Energy and Sustainability, Renewables and Nuclear Energy · GPSC (Gujarat)

What the official syllabus says

General Studies-III (Main Examination, Paper VI), (A) Science and Technology:
Energy and Sustainability: India's energy needs, sources and efficiency measures. Renewable energy technologies and their impact. India's nuclear energy program and international commitment.

Gujarat is a leading State in solar and wind power and has a nuclear power station at Kakrapar, so State examples fit naturally into answers on this line.

Topics in detail

India's energy needs and sources

Energy demand: per capita consumption, sectoral demand (industry, transport, households, agriculture)
Energy mix: coal, oil, natural gas, hydro, nuclear, solar, wind, biomass
Import dependence for crude oil and gas; energy security; strategic petroleum reserves
Coal: reserves, Coal India, coal gasification, phasing down
Natural gas: LNG terminals (Dahej and Hazira in Gujarat), city gas distribution, a gas-based economy
Power sector: generation, transmission (One Nation One Grid), distribution companies and their losses

Energy efficiency

Energy Conservation Act, 2001 and the Bureau of Energy Efficiency
Perform, Achieve and Trade scheme; Standards and Labelling; Energy Conservation Building Code
UJALA LED programme; efficient fans, motors and pumps
Energy Conservation (Amendment) Act, 2022 and the carbon credit trading scheme
Fuel efficiency norms, electric mobility and public transport

Renewable energy technologies

Solar photovoltaic and solar thermal; rooftop solar (PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana), solar pumps (PM-KUSUM)
Wind energy (onshore and offshore); Gujarat's wind potential along the Kachchh and Saurashtra coasts
Small hydro, biomass, waste-to-energy, compressed biogas
Biofuels: ethanol blending in petrol, second-generation ethanol
Green hydrogen: National Green Hydrogen Mission (2023)
Energy storage: batteries, pumped storage; grid integration of variable power
Gujarat: Charanka Solar Park (Patan), canal-top solar panels on the Narmada canal network, the renewable energy park at Khavda (Kachchh), Gujarat's solar policy (2009 onwards)

Impact of renewables

Lower emissions and air pollution; India's targets for non-fossil capacity (Panchamrit, COP26, 2021) and net zero by 2070
International Solar Alliance (2015)
Land use, effect on grasslands and birds (Great Indian Bustard and power lines)
Jobs and domestic manufacturing (solar modules under the PLI scheme); critical minerals
Effect on discoms and the grid; decentralised power for farmers

India's nuclear energy programme

Homi J. Bhabha and the three-stage programme: pressurised heavy water reactors, fast breeder reactors, thorium-based reactors
Atomic Energy Commission (1948), Department of Atomic Energy, Nuclear Power Corporation of India
Nuclear power stations, including Kakrapar Atomic Power Station (Tapi district, Gujarat) and its indigenous 700 MWe reactors
Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor at Kalpakkam; India's thorium reserves
Small modular reactors and the Nuclear Energy Mission announced in the Union Budget 2025-26
Nuclear safety, waste management and liability law (Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010) and later reforms to open the sector

International commitment

India's stand on the Non-Proliferation Treaty and the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty
Nuclear tests of 1974 and 1998; the nuclear doctrine (credible minimum deterrence, no first use)
India-US civil nuclear agreement and the Nuclear Suppliers Group waiver (2008); IAEA safeguards
Membership of the Missile Technology Control Regime, the Wassenaar Arrangement and the Australia Group; the bid for NSG membership
Civil nuclear cooperation with Russia, France, the US and others; uranium supply agreements

Overlaps

Prelims General Studies: energy requirement and efficiency, and nuclear policy of India and its commitment to the world.
Infrastructure and PPP on this paper: energy as infrastructure.