Although the hydrogen economy, energy storage options such as lithium and zinc-bromine and solar power were among the subjects considered by a panel as India’s Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC) celebrated its 33rd anniversary, ‘cleaning coal’ dominated the debate.
The discussions were inspired by TIFAC’s Technology Vision 2035, which has identified making the Indian economy non-fossil-fuel-based as a grand challenge. However, the panellists agreed it would be impossible for India to replace fossil fuels and coal should instead be made more efficient and ‘clean’.
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It’s bad news when élite policymakers line up not behind a feasible nasty policy but a busted fantasy. Hundreds of millions of dollars and euros was thrown at carbon capture from coal generators in the world’s most advanced economies, and all the projects failed and have been abandoned.
Meanwhile, India faces an immediate crisis in the effective bankruptcy of its loss-making coal generators. The policymakers should be looking at radical solutions like re-nationalisation without compensation. Wind, solar and batteries will keep getting cheaper, and there is no practical limit to the pumped hydro capacity potentially available in Ladakh at known costs. The renewables will keep tightening the financial screws on coal.
Coal is a short-sighted answer to an ecological problem, not an economic one. If coal really was ‘cheaper than renewables’, it would still be unacceptable to kill millions for the sake of the coal investors – they were provided with warinings and chose to ignore them. At the end of the day, we can survive bankruptcy, but we can’t survive ecological collapse, so Modi’s choice is DEAD wrong. Unfortunately, he has no mandate to take the rest of the world with him into a coal-fired Indian Hell.
LOL!
Unfortunately you are wrong and PM MODI of India is in control of his country’s destiny.
People around the world are ignorant to this fact and unaware of the vast resources Modi has at his disposal. One of them is Clean Coal Technologies. Modi is partnering with some of the greatest scientists and engineering firms in the world to Clean their coal and the whole world will know soon enough!
Hi Mike,
Thanks for your comment and please let us know here which parts of the article are wrong. Is it for instance, the headline. Do you have evidence to prove the experts on the energy panel referred to did not discuss the benefits of cleaning coal and did not decide coal should be a staple part of the Indian power mix for years to come?
In terms of Modi being in control of his country’s destiny, I believe a lot of people are aware he is the PM. The extent of his personal resources may be another matter though, so please let us know here the extent of them.
Finally, if Modi has the answer to truly clean coal which could compete with solar and wind power in terms of its carbon emissions and footprint, isn’t it a bit remiss of him not to share this previously unknown tech with the rest of the world?
Dear Mike,
Defending the short sighted and damaging priorities will make India, that great nation, the laughing stock of the world in less than 7-9 years, when the electric, renewable revolution will be well below the costs of coal and other FF. There simply is no excuse anymore, Carbon capture is really a pipe dream, and scientific efforts to make it happen have not been successful. Why not accept the inevitable and work with the rest of the world and leave Trump and Modi to sink in their palaces full of relics.