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Renewable energy sources 

India is the world's third largest producer and third largest consumer of electricity. Electric energy consumption in agriculture was recorded highest (17.89%) in 2015-16 among all countries.

• The Government of India has released its roadmap to achieve 175 GW capacity in renewable energy by 2022, which includes 100 GW of solar power and 60 GW of wind power

• . The Union Government of India is preparing a 'rent a roof' policy for supporting its target of generating 40 gigawatts (GW) of power through solar rooftop projects by 2022.


• Coal-based power generation capacity in India, which currently stands at 192 GW is expected to reach 330-441 GW by 2040##.

• The 2026 forecast for India's non-hydro renewable energy capacity has been increased to 155 GW from 130 GW on the back of more than expected solar installation rates and successful wind energy auctions#


• India could become the world's first country to use LEDs for all lighting needs by 2019, thereby saving Rs 40,000 crore (US$ 6.23 billion) on an annual basis.

• The government’s immediate goal is to generate two trillion units (kilowatt hours) of energy by 2019. This means doubling the current production capacity to provide 24x7electricity for residential, industrial, commercial and agriculture use.


• The Government of India is taking a number of steps and initiatives like 10-year tax exemption for solar energy projects, etc., in order to achieve India's ambitious renewable energy targets of adding 175 GW of renewable energy, including addition of 100 GW of solar power, by the year 2022. The government has also sought to restart the stalled hydro power projects and increase the wind energy production target to 60 GW by 2022 from the current 20 GW.





• India has large reserves of coal. By the end of March 2018, total installed coal capacity in India stood at 197,171.50 MW.

• India’s proven natural gas capacity measures about 24,897.46 MW as on March 2018.


• With a large swathe of rivers and water bodies, India has enormous potential for hydropower. As of March 2018, India has 45.29 GW of hydro power generating capacity.

• Wind energy is the largest renewable energy source in India;

• projects like the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (aims to generate 20,000 MW of solar power by 2022) are creating a positive environment among investors keen to exploit India’s potential. There are plans to set up four solar power plants of 1GW each. As of March 2018, India has 69.02 GW of renewable energy capacity.

• With electricity production of 1,201.543 BU in India in FY18, the country witnessed growth of around 55.72 per cent over the previous fiscal year.


• Over FY10–FY18, electricity production in India grew at a CAGR of 5.69 per cent.

• In March 2017, the Power Ministry has launched an application named - GARV-II, to provide real time data related to rural electrification regarding all un-electrified villages in India. A total of 17,164 villages out of 18,452 un-electrified villages in India have been electrified up to March 2018 as part of the target to electrify all villages by May 1, 2018.

• Water pollution is a major environmental issue in India. The largest source of water pollution in India is untreated sewage Other sources of pollution include agricultural runoff and unregulated small scale industry. Most rivers, lakes and surface water in India are polluted.

• Untreated sewage 
• A 2007 study found that discharge of untreated sewage is the single most important source of pollution of surface and ground water in India. 
• There is a large gap between generation and treatment of domestic waste water in India. 
• The problem is not only that India lacks sufficient treatment capacity but also that the sewage treatment plants that exist do not operate and are not maintained.





• The Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act was passed in 1981 to regulate air pollution and there have been some measurable improvements. However, the 2016 Environmental Performance Index ranked India 141 out of 180 countries.

• In 2015, Government of India, together with IIT Kanpur launched the National Air Quality Index and was launched by Naman Singh Rajput
• Fuelwood and biomass burning is the primary reason for near-permanent haze and smoke observed above rural and urban India, and in satellite pictures of the country.

• Fuelwood and biomass cakes are used for cooking and general heating needs. 

• These are burnt in cook stoves known as chullah or chulha piece in some parts of India. 

• These cook stoves are present in over 100 million Indian households, and are used two to three times a day, daily. As of 2009, majority of Indians still use traditional fuels such as dried cow dung, agricultural waste, and firewood as cooking fuel.


