India currently consumes only one-third of the global average consumption of energy. As we move towards more robust energy consumption figures, the country faces the unique challenge of fusing together disparate needs: A ballooning appetite while cutting dependence on imports; greening the grid while ensuring affordability; and replacing old forms of energy production while boosting employment, and the human and economic capital of the people. Then there’s the fact that the energy sector is closely intertwined with issues related to climate change.
Needless to say, a vigorous ideation needs to undergird such energy transitions. The question is particularly cardinal for the sector I am in charge of: Petroleum and natural gas. We import about 84% of our oil and 56% of our gas for domestic use — and this in itself tends to negate the deliverables — delineated above — that we aspire to achieve.
In this context, biofuels have become a tool for achieving these delicate balance of outcomes. In the past few years, progress made in the use of ethanol, compressed biogas and biodiesel — all different forms of biofuel — will have a direct positive impact on both farm incomes (and the prosperity of agricultural communities), even as it cuts down our import dependence for energy.
Currently, the aim is to achieve 10% ethanol blending in petrol by 2022 and 20% blending by 2030 — something that will cut down carbon emissions in vehicles.
