India’s state-owned electricity company NTPC has plans to build many new nuclear power plants to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and help lower the country’s emissions.
India is the world’s third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases and aims to be carbon neutral by 2070. However, coal-fired power plants still generate most of the country’s electricity.
Therefore, India’s largest electricity producer wants to build many new nuclear reactors. It would involve 20 to 30 gigawatts of nuclear capacity to be made by 2040. India currently has 22 reactors with a total of 6.8 gigawatts. The entire production capacity of the state-owned company is 70 gigawatts, of which coal-fired power plants generate more than 80 percent.
NTPC would mainly look at so-called Small Modular Reactors (SMRs). These are much smaller reactors, which means they can be built faster and cheaper. Incidentally, the development of such small reactors is still in its infancy. Larger plants are therefore also being looked at in collaboration with the Indian state-owned nuclear power company Nuclear Power Corporation of India, which is responsible for operating the nuclear industry in the country of nearly 1.4 billion people.
NTPC wants about half its production capacity to come from fossil fuels by 2032. In addition to nuclear power stations, the group also focuses on more energy from the sun, wind and hydropower. Meanwhile, the Indian government is building more coal-fired power plants to meet the rising electricity demand.