PDF: 2962 pages, 5.2 MB - Bay Area Council Economic Institute

Energy/Environment/Clean Technology
F: Energy/Environment/Clean Technology
Key Findings:
• While energy demand has soared in India, two-thirds of Indians are off the grid.
• A large share of electrical output is wasted or stolen; power outages are common.
• Coal, oil, and gas development has been slow and overreliant on state-owned companies.
• Local or regional solar, wind, and biomass projects hold promise for rural India.
• A growing share of semiconductor design resources is shifting to photovoltaics.
• Waste-to-energy, methane capture, and biofuels spur domestic and foreign investment.
• Bay Area laboratories and utilities advise on energy efficiency and conservation.
Market Environment
Growth in India has, for much of the past decade, favored relatively clean sectors such as software
and IT services. That helped soften environmental impacts and enabled the national and
state governments to defer tough, long-term energy and infrastructure planning decisions. But
increased manufacturing, rising living standards, and consumer demand, along with the prospect
of global competition under WTO rules, have gradually forced Indian industrial companies to
expand, vertically integrate, and scale up.
The result has been a rush to meet new demand—from industry and from consumers—for reliable
supplies of energy, materials, water and other basic resources. At the same time, significant
bottom-up pressure is coming from opposition political parties, NGOs, and civic advocacy
groups, pressing government to address the environmental by-products of growth.
Global pressure is also mounting on India to address the environmental impacts of growth, including
CO 2 emissions and climate change. Like China, the Indian government has been reluctant
to embrace mandatory cuts in CO 2 emissions, citing low per capita energy consumption and
the need for economic growth. Energy security and melting Himalayan glaciers, however, are
prompting change.
India’s Energy Inventory
India is the world’s fifth largest consumer of energy, and is expected to rise to third place, passing
Japan and Russia, by 2030. A 2006 Brookings Institution study forecasts that by 2030, assuming a
conservative 5% average annual GDP growth:
• Urbanization will increase the share of India’s population in cities from 27.2% to 45.8%.
• Average per capita annual income will rise from $728 to $5,930.
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