“A Solar and Nuclear combination” is Anil Kakodkar’s prescription for India

Anil Kakodkar, former chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission of India spoke with us about  India’s energy future and the challenge of fighting ‘perceptions’  and the logistics of nuclear power. Firm in his belief that nuclear has to be an essential component of India’s power mix in the future thanks to its dependable supply, as compared to the ‘variable’ supply of solar and wind, for instance, Mr Kakodkar was clear in his views that we need to be pragmatic about nuclear power. Be it dependable supply, the involvement of public and private sectors together, cost, and finally scale, nuclear ticks all the right boxes, in his view.

In Conversation with iamrenew

Among renewables, Mr Kakodkar was clear that solar would dominate, as long as nuclear wad there to take care of the swings in solar production.  We believe that with battery storage still relatively expensive, and not expected to come down to a level where power could be produced at current prices for at least a decade, Mr Kakodkar has a point. Plus, nuclear remains a very small part of India’s energy mix, so there is definitely enough leeway to increase it to a level where it is a significant contributor to even out supply shocks.  Mr Kakodkar met the Iamrenew team at the Massive summit in New Delhi, which was held to discuss India’s largest environmental challenges and possible solutions, last month.

copyright:iamrenew.com