Check National Energy Policy focused on Thermal Energy

NITI Aayog\’s Draft National Energy Policy was released recently, providing insight into India\’s agenda for the energy sector. In it, the mention of heat as an energy source is made 11 times, in a total of 99 pages giving a brief glimpse into the ways heating methods can be revolutionized.

 

The following are National Energy Policy statements with regards to industrial heating.

• Rural households form the bulk of the problem and need a specialized strategy as their cooking needs are varied, including water heating and fodder preparation. Stacking of fuels is the norm and is acknowledged. Hence, every home will have more than one cooking fuel. (Page 28)

• Because oil and gas are generally found jointly, policy discussions often focus on them jointly. Due to several differentiators, including carbon content per unit of heat, more gas availability, and lower cost in calorific terms, today gas is preferred to oil. (Page 34)

• Rooftop solar has vast potential across different categories of consumers, both for power generation and supply of heat. It has also been estimated that this technology is already viable for commercial and industrial consumers. (Page 52)

• Over and above the grid/off-grid power generation potential, multiple applications of Renewable Energy in domestic, commercial, and industrial segments also need to be encouraged. These applications can address energy demand for water heating, air conditioning, cooking, lighting, pumping, etc., and supplement energy supply. (Page 52)

• As Heating operations consume nearly 50% of the energy consumed in the Industry, solar applications have a large opportunity. (Page 52)

• This is particularly true of transportation (Electric Vehicles), cooking, agriculture, and industries. Heat is estimated to account for 50% of all energy demand in Industry, and can easily be supplied efficiently by power (preferably through renewable sources) rather than burning solid or liquid fuels. (Page 58)

• India is poorly explored for oil and gas and has not optimized its other energy sources, too. New technologies such as gasifying coal at higher depths, tapping the heat value of solar energy, developing hydrogen as a source of energy, are highly relevant to India. (Page 80)

• Electricity is the most efficient source of energy for lighting, cooling/heating, and cooking. The Government is committed to supplying all habitations with a 24×7 electricity supply by 2022. (Page 89)

• Additionally, there is a need to address the heating requirement of the Industry through clean energy sources, as heat comprises the major share of the Industry’s energy requirement. (Page 91)

• This calls for a ‘Heat Strategy’ which will be drafted by NITI Aayog deploying clean energy sources. Similarly, space cooling is likely to emerge as a major energy guzzler, and a dedicated strategy to provide efficient cooling solutions needs to be devised for the country. (Page 91)

• Increasing energy efficiency penetration in the Perform, Achieve, and Trade (PAT) scheme to move towards the best available technologies, energy efficiency improvements in the processes of smaller units not under the PAT scheme, and consideration of, and a move towards more disruptive technologies in the major energy-guzzling Iron and Steel (Switch to an electric furnace, Increased gas-based direct reduced iron, Increased electricity from the grid, and Increased Scrap), and Cement sectors (Increased waste heat recovery, Increased electricity from the Grid, and Increased Alternate Fuels and Raw Materials). Since the technology employed in the ambitious pathway considers a shift from solid and liquid hydrocarbons to electricity, the electricity demand in the ambitious pathway is higher than BAU in the industry sector. (Page 100)