Economic Implications of CO2 Capture from the Existing as Well as Proposed Coal-fired Power Plants in India under Various Policy Scenarios

Abstract

India is a country with rising energy needs. Much of the energy demand is met by coal and there are dynamic links between coal consumption and economic growth. However, the increasing coal use is likely to result in increasing carbon dioxide emissions. India's power sector contributes to about half of the all-India CO2 emissions. As a result, end-of-the-pipe abatement of CO2 in the power sector may be one of the prominent mechanisms to reduce India's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology may provide such a means in the Indian coal-fired power plants. This paper initially makes an effort to assess the economic implications of this technology on existing Indian coal-fired power plants. Some characteristic features of Indian power plants are identified with special reference towards CCS deployment. The importance of proximity of coal linkage and sink location from the power plant is established using the studied examples. General trends on the estimates of cost of electricity (COE), emission factor and net plant efficiency are evaluated. Subsequently, the trends in costs are projected for the next three decades for the upcoming plants using CCS. In these predictions, three scenarios of CCS deployment are considered, with varying carbon price range. In a high carbon price scenario (C price of US$ 80/t-CO2 in 2030), CCS is firmly established as a useful technology for the Indian coal-fired power plants by the year 2050.