NTPC to reduce net energy intensity by 10%

“NTPC Ltd, India’s largest power generating company has become first energy company in energy domain in India to declare its energy compact goals as part of UN High-level Dialogue on Energy (HLDE),” the state-run firm said in a statement.

The Union government is working on a raft of measures including ethanol blending with fossil fuels, green mobility, battery storage and green hydrogen to help reduce pollution and facilitate commitments made at COP-21, the UN Climate Change Conference held in France in 2015.

“NTPC is among the few organizations globally to declare its energy compact goals,” the statement said, adding, “Further, NTPC has declared that it will form at least two international alliances/groups to facilitate clean energy research and promote sustainability in energy value chain by 2025.”

The NTPC group has an installed power generation capacity of 65.81 GW through 70 power projects and has 18 GW under construction. NTPC plans to invest ₹1 trillion between 2019 and 2024 to become a 130 GW power producer by 2032. It has around 4 GW of renewable capacity, mostly solar, and plans to add at least 5 GW solar capacity within two years.

“The targets were unveiled in the recently held ‘Ministerial Thematic Forums for the HDLE’ event,” the statement said.

The Indian government has stated that the country’ per capita emission is well below the world’ average, with 67% to 75% of carbon space occupied by developed nations. Also, the Green Climate Fund (GCF) set up to provide developing nations $100 billion annually by 2020 to counter climate change has seen lukewarm response.

“UN is set to convene a high-level dialogue in September, 2021, to promote the implementation of the energy-related goals and targets of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,” the statement said.

India is running the world’s largest clean energy programme to achieve 175 GW of renewable capacity by 2022. According to the government, India is the only major economy with actions in line to keep global warming below 2°C of pre-industrial levels.

“The company had earlier planned to have a minimum of 32 GW capacity through RE sources constituting nearly 25% of its overall power generation capacity by 2032,” the NTPC statement said.

As part of its energy transition efforts, India is working towards electrification of economy by developing action plans for greening of electricity. According to the Central Electricity Authority, by 2030, the country’s power requirement would be 817GW, more than half of which would be clean energy.