of power generation reached 90% in February this year. Aging boilers consume a large amount of coal produced by coal mines nearly 2000 kilometers away - this transportation distance will only increase India's carbon footprint.
The growth rate of electricity consumption in India is the fastest among the major economies, because the rising temperature and income have promoted the sales of high energy consumption household appliances such as air conditioners. This extremely unbalanced situation fully exposed the precarious power grid. Despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi's commitment to rapid development solar energy And wind power generation to replace seriously polluting fossil fuels, but the Indian government can not meet the demand, so that the inefficient old coal-fired power plants like Dutigolin are revitalized.
In recent months, Modi has approved a new round of power station construction plan, extending the service life of many existing coal-fired power plants. This decision has led to differences between India and its global allies, who refuse to use coal as fuel on the grounds of climate, thus threatening Modi's ambition to curb air pollution and reduce the world's third largest share of greenhouse gas emissions.
These dynamic factors will also enable India to play a key role in determining the pace of global coal abandonment. According to the International Energy Agency, the demand of China, the largest coal consumer at present, may have reached the highest level last year, and the future growth rate will be increasingly driven by India and emerging economies in Southeast Asia.
"For international and domestic audiences, the message is very clear: we all support climate action, but India will give priority to domestic interests," said Ashwini K. Swain, a researcher at Sustainable Futures Collaborative, a climate think tank in New Delhi. Neither the Ministry of Electricity of India nor Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution, which operates the Dutigolin coal fired power plant, responded to requests for comment.
India has a long way to go to ensure reliable and affordable power supply. In October 2021, just as India's economy began to recover from the epidemic, it suffered a large-scale coal and power crisis. The weak demand over the years has led to weak growth in India's mining, transportation and power generation capacity.
Soon after the situation improved, officials realized that the crisis was not a temporary phenomenon. In the summer of 2022, India's energy demand hit a new high, resulting in the worst power supply shortage in eight years. In 2023, although the national energy shortage will ease, Maharashtra, where Mumbai is located, as one of the most industrialized states in India, will still face an astonishing 10% peak power shortage in August.
Although people expect India to accelerate its transition to green energy due to energy shortage, India's response is just the opposite. Officials promoted more mining activities, abandoned the plan to eliminate old power plants, raised the goal of adding new coal fired power plants, and successfully lobbied the international forum to pass resolutions that would not hinder the use of fossil fuels.
"As a country, we should give full play to our advantages, and coal is our advantage," said Prakash Tiwari, the former operation director of India's largest power producer and state-owned enterprise NTPC. Due to financial, political and security reasons, alternative energy solutions have not yet been popularized.
More than 35 miles (56.3 kilometers) from Dutigolin, a dusty road leads to two solar power plants, surrounded by vast wind farms. Ayana Renewable Power, which operates one of the solar power plants, sees the future of renewable energy and provides services for industrial users through energy storage. This trend is emerging in India, but it is far from being a source of large-scale power supply. According to the calculation based on the data of India's Ministry of Electricity, solar power generation will account for 6% of India's total power generation in 2023.
M. Prasanna Kumar, chairman of India's state-owned power enterprise National Thermal Power Company, which operates another solar power plant, said that the company's investment in expanding mining, coal and lignite power generation capacity was more than twice the investment in renewable energy construction.
Natural gas is praised by producers as an alternative fuel for coal with less pollution, but it is also difficult in the competition. India has nearly 25 GW of natural gas power generation capacity which has been idle for many years because other cheap power sources, including coal, have replaced natural gas. India does not have enough domestic subsidized fuel to implement these power plants, and in the highly competitive Indian power market, the cost of using imported LNG to operate these assets is often too high.
The construction of hydropower dams also faces many difficulties. Most of the potential hydropower stations in India are located in the Himalayan region with fragile geological conditions, where frequent extreme weather events (such as flash floods) will endanger hydropower projects. These risks caused local people to oppose the construction of large dams, which led to the postponement of hydropower station construction plans for several years and increased costs, making many construction projects unbearable.
Nuclear power generation has experienced a recovery in many parts of the world with low emission energy. However, in India, the development of the nuclear industry is too slow to make progress, and security problems still exist. India's Nuclear Damage Liability Act stipulates that operators and suppliers must be responsible for accidents. Many Indians still regret the tragedy of the Bhopal gas leak in 1984, which killed thousands of people exposed to toxic chemicals.
Take Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant, about 90 miles (144.8 kilometers) south of Dutigolin, for example. The nuclear power plant has two reactors with an installed capacity of 1 GW, and there are still four reactors under construction. In the nearby village of Yidingtakala, the 52 year old Mildred has been at the forefront of the protest against the construction of the nuclear power plant. She traveled all over India to discuss the risks of nuclear energy.
"Why can't these become our main energy sources?" asked the activist one recent day, pointing to several rotating wind turbines near her home.
In 2008, India and the United States reached an agreement on sharing civil nuclear technology and nuclear fuel, clearing the way for the construction of new projects. India also signed agreements with foreign reactor suppliers, including General Electric Hitachi, Westinghouse Electric and Areva SA, which later transferred the project to its state-owned counterpart, Electricite De France SA. GE Hitachi later withdrew on the grounds of the Nuclear Damage Liability Act.
In the western state of Maharashtra, India had planned to build the world's largest nuclear power plant near the vast Alfonso Mang orchard, with an installed capacity of 9.6 GW.
But when Kiran Dixit, who was then the executive director of the state-owned monopoly Nuclear Power Corp. of India, visited the region, the local people refused to sell their land.
They believed that the land price was too low and feared that the plan would damage the livelihood of fishermen and mango trees. Dixit said that Indian nuclear power company tried to calm these concerns and eventually bought the land. Nevertheless, as the two parties continue to discuss the terms of the transaction, the Jalapur nuclear power plant project has not made significant progress.
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