Energy is a vital necessity for the economic development of any country and is a major infrastructure requirement for developing as well as developed countries. Power Sector in India is currently in the throes of major change. From an installed capacity of 1362 MW at the time of independence in 1947, the installed capacity at the end of the 9th Five Year Plan stood at 104,917 MW. Based on the projections of demand made in the 16th Electric Power Supply survey, additional generation capacity of over 100,000 MW needs to be added to ensure power on demand by 2012. This amounts to nearly doubling the existing capacity of about 100,000 MW. Meeting the additional requirement of 100,000 MW would entail taking advantage of all economically viable sources of energy and working out a suitable strategy of energy mix with a view to gain the optimum advantage. Fossil fuels are expected to fuel the economic development process of the majority of countries for another 10-20 years. The mix of India's current installed capacity of 104,917 MW of power is approximately 70% Thermal, 24% Hydro, 3.5% Renewables and 2.5% Nuclear. The population of India - the world's second most populous nation - grew from 300 million in 1947 to more than 1 billion today. This rapidly increasing population, along with progress in economic development, has posed other problems such as environmental degradation in addition to rapidly depleting natural resources. Fossil fuels are not only depleting rapidly but their use also leads to large scale atmospheric carbon emission causing global warming.
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