• This form of fuel is inefficient source of energy, its burning releases high levels of 
• smoke, PM10 particulate matter, NOx, SOx, PAHs, polyaromatics, formaldehyde, carbon monoxide and other air pollutants.

• Some reports, including one by the World Health Organization, claim 300,000 to 400,000 people die of indoor air pollution and carbon monoxide poisoning in India because of biomass burning and use of chullahs

• The air pollution is also the main cause of the Asian brown cloud which is delaying the start of the monsoon.

• Burning of biomass and firewood will not stop unless electricity or clean burning fuel and combustion technologies become reliably available and widely adopted in rural and urban India.


• India is the world's largest consumer of fuelwood, agricultural waste and biomass for energy purposes.

• From the most recent available nationwide study, India used 148.7 million tonnes coal replacement worth of fuelwood and biomass annually for domestic energy use.

• India's national average annual per capita consumption of fuel wood, agri water and biomass cakes was 206 kilogram coal equivalent.



• In 2010 terms, with India's population increased to about 1.2 billion, the country burns over 200 million tonnes of coal replacement worth of fuel wood and biomass every year to meet its energy need for cooking and other domestic use. 

• The study found that the households consumed around 95 million tonnes of fuelwood, one-third of which was logs and the rest was twigs.

• Twigs were mostly consumed in the villages, and logs were more popular in cities of India.[14]
• The overall contribution of fuelwood, including sawdust and wood waste, was about 46% of the total, the rest being agri waste and biomass dung cakes.

• Traditional fuel (fuelwood, crop residue and dung cake) dominates domestic energy use in rural India and accounts for about 90% of the total.

• In urban areas, this traditional fuel constitutes about 24% of the total.


• Fuel wood, agricultural waste and biomass cake burning releases over 165 million tonnes of combustion products into India's indoor and outdoor air every year.

• To place this volume of emission in context, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of the United States estimates that fire wood smoke contributes over 420,000 tonnes of fine particles throughout the United States – mostly during the winter months. United States consumes about one-tenth of fuelwood consumed by India, and mostly for fireplace and home heating purposes

• . EPA estimates that residential wood combustion in the USA accounts for 44 percent of total organic matter emissions and 62 percent of the PAH, which are probable human carcinogens and are of great concern to EPA.

• The fuel wood sourced residential wood smoke makes up over 50 percent of the wintertime particle pollution problem in California.








• India burns tenfold more fuelwood every year than the United States;

• the fuelwood quality in India is different from the dry firewood of the United States; and, the Indian stoves in use are less efficient, thereby producing more smoke and air pollutants per kilogram equivalent.

• India has less land area and less emission air space than the United States. 

• In summary, the impact on indoor and outdoor air pollution by fuelwood and biomass cake burning is far worse in India.


• A United Nations study finds firewood and biomass stoves can be made more efficient in India.

• Animal dung, now used in inefficient stoves, could be used to produce biogas, a cleaner fuel with higher utilisation efficiency. In addition, an excellent fertiliser can be produced from the slurry from biogas plants. 



• Switching to gaseous fuels would bring the greatest gains in terms of both thermal efficiency and reduction in air pollution, but would require more investment.

• A combination of technologies may be the best way forward.


• Between 2001 and 2010, India has made progress in adding electrical power generation capacity, bringing electricity to rural areas, and reforming market to improve availability and distribution of liquified cleaner burning fuels in urban and rural area. Over the same period, scientific data collection and analysis show improvement in India's air quality, with some regions witnessing 30 to 65% reduction in NOx, SOx and suspended particulate matter. Even at these lower levels, the emissions are higher than those recommended by the World Health Organization. Continued progress is necessary.

