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In an interaction with POWER TODAY, BK Bhatt, Director, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy talks about the status and development of SHPs in India.

Solar technology has many unique attributes which make it one of the most preferred sources of power, particularly in India, a densely populated country with a high energy deficit - it can be rapidly deployed across most parts of the country, it is modular in nature and it is environmentally friendly.

Given the fact that a significant quantity of coal will continue to dominate India´s energy generation, energy efficiency becomes vital. As per the thumb rule: higher efficiency in the generation of electricity means, lower consumption of coal per unit of electricity generated.

Since the last few years, government policy and the environmental framework that grants concessions to operate a power plant have been clearly favouring supercritical or efficient and cleaner technology.

The concept of ´Supercritical technology´ was introduced as a ´National Plan´ in the report on Integrated Energy Policy of 2006, issued by the Planning Commission in India.

Supercritical technology utilises higher steam temperature and higher pressure. The heat rate of the thermodynamic process is the heat energy fed into the Rankine cycle divided by the electrical energy output. If the energy input to the cycle is kept constant, the electrical output can be increased by selecting higher pressures and higher temperatures.

Since introducing such technologies in the last five decades, we have been improving performance of steam turbines and generators by applying results of research and development work, besides improvement of thermal cycle conditions.

Supercritical technology is an efficient technology as higher steam parameters lead to better efficiencies, which in turn means lesser fuel consumption.

As per GoI estimates, coal will continue to be the mainstay of power generation in India for the next decade. Efficient technologies like supercritical technology can play an advanced role in balancing between providing access to power to all its citizens with the need for emission control.