Energy helps drive our modern world, by feeding fuels in our cars, food in our body, and
batteries in our gadgets, energy is indispensable in maintaining our current standard of living.
In 2015, human activity has consumed 575 Quads (606.7 x 1018 J) of energy worldwide, and
the demand is expected to increase by 28 % to 736 Quads (776.5 x 1018 J) by 2040.1 The
increase in energy demand will be majorly due to rapidly developing countries that fall outside
of OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) as they require energy
resources for their economic growth. More than 50 % of this increase in energy demand will
be fuelled by the needs of India and China. India has become the third largest consumer and
producer of electricity in the world, after China and United States, with a total installed capacity
of 3624 GW as of September 2019.2,3 Coal's share in power generation in the United States is
ca. 35 %, where as it is about to exceed 70 % in India and China. Recent reports predict that
by 2040 nearly 58 % of the global energy demands will be met by burning fossil fuels
(specifically coal), while renewables will collectively be contributing ca. 31 %. This ongoing
domination of fossil fuels in the global electricity production (ca. 2/3rd in 2016) has
significantly contributed to the atmospheric CO2 concentration to exceed 400 ppmv.
The contribution of the renewable energy sources in the total power production is not sufficient to meet the needs of a huge population of a developing nation like India. Hence, in order to meet the increasing energy
demands in an economically viable manner, India is still relying on coal power so much so that
there was a commissioning of a new 50 GW coal-based power plant in the year 2018.8 As
aforementioned, combustion of coal is not only the culprit for CO2-driven climate change but
also results in the release of a myriad of toxic air pollutants such as particulate matter, nitrogen
oxide, sulphur dioxide, etc.9 The current concentration of these air pollutants is alarming and
they are known to incite cardiorespiratory problems such as strokes, cancer, bronchitis, asthma,
etc. Therefore, generating energy from non-renewable sources might initially seem to be cost
effective but burgeoning of health care and environmental cost in the long run should not be
overlooked. Hence, shifting from non-renewable to renewable sources seems to be the sole
solution available to mitigate the aforementioned problems.
