India readies for shift away from oil  

Cleantech.com reports that India may have more natural gas than previously thought and is looking to expand the use of gas in power generation, transport and cogeneration - India readies for shift away from oil.

Officials are laying the framework for an economy based on natural gas and fuel cells.

Indian officials say they're laying pipelines that could lead to the emergence of an economy based on natural gas, instead of oil.

The shift could ease India's reliance on imported oil, as well as lessening the country's electricity shortages.

India imports 68 percent of its oil consumption, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. According to the World Bank, roughly 40 percent of residences in India
are without electricity, and blackouts are common in cities with access to the electric grid.

But Indian officials are enacting a plan that could use vast domestic reserves of natural gas to solve both problems. The EIA says that India had 38 trillion cubic feet of proven natural gas reserves as of January 2009. In 2007, India produced just 1.1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and used 1.5 trillion cubic feet thanks to imports.

But the Business Standard reports that government officials now think the potential reserves are even larger: India has the potential to source at least 200 trillion cubic feet of gas from its East Coast alone.

The cross-country and intra-city pipelines could supply homes' gas turbines or fuel cell units, which would then produce hydrogen that could be used to fuel motorcycles.

Further deployment of pipelines could mean city fleets and public transit could be powered by compressed natural gas, while vapor absorption chillers could be used to cool buildings.