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3. Future challengesThe future challenge is mainly on the technological front where the continuous supplyof power will have to be ensured and safety of the means of power production will haveto be fully explained to and accepted by the public. Price too is a concern, but not amajor one at present. Financing of the sector is not a major issue as India has a highcredit standing. But, recent downgrading of India’s credit rating has resulted in escalationof cost of such finance from external commercial sources. The turbulence in globaleconomy has pressurized financing agencies to first finance their own economies.Weakening of Indian rupee against US dollar would add further to the cost of commercialborrowing in rupee terms. International aid is declining because there is no surpluswith developed countries, and now India is often bracketed with developed countries.The two indigenously available energy sources – nuclear and renewables – cancontribute significantly. In the case of nuclear power, high safety standards have to beensured and the public needs to be assured about the reliability of those safety standards.In the case of renewables, storage capacity has to be developed so as to ensurecontinuous supply of electricity.4. Clean coal technologiesIndia has focused on both coal production technologies and coal combustiontechnologies to reduce carbon intensity of power generation.Coal production technologiesTechnology development in coal mining is mainly development of underground miningthat too at depth of over 300 m. This is a long-term process that requires explorationas well as mining equipment development. Given the importance of expanding supplyand the indifferent performance of Coal India Limited in increasing production, there isa need for inducting private sector investment in coal.The Central Mine Planning and Design Institute Ltd. (CMPDIL) needs to be strengthenedfor it to make greater R&D efforts and scale up its efforts to improve coal extractiontechnologies and methods, especially beyond 300 m depth.The second challenge is to establish more coal washeries to expand washery capacity.It would improve the quality for coal and efficiency of the consuming industries. Therehas been a very marginal increase in the coal washery capacity over the years. Onereason for this is that the system of coal pricing does not contain a sufficient premiumfor higher quality coal. Experts believe that India will need a coal washing facility of 250mt by 2016-17, entailing an investment of more than US$1,500 million.Clean coal combustion technologiesThe Office of the Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India sponsored astudy on “National Energy Map: Technology Vision 2030” in 2006. The study hasprojected that the preferred low-carbon power generation technologies, in order ofeconomic merit, are:65