Relevance of Carbon Capture & Sequestration in India's Energy Mix to Achieve the Reduction in Emission Intensity by 2030 as per INDCs

Abstract

Presently about 75% of the total primary energy demand in India is met by the fossil fuels. And as for electricity, coal is the largest source of electricity in India and will continue to be the major component in energy mix even by 2030. India is the 3rd largest emitter of GHG and the emissions are expected to grow in future. As part of the “Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC)”, India has committed to reduce the emission intensity by 33-35% by 2030. The major focus of the mitigation strategy is on improving the energy efficiency and use of renewable sources of energy.The main objective of this work is to understand the potential role of Carbon Capture & Sequestration (CCS) in coal based power sources in order to meet the committed reduction in the emission intensity (INDC) by the year 2030. The analysis has been carried out under several scenarios characterized by assumptions regarding the GDP growth rate, the energy mix and carbon price. The results indicate that India can meet the INDC by 2030 without deploying CCS in the coal power plants under most of the scenarios. CCS may become relevant only under very stringent mitigation targets and substantially high carbon price scenarios. This analysis may provide useful insights in designing a roadmap for the development and deployment of various cleaner energy technologies, including CCS, so as to fulfill the INDCs as well to meet the future carbon mitigation targets.