New Delhi, July 10 -- Coal has been the fuel for power generation in India and many other countries for a long time. Now, with growing concern about the adverse carbon footprint of coal and the advent of technologies producing green power at lower cost, there is a clearly visible shift towards green energy. However, in India, coal may still continue to be the dominant energy source for some time. Carbon mitigation across the life cycle of coal production, associated transportation, and combustion is thus of significant importance.
Globally, mined coal is prepared through crushing, sizing, and washing before being supplied to consumers. In India, the direct dispatch of run-of-mine (ROM) coal without such preparation to generating plants has been a practice for years, dating back to the coal scarcity era. ROM coal needs to be replaced with prepared coal on priority to reduce emissions.
It is important to mandate the crushing, sizing, and washing of coal and dispatch it through non-road modes of transport, which would leave a lower carbon footprint while minimising spillage, spoilage, and environmentally destructive impacts.
In place of only two commercial miners, Coal India and Singareni Collieries, today, thanks to reforms, coal can be commercially sourced from a large number of miners in both the public and private sectors, giving consumers the comfort of choice. Today, it is important for India to bet on a locally available and proven energy source like coal while making it more efficient from the perspectives of cost and pollution. The energy mix for a country like India, with the rapid development of data centres and strong growth in per capita consumption, cannot be fully dependent on green energy, including nuclear power, in the short or medium term. The recent energy crisis, which is yet to fully abate, is a stark reminder that energy security must remain a key national objective.
The challenge today is to make the cycle of coal production and its usage leave a smaller carbon footprint. A good way would be to encourage only plants located close to mines, under strict conditions to mitigate the impact of the concentration of such consuming plants. Power generated could then be distributed nationally through high-voltage transmission lines. With the emergence of nuclear power and a large number of pumped storage projects enabling round-the-clock green power, coupled with battery and other storage systems, robust national and regional transmission networks need to be put in place at speed. Transmission constraints reportedly preventing the supply of green energy are a matter of grave concern.
The newly laid focus on coal gasification for producing coal-based fertilisers and chemicals needs to specifically incorporate provisions for carbon capture mechanisms to make the integrated technology environmentally friendly.
For existing plants involving long-distance coal transportation, water routes have to be proactively explored. Large-scale barge transportation through rivers and ship transportation from port to port could be ideal methods that would reduce pollution while not adding significantly to the cost of fuel at the plant.
The Government of India has launched schemes such as Sagarmala, focusing on coastal shipping, and Gati Shakti, providing multimodal connectivity by optimising coal logistics from mines to power plants through coordinated planning of railway and road infrastructure. The Government of India is also providing significant financial outlays for the development of inland waterways, port logistics for handling bulk cargo, and carbon capture initiatives. It is imperative that coal producers and consumers take full advantage of such schemes to meet their needs of maintaining the economic cost of production or power generation while reducing carbon footprints. A national task force under the Gati Shakti initiative could closely monitor progress and guide this transition.
Putting in place rules and policies mandating migration to modern mining practices, including coal preparation and transportation from mines only through coal handling plants, using less carbon-intensive modes of transport, and adopting High Efficiency Low Emission (HELE) technology for burning coal in power plants would be necessary for the long-term sustainability of coal and its end-use sectors. A carbon credit mechanism should be proactively explored to bring financial incentives to those delivering better environmental performance.
We hope that by developing green power at what may be called the gold-standard Indian pace and promoting less carbon-intensive coal and its uses in the ways suggested, India will be able to truly establish itself as a green energy and green data destination.
Views expressed are personal.
S Bhattacharya is a retired IAS Officer and a former Chairman Coal India Limited; DN Prasad is Former Adviser, Ministry of Coal
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.