RENEWABLE ENERGY

Vision to Action : RE in India is walking the talk

Mr. SanjithSadanandShetty,Vice Chairman and Managing Director,Soham Renewable Energy India Private Limited.

It is safe to say the Indian renewable energy sector is the second most attractive renewable energy market in the world. It is expected twenty years from now by the year 2040, around 54 per cent of the total electricity will be generated by the renewable energy.

The Government of India has undertaken a number of policy measures for increasing share of renewable energy in India’s energy mix. Let us look at some of those :

1. Provision of Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO) under the National Tariff Policy;
2. Notification of the long term growth trajectory of RPO for solar and non-solar energy for next 3 years from 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19;
3. Development of solar parks and ultra megasolar power projects;
4. Development of power transmission network through Green Energy Corridor project;
5. Making roof top solar as a part of housing loan provided by banks;
6. Waiver of Inter-State transmission charges and losses;
7. Repowering of wind power projects for optimal utilization of wind resources;
8. Offshore wind energy policy for development of offshore wind energy in the Indian Exclusive Economic Zone;
9. Supporting research and development on various aspects of renewable energy including with industry participation;
10. Financial incentives for off-grid and decentralized renewable energy systems and devices for meeting energy needs for cooking, lighting and productive purposes; and
11. Permitting 100 percent Foreign Direct Investment in sector through automatic route.

The Government has set up an ambitious target of installing 175 GW capacity through renewables by 2022.

The cost of production of energy from solar and wind energy sources varies from place to place depending upon, inter-alia, insolation, wind speed, cost of land, cost of financing and basic infrastructure. It is true that in some projects tariff of solar and wind power discovered is in the range or even lesser as compared to the cost of coal based thermal power plants. Rooftop solar is the fastest growing segment in renewable energy in India, driven by large customers, according to Bloomber research. It helps that the price for solar power in India has fallen to 2.34 rupees a kilowatt-hour (3.5 cents), among the lowest in the world. The World Bank is also stepping in with a $625 million loan to support India’s solar rooftop program. The funds will be used to provide loans and guarantees to small businesses.

It is safe to say the Indian renewable energy sector is the second most attractive renewable energy market in the world. It is expected twenty years from now by the year 2040, around 54 per cent of the total electricity will be generated by the renewable energy, as more efficient batteries will be used to store electricity which will further cut the solar energy cost.