India needs to work towards fossil fuel free energy: Kalam

"The question before us is how do we protect our earth (against environment pollution)? My answer would be, that eventually we should work for fossil fuel free energy systems. This is the goal of energy independence by 2030," Kalam said.
He was speaking on "Capacity building for energy independence" during the first convocation ceremony of the Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University (PDPU) here.
"In the interim period, we have to work for self-reliance in fuel, oil and gas. This is particularly important due to the wide variation in cost of crude oil over the last seven years," he said.

Kalam said that self-reliance can be achieved by capacity building of the young people entering the energy sector who can play an important role in delivering affordable energy to customer.
"Energy independence has to be achieved through three different sources namely renewable energy, electrical power from nuclear energy and bio-fuel for the transport sector," Kalam said.

For the next two decades (by 2030), country's power generating capacity has to be increased to 4,00,000 MW from the current 1,50,000 MW, Kalam said.
The power generated through renewable energy technologies has to be increased to 28 per cent against the present five per cent, he said.
Kalam also saw massive potential in the use of solar energy in the agriculture sector and asked for more research to explore other potential source of energy such as off-shore wind farms, especially, when India has over 7000 km long coastline.
With regard to nuclear energy, the former President said that there is a need to plan to increase the capacity to 50,000 MW by 2030 from present 3900 MW, through uranium and thorium based nuclear reactors.
On the one hand Kalam emphasised use of renewable sources of energy and on the other hand he simultaneously demanded reduction in the overall import of crude oil by 2011-12.
Gujarat chief Minister Narender Modi, speaking on the occasion, said that the world is going through financial and energy crisis.
"Financial crisis is something which can be solved in 3-4 years time. But to tackle energy crisis there is a need for long term view with a holistic approach towards solving the problem," Modi told the graduating students of PDPU.

Gujarat which is an emerging hub of petrochemicals sector has taken a lead by setting up the PDPU in the state, Modi said.
He said he has also written to the Prime Minister to set up a consortium of countries promoting solar energy and work towards developing technology in this regard.
A total of 119 students of PDPU were conferred with degrees of Masters in Business Administration. This was the first convocation of the PDPU which was set up in 2006.
Presently, more than 650 students are pursuing various undergraduate and post-graduate courses in the PDPU.