RENEWABLE
ENERGY - ENVIRONMENT
News:
Modi underlines
opportunities from renewable energy sources
What's
in the news?
●
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the
potential of solar, wind and biogas in India is no less than any gold mine or
oil field for our private sector.
Key
takeaways:
●
Modi said that India’s future development
would be based on three pillars for green growth and energy transmission.
a.
Increasing the production of renewable energy.
b.
Reducing
the use of fossil fuel in the economy.
c.
Moving towards a “gas-based economy” in the country.
Issues
at Present:
●
As part of its Paris Climate pledge, India
has one of the most ambitious targets of installing renewable power by having a
target of installing 175 GW of renewable
energy capacity by 2022.
●
However, the industrial experts pointed
out that the country is set to miss the target as the progress on it is far
from satisfactory with 80 GW capacity yet to be installed.
Renewable
push in India:
●
With the launching of the largest
renewable energy expansion program in the world, the Indian economy offers a
transitional push towards the renewable energy sector as follows.
1.
Rising prices of fossil fuel:
●
The global oil prices have been fluctuating higher over the years.
●
Since India imports 80% of the oil and
gas, it's time to shift towards renewable energy to ensure energy security of
the nation.
2.
Rising electricity demand:
●
With increasing
urbanization, which is rapidly increasing demand for electricity by putting
pressure on its existing resources, it's high time to make use of alternative
sources of energy like solar and wind to ease our energy sector.
3.
Clean energy:
●
For a country such as India, the world’s third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, the
clean energy sector is crucial as it can help in tackling climate change and
reduce the consumption of fossil fuels.
4.
Geographical advantage:
●
Being at an advantage geographically,
India’s focus on solar energy has particularly rendered results along with the
wind energy sector has an indigenous wind power industry with a manufacturing
base of 10,000 MW per annum.
5.
Investment:
●
From the year 2014 till 2019 the renewable
energy share had a growth rate of 17.5percent, India has fared well is on
investment specifically Foreign Direct
Investment in the renewable sector.
6.
Tariff reduction:
●
The solar power tariff was reduced by
approximately 75 percent due to the plug and play model for solar panels
installations to make renewable transition cheap and affordable.
Challenges
faced by renewable energy:
India has achieved the
milestone of installing 100 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy capacity in mid 2021,
however far from the original target. There are many factors plaguing the
growth of the sector as follows.
1.
Finance:
●
One of the biggest challenges in renewable
energy development is the high cost of
initial installation, coupled with the higher interest rate on loans
ranging 12-15 percent affects the production cost of the renewable sector.
2.
Variability:
●
Despite the percentage of renewable energy
increases, the increasing variability in its generation due to weather conditions makes scaling up of
renewable energy a difficult task.
3.
Issues in transmission:
●
Several renewable energy projects are
often set up in remote areas and are away from large cities and consumption
centres making the weak transmission
grid affecting renewable scale up in India.
●
Eg. Ambitious plans to build large solar
projects in Leh were recently cancelled citing weak transmission
infrastructure.
4.
Lack of divergence:
●
Since recent big initiatives of the government
in renewable energy is prioritised towards solar, the policy uncertainties looming large across other sectors such as
wind, biomass, waste-to-energy plants affecting the divergence of renewables in
India.
5.
Import dependence:
●
India has consistently relied on imports from China such as solar
panels, modules, storage batteries and other accessories, which have become
costlier by 20% to 25% since the pandemic.
6.
Environmental concerns:
●
The government over the past few years
shifted the focus towards large wind and solar parks, which can impact the
environment and lead to conflicts with the local communities and
environmentalists due to land issues and
its adverse impact on the local ecology.
7.
Poor DISCOMS:
●
The poor financial condition of power
distribution companies (DISCOMS), most of which are owned by state governments
resulting in very long and unsustainable
payment cycles affecting the scaling up of renewables in India.
8.
COVID-19 challenges:
●
COVID-19 had a wide-ranging impact on the
Indian renewable energy sector as it had caused delay in construction progress, capacity addition outlook and impact on
players across the sector value chain.
9.
Behavioral change:
●
Social acceptance of renewable-based
energy systems is still not very encouraging in urban India. Despite heavy
subsidies being provided by the government for installation of solar
water-heaters and lighting systems, its low penetration affects the potential
of the sector.
Government
Measures:
●
Ethanol blending
●
Pradhan Mantri Kisaan Urja Suraksha Evam
Mahabhiyan (PM-KUSUM, a scheme for solarising agriculture)
●
Incentives for solar manufacturing
●
Incentives for rooftop solar scheme
●
Incentives for coal gasification
●
Incentives for battery storage
●
National Green Hydrogen Mission
●
Gobardhan Yojana
WAY
FORWARD:
1.
Hybridization of solar and wind energy:
●
The synergy in a hybrid wind and solar
plant will help reduce variability in
power generation, eliminating the intermittency challenge leading to higher
capacity utilisation.
2.
Enhanced infrastructure:
●
Need to enhance greater investment in high-voltage transmission lines to
transport bulk energy over vast distances quickly and efficiently from
power-rich to power-scarce states.
3.
Digitalization:
●
There is huge potential for advanced software solutions that can
optimize grid-level operations besides impacting consumer behaviour.
4.
Developing battery storage:
●
As battery storage costs continue to fall
precipitously, they will become an increasingly important tool for managing the
fluctuating pattern of renewable energy generation.
5.
Other measures:
●
Governments, utilities, and banks will
need to explore innovative financial
mechanisms that bring down the cost of loans and reduce the risk of
investment for lenders.
●
Distribution
Company reforms to enhance revenue collections
and turnaround their negative balance sheet, a framework to adopt new
developments like battery storage solutions and off-shore wind turbines, and
technology solutions to integrate an increasing share of renewables into the
grid.
Thus, given the vast
potential of renewables in India, all it needs is comprehensive policies and an
investor friendly regime to be a global
leader in clean and green energy to balance out the rising pollution and to
meet our global commitments on climate change along with a growing economy.