Indian renewable energy :The way ahead
India has been at the forefront of the paradigm shift in energy sources. The country has set ambitious goals for renewable energy generation and it is expected that India will become one of the top producers in the world. It is heartening that India has realised that renewable energy is the way ahead and initiating necessary measures towards transformation.
India is the first country in the world to create a ministry of non-conventional energy resources, in the early 1980s. Renewable energy in India comes under the ambit of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE). Around five years ago the MNRE began chalking out actionable plans for the renewable energy sector under its ambit to make a quantum leap, building on strong foundations already laid out in the country.
MNRE renewable electricity targets have been revised to grow from just under 43 GW in April 2016 to 175 GW by the year 2022, including 100 GW from solar power, 60 GW from wind power, 10 GW from bio power and five GW from small hydro power.
The ambitious targets should see India rapidly becoming one of the leading green energy producers in the world and surpassing numerous developed countries. The government plans to achieve 40 per cent cumulative electric power generation from non-fossil fuel sources by 2030.
While the world is still coming to terms with the enormity of the threat posed by climate change, especially the US, India has already launched one of the world’s largest clean-energy expansion programmes.
Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani, recently announced the company will become India’s largest renewable energy company in the current year (2020) and one of the top three global solar companies by next year. In a blog post on social media platform LinkedIn, Adani declared the group would invest 70 per cent of the capital expenditure in clean energy and energy efficient systems.
In the said post, Adani said they aimed to become the world’s largest solar power company by 2025 and the world’s largest renewable power company by 2030. “We feel confident that we will be able to lead one of the fastest global carbon offsets,” he said.
This announcement comes in the wake of investors and infrastructure companies committing themselves to clean energy and reducing exposure to fossil fuel dependent industries. The world’s largest asset manager BlackRock announced recently that it would withdraw its investments in companies that get 25 per cent of their revenues from thermal coal production, apart from making no future direct investment in such firms.
According to a report in Business Standard, this could have adverse impact on Indian companies such as NTPC, the Adani group and Coal India Limited (CIL).
To meet India’s growth needs its power generation capacity will have to increase up to seven times the present figure. A major part of India’s energy mix consists of fossil fuels. But fossil fuels are finite sources and have very harmful environmental consequences.
In these times of depleting resources and climate threats, the best way to move ahead for India is to take the dual path of energy efficiency and renewable power generation like wind power and solar electricity. It is imperative to tap into these huge renewable power sources and judiciously utilise the non-renewable resources, keeping energy conservation in mind.
In order to achieve this, the renewable energy programme is in the process of investing in supporting mechanisms that emphasise upon clean and renewable energy policies through advocacy and awareness building a supportive renewable energy implementation environment. Its activities are aimed at helping compliance with evolving renewable energy deployment targets; and building supportive policy evidence through research around grid as well as off-grid business models.
Power companies use a variety of processes to generate electricity, and not all processes affect the environment in an identical way. For instance, coal is a much more environmentally troubling source of energy than solar power, which has minimum environmental effects. Apart from coal, electricity is also generated through natural gas, hydroelectric power plants, nuclear energy and oil.
As we all know that most processes in producing electricity release carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that absorb and emit radiation into Earth’s atmosphere. While inherently, small quantities of carbon dioxide exist in the atmosphere, the conventional generation of electricity has greatly increased the presence of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. An overwhelming majority of scientists believe that this contributes to global warming that has been affecting the climate, destroying animal populations and changing local ecosystems.
Total Installed Capacity: (As on 30.09.2016)
India’s renewable electricity sources are expected to grow exponentially by 2022, including a more than doubling of India’s large wind power capacity and an almost 15 fold increase in solar power in the current year from April 2016 levels. Such ambitious goals would definitely place India amongst the world leaders in renewable energy use and put India at the centre of its International Solar Alliance project promoting the growth and development of solar power globally to over 120 countries.
As of April 30, 2016, India’s cumulative grid interactive or grid tied renewable energy capacity (excluding large hydro) reached around 42.85 GW, surpassing the installed capacity of large-scale hydroelectric power in India for the first time. Sixty-three per cent of the renewable power came from wind, while solar contributed nearly 16 per cent. Large hydro installed capacity was 42.78 GW as of April 30, 2016 and is administered separately by the Ministry of Power and not included in MNRE targets.
As and when the sun doesn’t shine or the wind stops blowing, power generation can come to a halt. This intermittency allows coal to have a sustained role as a baseload source of power. While the government aims to achieve as much as 350 GW to 500 GW of renewable energy by 2030, coal will remain the major fuel source for electricity generation in India. However, the diminishing role of coal, achieved by exploiting the commercial attractiveness of solar energy is being witnessed nationally.
According to a research report released in November 2019 by KPMG in India, renewables intermittency — the primary hindrance for renewables — is being globally addressed through a variety of technologies and business models. A combination of conventional resources, balancing through power markets and battery storage, has begun to prove its merit. In the last year alone, Germany, Portugal, and Denmark were powered by a significant volume of renewables — almost 100 per cent for some time periods.
According to a special report on storage, published for the 11th International Renewable Energy Storage Conference (IRES 2017) in Düsseldorf, Germany, a 100 per cent renewable energy scenario is very much possible for India. The demand for storage technologies in energy transition towards 100 per cent renewable energy for India using an hourly resolved simulation model, the report posits that 100 per cent renewable energy penetration is possible in India, subject to low-cost batteries.
Furthermore, KPMG in India, in a modelling exercise conducted for states leading in renewable generation, also confirmed that renewable energy penetration of 30 to 40 per cent, in energy terms, is absolutely possible by 2025.
In conclusion we can say that the energy transition today is poised to make electricity as the predominant fuel of the future. The pace at which innovators are coming up with ideas is quickening and global trends are indicating that rapid electrification, driven by efficiency, cost, and climate considerations is on its way. The future of renewable energy is extremely bright both globally and in the domestic context. There is only one way to go for the sector and that is – forward
Article by : Arijit Nag
Arijit Nag is a freelance journalist who writes on various aspects of the economy and current affairs.
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