New Delhi: The government will soon launch a Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) mission with incentives ranging from 50 percent to 100 percent, as the country looks to balance rising energy demand with climate goals while continuing to depend on coal.
Speaking at the 17th India Coal Summit organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC), Rajnath Ram, Advisor (Energy), NITI Aayog, said, "We are going to launch the CCUS mission very soon, where... incentives like 100 percent government funding will be provided to some of the technology. The incentives may range from 50 percent to 100 percent."
He added that these incentives will help industries adopt carbon capture technologies and integrate them with coal-based energy systems.
Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) is a process that captures carbon dioxide from industrial sources and power plants before it enters the atmosphere. The captured carbon dioxide is then transported for utilisation in products such as chemicals or fuels, or permanently stored in underground geological formations like depleted oil and gas reservoirs or saline aquifers.
Rajnath Ram noted that India’s economic growth will push up energy demand. "Growth of energy demand would definitely require the multiplication of supply side of energy," he said.
While coal remains a key constituent of the country’s primary energy supply, he stressed that renewable energy is also being rapidly added to the system. However, he pointed to challenges in integration, saying, "But there are challenges related to it... If you really want to integrate the renewable energy into the system, there are other costs involved. You have to parallelly bring the storage that may be costlier."
NITI Aayog has earlier underlined the role of CCUS in decarbonising the power sector, given that coal meets more than 70 percent of India’s electricity demand. Even if India achieves its 2030 target of 500 GW installed renewable capacity, baseload power demand will still need to be met from fossil fuels or other dispatchable sources, given the intermittent nature of solar and wind.
India’s per capita carbon dioxide emissions stand at about 1.9 tonnes annually — less than 40 percent of the global average and one-fourth of China’s.
There is an urgent need for sustainable solutions for decarbonisation in sectors responsible for 70 percent of emissions. CCUS, according to NITI Aayog, will play a critical role in India’s roadmap to achieve its net-zero emissions target by 2070.
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