NEW DELHI: President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam on Tuesday exhorted Indian scientists to formulate plans for generating 50,000 MW of nuclear power by 2030.

According to current plans, the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre expects the country's installed nuclear power capacity to be scaled up to 24,000 MW by 2020.

Inaugurating the South Asian Conference on Renewable Energy here, Mr. Kalam said, "There is need to plan right from now to increase this capacity to 50,000 MW by 2030." This would require accelerated technology development for thorium-based reactors as the raw material, thorium, was available in plenty within the country to meet the increased needs of nuclear power generation.

"To maximise thorium utilisation, the development of fast breeder reactors has been rightly taken up." India would have to add more than three times its current generating capacity of 1,30,000 MW to raise its installed power capacity to 4,00,000 MW by 2030.

Three sources

For achieving a power generating capacity of four lakh MW, the President said, three separate sources of energy would have to be tapped — hydroelectric, nuclear and non-conventional, in particular, solar energy. In this, non-conventional sources would have to have a higher share and, therefore, power generation from renewables would have to be increased from five to 25 per cent of the country's energy needs.

"India has nearly 60 million hectares of wasteland, of which 30 million hectares can be made available for energy plantations like jatropha or any other biofuel plant through which the country can produce nearly 60 million tonnes of biofuel annually."

Six-point strategy

The President recommended a six-point strategy for South Asian countries to increase their energy access and supply to achieve energy security. He advised the creation of a web site to provide information on the progress made by these countries in various renewable energy projects. The experiences of all scientists and engineers should be combined for promoting interactive consultancy to encourage the people to use non-conventional energy.

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