The Hidden Energy Security
15 Dec, 2001 · 661
Col PK Gautam suggests that there needs to be a rural energy policy to include all sources of traditional energy
Energy is a key national security concern for all nations. Primary energy has two components, i.e. generation of electricity for industry, agriculture and the domestic sector, and fuel for the transport sector, feed stock for industrial products like cement/ fertilizers and cooking purposes in the household sector. Primary energy is traded and is called commercial energy. In
India
, we import oil and natural gas to meet the demands of our growing economy. All geopolitics is focused on the supply side of hydrocarbons. The government has also brought out a “Hydrocarbon Vision 2025” dealing with all facets of coal, oil and gas supplies. The core problem is that
India
’s oil and gas reserves are less than one per cent of the world reserves. We have therefore to depend on imports.
India
as a percentage of total energy use dropped to 20.7% in 1997 from 31.5% in 1980. Keeping in mind its vast population, these figures of non-commercial energy use remain massive. Wood is directly linked to forest cover, which is 21.6% in
India
as against a target of 33%. Fuel and industrial wood imperil forests. TERI estimates a fuel-wood demand at 285 million tons and industrial wood demand at 65 million tons annually. This total demand of 350 million tons per year is greatly in excess of the supply of 85 million tons. The Planning Commission estimates a demand of 383 million tons of fuel-wood for 2001.
India
have LPG. But the waiting the list is another 10 million.
India
. However, due to urbanization and development, middle class urban dwellers and elite do not use coal, firewood or dung in their homes. Yet, the bulk of the nation provides us this hidden energy security from biomass. Cooking with biomass like dung, wood or crop residue however, is a major cause for air pollution leading to respiratory, heart and lung problems. Two thirds of deaths from air pollution are in
Asia
. A Government report estimated that 0.59 million Indians die each year due to polluting traditional fuel.
The other hidden source of energy is traditional or non-commercial energy. This includes fuel-wood, animal-waste and crop or agricultural residue. This energy is not traded and no analysis has quantified with precision its contribution to the economy. This is the energy used in our agricultural, rural and urban areas in the domestic sector. Most poor Indians cook their simple meals using fuel-wood, dung-cake or agricultural residue. Dung is also the most used natural fertilizer.
According to Tata Energy Research Institute (TERI), 40-45% of energy is presently in the traditional sector. The primary energy demand is expected to increase three times in energy projections till 2035. Non-commercial biomass energy use is expected to stagnate and decline from 35% to 15% by 2035. According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Human Development Report 2001, traditional fuel consumption in
Ideally, every Indian household should have access to LPG, kerosene or electricity for the kitchen. But this is not possible today. About 54 million homes in
Cooking with biomass has been a traditional practice in
Biomass is the world’s fourth largest energy resource after petroleum, coal and natural gas, providing 14% of the world energy needs and 38% of energy in developing countries. If used judiciously carbon-dioxide emission from biomass combustion is nutralised. Carbon release during burning of biomass equals the biogenic intake for plant growth. There are foresters who argue about giving top priority to raising fuel-wood plantations rather than drill for oil. They also recommend that if all the dung available were to return to the soil as manure instead as being used as fuel, 91 million hectares of farmland could be fertilized and an additional Rs. 360 crores (US$ 77 million) worth of food produced.
We need to provide clean sources of domestic fuel to our people. Simultaneously, we must have strategies to use biomass as a source of fertilizer. There is need to formulate a rural energy policy to include all sources of traditional energy and also think of commercial forestry. Without factoring this into energy economics we would continue to base our views only on commercial energy, making strategic planning incomplete.
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