Indian scientists have developed a hydrological model that can help estimate just how much hydropower can be generated in India in the coming decades.
The model developed by Dr Sharad K. Jain of IIT Roorkee and his team comprises a “general circulation model” and “hydrological models” which will help compute river flow in all the rivers in India in order to estimate how much hydro power can be generated despite the impact of climate change.
“This methodology will be applied to India’s 4,500 dams in order to determine their power generation capacities,” Dr Jain said.
“The Indian government needs to build storage based dams given that India receives a lot of water during the monsoon months,” said Dr Jain, who believes the only way forward is to reduce India’s energy deficiency by stepping up hydropower generation.
Given India’s precarious domestic fossil fuel reserves, Dr Jain warned that “all easy options for the government in terms of energy sources”. “Coal and fossil fuel have become scarce while the option of nuclear energy has not taken off in the manner anticipated by the Department of Atomic Energy,” he added.
Speaking at the National Research Conference on Climate Change organised by IIT Delhi, Dr Jain maintained that hydropower remained a relatively clean option. “It has its draw backs and there is opposition to it on the ground but solar is an expensive option and wind power remains intermittent.”
Dr Jain regretted the decision of former MoEF minister Jairam Ramesh to shut down operations at Lohari Nagpal given that the entire construction activity had come to a halt. “The way around the situation was to have shut down operations during the lean summer months and not imposed a blanket ban,” he said.