August 05, 2015 / 11:36 IST
One of the biggest fears that many analysts had across the world with the constant fall in Brent crude prices was that it will have a negative impact on renewable energy projects. After all, one of the big reasons, private organizations and governments were investing in renewable sources was due to the rising prices of power generated from conventional sources. A significant fall would wash away the cost arbitrage, and lead to a dip in enthusiasm for renewable sources. The good news is that even with the changes on a global scale, India’s commitment to renewable remains largely unchanged.
And that is not really surprising, even with the dip in prices, the challenge in front of India is huge. Faced with limited energy sources and high cost of imports, earlier this year Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for innovation and research to boost uptake of renewable energy like solar and wind to provide affordable electricity to every household. Inaugurating the first Renewable Energy Global Investors Meet (RE-Invest), Modi called for collaboration between 50 nations with abundant solar power to develop technological solutions.
At present, India is estimated to be the third largest energy consumer in the world. It will remain one of the world’s largest energy consumers and energy importers because of the huge population, which currently exceeds 1.2 billion people.
According to the latest report by The Economic Intelligence Unit (EIU), Coal continues to be the dominant form of energy resource in India. It has a market share of 45% in India’s energy mix. Yet, coal, as a source of energy is limited, expensive and has been blamed to be a leading cause of CO2 emissions in the country. The recent WHO report that had pitted Delhi as one of the top polluted cities in the world, was because of the thermal plants at the outskirts of Delhi that produce electricity by burning coal.
But even with all the burning, the energy produced is not sufficient for the country. India has been facing a deficit in energy supply and cannot continue to tread the same path anymore.
India is not new to renewable; the nation is already the world’s fifth largest wind-producer. It continues to expand because of its potential as well as recent technological developments. The government has a target of adding 15 GW of capacity by 2017 and a total capacity of 60 GW by 2022.
The government has set a target of deploying 100 GW of grid connected solar power by 2022 under the National Solar Mission. Of this 10 GW is to be set up by 2017. Though these targets may appear ambitious, but the government has embarked on a major solar power expansion through its various ministries.
Many experts are of the opinion that ambitious targets are always a good way to promote development in any sector, given that the benefits of increasing solar power reach all. The positive sides of solar power are energy security, climate protection, and reduction in pollution and health benefits. The 100-GW objective should provide a direction for developing domestic solar manufacturing in India as well.
The only issue that needs to be pointed out with the capacity addition is that much of it is in the area of grid-connected projects and has less to do with providing power to 300 million people, who still do not have access to electricity in India. Several private companies including the Welspun Group, Adani Enterprises and the Essel Group have begun building large new solar plants. Reliance Power commissioned the largest solar plant in the world, with a 100 MW capacity in Rajasthan in November 2014. Even state-owned NTPC (India’s biggest thermal power generator) plans to install 10,000 MW of solar capacity by 2019 and has invited tenders for four projects of 250 MW each in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Telengana and Rajasthan and for one 500 MWproject in Andhra Pradesh.
India was the sixth largest producer of renewable energy in 2012 trailing the likes of countries such as China, US, Brazil, Canada and Russia. But in 2013 India was the fourth-largest emitter of CO2 after China, US and the European Union. Renewable energy is the only long-term sustainable solution and an answer to issues around global warming. Bolstering the production of renewable energy in the future may help relieve the pressure off coal, but India will still be reliant on non renewable sources due to the ever growing demand of our developing nation. In December 2015, as world leaders like Modi ensemble in Paris to chalk out a new global treaty to combat climate change, India’s track record on the renewable front will come in much handy. Little wonder, the new government is accelerating on this front, it is not just a means of generating power but also curbing emissions.
