How suitable is coal based power policy for India?
Synopsis: Integrated Energy Policy draft of the Planning Commission has propounded coal based power policy for the country. There are also few influential persons/ organizations advocating for such a policy. There has been a great rush to set up a large number of coal based power stations both in public and private sectors. The implications of having 70% coal power by 2031-32 are huge, and need to be considered holistically in the best interest of the society. The social, – Preface In recent days quite a few articles have appeared in the media strongly advocating the need to add lot of coal power generating capacity in the country, that too in terms of hundreds of thousands of MW in just two or three decades. We also notice the frequent comparison in this regard with China, which is known to have added a lot of coal power capacity during last 10 -15 years. International reports indicate that in China on an average one coal based power unit was commissioned every 15 days from Year 2000