Description

Energy helps drive our modern world, by feeding fuels in our cars, food in our body, and

batteries in our gadgets, energy is indispensable in maintaining our current standard of living.

In 2015, human activity has consumed 575 Quads (606.7 x 1018 J) of energy worldwide, and

the demand is expected to increase by 28 % to 736 Quads (776.5 x 1018 J) by 2040.1 The

increase in energy demand will be majorly due to rapidly developing countries that fall outside

of OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) as they require energy

resources for their economic growth. More than 50 % of this increase in energy demand will

be fuelled by the needs of India and China. India has become the third largest consumer and

producer of electricity in the world, after China and United States, with a total installed capacity

of 3624 GW as of September 2019.2,3 Coal's share in power generation in the United States is

ca. 35 %, where as it is about to exceed 70 % in India and China. Recent reports predict that

by 2040 nearly 58 % of the global energy demands will be met by burning fossil fuels

(specifically coal), while renewables will collectively be contributing ca. 31 %. This ongoing

domination of fossil fuels in the global electricity production (ca. 2/3rd in 2016) has

significantly contributed to the atmospheric CO2 concentration to exceed 400 ppmv.

The contribution of the renewable energy sources in the total power production is not sufficient to meet the needs of a huge population of a developing nation like India. Hence, in order to meet the increasing energy

demands in an economically viable manner, India is still relying on coal power so much so that

there was a commissioning of a new 50 GW coal-based power plant in the year 2018.8 As

aforementioned, combustion of coal is not only the culprit for CO2-driven climate change but

also results in the release of a myriad of toxic air pollutants such as particulate matter, nitrogen

oxide, sulphur dioxide, etc.9 The current concentration of these air pollutants is alarming and

they are known to incite cardiorespiratory problems such as strokes, cancer, bronchitis, asthma,

etc. Therefore, generating energy from non-renewable sources might initially seem to be cost

effective but burgeoning of health care and environmental cost in the long run should not be

overlooked. Hence, shifting from non-renewable to renewable sources seems to be the sole

solution available to mitigate the aforementioned problems.