This was the case made by the Indian Institute of Science’s Professor TG Sitharam in the latest edition of the World Coal Association’s Cornerstone publication.

Sitharam, with the institute’s Department of Civil Engineering, said the country’s rapid rise in urban population has had several unforeseen or unplanned consequences such as the increase in slums, poor living standards, air quality issues, urban sprawl, traffic, and environmental degradation.

Other problems included the rapid population increase, unemployment, changes in family and social structures and rising crime rates.

“India’s urbanisation has indeed placed tremendous demand on the country’s resources,” Sitharam said.

He added that while efforts to increase energy capacity would likely focus on increasing energy from all sources, the push for renewables had been particularly strong of late.

India’s government has set a target of 175 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity by 2022 to help the subcontinent increase electricity capacity while decreasing carbon intensity.

The country is developing solar energy through investment in large solar projects, solar parks, micro grids, and rooftop solar, while wind power capacity is increasing and now contributes nearly 2% of the national power needs.

However, wind power faces barriers in high capital costs and land-intensive installations.

Sitharam said hydro power had not been fully exploited to its potential of about 150GW, primarily because of ecological concerns such as flora and fauna displacement, droughts and other external influences.

“Given that about 35% of India’s population still lives without access to electricity, the approach to addressing energy demand must be multi-pronged,” he said.

“Coal, which is the mainstay source, needs to be explored as a clean, domestic technology.

“India’s coal-fired power plants must become more reliable, coal mining practices must be improved to be safer and reduce their environmental impact, and coal utilisation must have much lower emissions and water usage.

“We believe investments in clean coal should be encouraged in addition to clean and renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, hydro, and nuclear.”