Kalam calls for energy independence, power reforms

New Delhi, May 7 (UNI) President A P J Abdul Kalam today said there was a serious and immediate need for power reforms and energy independence because the country had a small portion of oil and natural gas resources in comparison to India's large percentage of the world's population.

''India has 17 per cent of the world's population, but only about 0.8 per cent of the world's known oil and natural gas resources. The power generating capacity has to be increased from current 1,30,000 MW. This takes into consideration energy economy plans and the design and production of energy efficient equipments and systems,'' Dr Kalam said addressing the Business world-FICCI-SEDF Corporate Social Responsibility Award function here.

He said the fossil fuels were depleting and there was non-stop environment degradation due to unrestricted use of fossil material used for generating energy. The only answer to these problems was energy independence.

''Energy independence can be attained through electrical power from nuclear energy, renewable energy --solar, wind and hydro power--, bio fuel for the transportation sector,'' he said.

Energy independence, the President said, throws very important technological challenges to the world. The solar cell efficiency has to increase from the present 15 to 20 per cent to 45 to 50 per cent through intensified research on Carbon Nano Tube (CNT) based solar cells. For thorium reactors, as it is known, thorium is a non-fissile material. It has to be converted into a fissile material using fast breeder technology.

In the bio-fuel area, the challenge is bio-fuel plantation for the higher output and the modification to automobile power plants, Dr Kalam added.

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