India, the largest democracy in the world, is currently building six reactors and plans to build nearly twenty more by the year 2020.
To do so, the country will rely on foreign technology and companies like the French Areva or the US Westinghouse are beginning negotiations to enter this huge market.
This is done to answer the country’s growing demand of electricity and to decrease the importance of blackouts throughout India.
Tata Power Co. Ltd. (a subsidy of the large local group Tata and India’s largest private utility) has begun negotiating with Areva. The French company wants to sell its EPR technology.
As Reuters India states in its article :
India and the United States have negotiated a civil nuclear cooperation deal that would give India access to U.S. nuclear fuel and equipment to help meet the energy needs of its 1.1 billion people.
Tata said the company, which is planning a 4,000 MW power plant in western India, is set to sign a contract with Japan’s Toshiba for the supply of large-sized turbines.
Tata Power currently generates more than 2,300 megawatts (MW) of power and distributes 850 MW in New Delhi.
Tata said the company plans capital expenditure of 100 billion rupees ($2.5 billion) over the next three years, and wants to add 10,000 MW of power generation capacity by 2013.
Nuclear power supplies currently only 2.5 percent of Indian electricity.
Meanwhile, companies of this large country are facing repetitive blackouts which is a serious problem for the economy.
This is why the Indian government plans to generate up to 20,000 megawatts by 2020 against only 3,800 megawatts now (source Les Echos).
For more details about nuclear power in India and elsewhere, you can log on to the World Nuclear Association website which provides very interesting data and has a page dedicated to the development of this energy in this country and many others.
I recently discovered this website and can say it is absolutely great to learn facts and figures about this almost CO2-free energy source.
Sources :
- Les Echos : Areva dans les starting-blocks pour profiter de l’ouverture du marché du nucléaire indien ;
- Reuters India : Tata Power talking to Areva on nuclear equip.
Further reading on nuclear energy :