Comparison of India and USA energy landscape.

Here is a comparison of India and USA power landscape. We do not consume anything compared to western world. That does not mean we should strive to consume that much. It is important that we strive for efficiency of use. Our GDP is $4 trillion (PPP), China's $10 trillion (PPP) and USA is ~$13 trillion. We are around three times less in GDP compared to USA but consume 8 times less power. Hmm!!

1. US installed power capacity is 1067k MW compared to India which has 132k MW (USA is 8 times more). China has 710k MW (5 times more). China added in 2007 alone 90k MW which is 70% of total installed capacity of India!.

2. USA power comes from Coal (49.7%), Nuclear (19%), Natural gas (19%), Hydro (6.5%), Fuel oil (3%), Biomass (1.6%) and Wind+Solar+Geothermal (1.2%). For India, power comes from Coal 54%, Natural Gas 11%, Hydro 26%, Nuclear 3%, Wind (5%), Biomass (1.0%)

3. Current per capita power consumption comes to around 600 units (KWH) per year for India as against 13k units per year for USA (world average is 2200 units/year). USA consumes 20 times more per capita electricity than India.

4. Wind energy installed capacity (2007): Germany (22300 MW), USA (16800 MW), India (8000 MW), China (6100 MW)

5. Biomass energy installed capacity: USA (11000 MW), India (1250 MW)

6. Globally, wind power has continued to grow at 25-30% per year since 2000, and will reach at least 93k MW cumulative capacity in 2007 (up from just 7.5k MW in 1997). Small hydropower and biomass power reached 73k MW and 44k MW, respectively, in 2006. Geothermal power is another 10k MW. Grid-tied solar PV continues to grow at 50-60% annual rates, and now accounts for almost 8k MW.

7. Coal reserves: USA (~300 billion tonnes), India (92 billion tonnes). USA produces around 990 million tonnes, while India produces around 407 million tonnes (India coal quality is low).

8. Oil reserves: USA proven oil reserves declined to a little less than 21 billion barrels as of 2006. With production of around 5 million barrels per day as of 2006, this represents about an 11 year supply of oil at current rates. With consumption at 21 million barrels per day (7.7 billion barrels per year) (2007), US reserves alone could satisfy US demand for only three years. India consumes 1.1 billion barrels/year which is 1/7^th of USA consumption. India reserves are 5.7 billion barrels.