India as a global power has taken a responsible position in energy use, Gawdat G Bahgat, Professor of National Security Affairs, National Defence University, Washington DC, has said. Countries including India have started investing in clean, non-polluting and renewable sources of energy such as solar and wind power.
“The future belongs to renewable sources of energy with the technology for harnessing them getting better and prices becoming lower,” Bahgat said at a presentation on ‘Global Energy Outlook: What Lies Ahead?’ organised here jointly by Asian School of Business (ASB), the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), and the United States Consulate-General, Chennai.
Expressing optimism about India’s energy security, he observed, “Indian cities are not as polluted as cities of the Middle East, Teheran and Egypt.”
“Energy is a strategic commodity that all countries are interested in; it has a great bearing on policy,” Bahgat said while elaborating on the commonly accepted definition of energy security propounded by the International Energy Association (IEA) - the body of oil consuming countries - which includes availability; accessibility; affordability and acceptability.
For several years, the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and IEA were at loggerheads, but now these two bodies work together to regulate prices.“The general consensus is that a stable market is good for everyone and that too high or too low prices will not benefit any,” the Cairo-born expert said.
He described the discovery of shale and tide oil in the US as a major revolution in the energy arena. “Oil production is not nationalised in the US and is controlled by private players. Technology transfer will be governed by economics and not policies,” Bahgat said, responding to audience queries on technology transfer of shale oil.
Bahgat also touched upon the merits and demerits of various forms of energy. Solar and wind power are clean, but their reliability is questionable. Bio-fuels have come to be explored as an energy alternative but there are varied opinions on whether to use the available arable land for food crop production or bio-fuel production.
Nuclear power is another attractive source where the major problem was about nuclear waste, for whose handling and disposing nobody has found a solution for, he said. “Safety concerns also loom large in the wake of the Fukushima disaster. Setting up nuclear reactors is very expensive but operational expenses are lesser and prices lower,” Bahgat explained.
M Sivasankar, Chairman, Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB), S Rajeev, Director, ASB, other senior officials of KSEB and Kerala State Planning Board participated in the discussions revolving around India’s energy consumption patterns, climate change and role in the Middle East.