• Scientific studies conclude biomass combustion in India is the country's dominant source of carbonaceous aerosols, emitting 0.25 teragram per year of black carbon into air, 0.94 teragram per year of organic matter, and 2.04 teragram per year of small particulates with diameter less than 2.5 µm. Biomass burning, as domestic fuel in India, accounts for about 3 times as much black carbon air pollution as all other sources combined, including vehicles and industrial sources.[17

• India was the third largest emitter of carbon dioxide in 2009 at 1.65 Gt per year, after China (6.9 Gt per year) and the United States (5.2 Gt per year).

• With 17 percent of world population, India contributed some 5 percent of human-sourced carbon dioxide emission; compared to China's 24 percent share.

• On per capita basis, India emitted about 1.4 tons of carbon dioxide per person, in comparison to the United States' 17 tons per person, and a world average of 5.3 tons per person.


• About 65 percent of India's carbon dioxide emissions in 2009 was from heating, domestic uses and power sector. 

• About 9 percent of India's emissions were from transportation (cars, trains, two wheelers, aeroplanes, others). 

• India's coal-fired, oil-fired and natural gas-fired thermal power plants are inefficient and offer significant potential for CO2 emission reduction through better technology.

• Compared to the average emissions from coal-fired, oil-fired and natural gas-fired thermal power plants in European Union (EU-27) countries, India's thermal power plants emit 50 to 120 percent more CO2 per kWh produced.

• This is in significant part to inefficient thermal power plants installed in India prior to its economic liberalisation in the 1990s.


• Between 1990 and 2009, India's carbon dioxide emissions per GDP purchasing power parity basis have decreased by over 10 percent, a trend similar to China. 

• Meanwhile, between 1990 and 2009, Russia's carbon dioxide emissions per GDP purchasing power parity basis have increased by 40 percent. India has one of the better records in the world, of an economy that is growing efficiently on CO2 emissions basis. 

• In other words, over the last 20 years, India has reduced CO2 emissions with each unit of GDP increase

• Per Copenhagen Accord, India aims to further reduce emissions intensity of its growing GDP by 20 to 25 percent before 2020, with technology transfer and international cooperation.

• Nevertheless, it is expected, that like China, India's absolute carbon dioxide emissions will rise in years ahead, even as International Energy Agency's Annex I countries expect their absolute CO2emissions to drop.
• A significant source of greenhouse gasemissions from India is from black carbon, NOx, methane and other air pollutants. 

• These pollutants are emitted in large quantities in India every day from incomplete and inefficient combustion of biomass (fuel wood, crop waste and cattle dung). 

• A majority of Indian population lacks access to clean burning fuels, and uses biomass combustion as cooking fuel.

• India's poorly managed solid wastes, inadequate sewage treatment plants, water pollution and agriculture are other sources of greenhouse gas emissions.


• NASA's Lau has proposed that as the aerosol particles rise on the warm, convecting air, they produce more rain over northern India and the Himalayan foothill, which further warms the atmosphere and fuels a "heat pump" that draws yet more warm air to the region.

• This phenomenon, Lau believes, changes the timing and intensity of the monsoon, effectively transferring heat from the low-lying lands over the subcontinent to the atmosphere over the Tibetan Plateau, which in turn warms the high-altitude land surface and hastens glacial retreat. 

• His modeling shows that aerosols—particularly black carbon and dust—likely cause as much of the glacial retreat in the region as greenhouse gases via this "heat pump" effect

• Health costs of air pollution
• Exposure to particulate matter for a long time can lead to respiratory and cardiovascular diseases such as asthma, bronchitis, lung cancer and heart attacks

• The Global Burden of Disease Study for 2010, published in 2013, had found that outdoor air pollution was the fifth-largest killer in India and around 620,000 early deaths occurred from air pollution-related diseases in 2010

• According to a WHO study, 13 of the 20 most-polluted cities in the world are in India; however, the accuracy and methodology of the WHO study was questioned by the Government of India


• Over a million Indians die prematurely every year due to air pollution, according to the non-profit Health Effects Institute.

• Over two million children -- half the children in Delhi -- have abnormalities in their lung function, according to the Delhi Heart and Lung Institute.[29]