President for energy independence, protecting environment

Hyderabad, Feb 1 (UNI) President A P J Abdul Kalam today called for harnessing nuclear, hydel and non-conventional energy to meet the country's expected power demand of four lakh MW by 2030 as against existing 1.30 lakh MW and achieving energy independence by increasing power generation through renewable energy sources from the existing five per cent to 25 per cent.

''Energy independence has got to be achieved through three different sources namely hydel capacity, nuclear power and non-conventional energy sources, primarily through solar and wind energy apart from the use of thermal power through clean coal technology,'' he said while delivering the 77th annual convocation of the Osmania University.

He expressed concern over dumping of 30 billion tonne of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere by all nations every year, primarily due to use of fossil fuels which, according to forecast by the World Energy Forum, would get exhausted in 50 to 100 years.

Envisaging hydel capacity to increase to 80,000 MW by 2030, he said solar energy farms could contribute around 55,000 MW and wind energy 64,000 MW.

The nuclear power plants should have a target of 50,000 MW of power. The balance of 15,000 MW could be generated through the use of solid bio mass and municipal waste.

Stressing on nuclear power generation using thorium, as the country had higher reserves, the President said nuclear power generation was set to increase to 24,000 MW. He further said efforts should be made to increase this capacity to 50,000 MW by 2030.

He said research should be pursued on Carbon Nano Tube(CNT) based Photo voltaic cells to improve their efficiency by at least 50 per cent within the next three years to facilitate its commercial production within five years. In addition, scientists could also develop organic solar cells, dye-sensitized solar cells and third generation solar cells.

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