Energetica India Magazine: september 2020

RENEWABLE ENERGY energy and material resources used during each of the three main stages of building’s existence – i.e. construction stage, operation stage and de-construc- tion stage. The cradle-to-gate approach of estimating embodied carbon (i.e. up to the construction stage) is well known. The present author, who was involved in the ‘green’ certification of ready-mixed concrete (RMC) plants in India under the aegis of Confederation of Indian Indus- tries (CII), has analysed the post-certifi - cation data from 17 RMC plants across the country and shown that the aware- ness created by the certification has helped in reducing the carbon footprints of concrete by 7.2%. Nonetheless, estimating the embodied carbon in the operation and de-con- struction stages (i.e. gate to cradle) is somewhat complex. The concept of planning and designing a building for de-construction would itself be new to many architects and engineers! LETI’s publication on ‘Embodied Carbon Prim- er’ provides guidance on this aspect. The World GBC’s publication “Bringing Embodied Concrete Upfront” also pro - vides valuable guidance on the same issue. A glimpse of some of the major provi- sions in LETI’s approach of bringing sweeping reduction in both operational and embodied carbon is provided by the present author in another article. Renewable Energy Scenario India In the context of the initiatives of World GBC and LETI, it may be interesting to examine the prevailing state of affairs in India. While doing so, let us keep the is- sue of estimating the embodied carbon in buildings aside for the time being in view of the complexities involved in such estimation. Let us confine the attention initially to the operational carbon. The crucial question in this regard is-can the current operational energy requirements of the buildings in India be balanced with renewable energy? Before examining this proposition, it would be essential to have a broad idea regarding the renewable energy scenar- io in India. Based on the general review of the official data from various govern - ment agencies, following picture emerg- es: • India is indeed lucky to have a large renewable energy potential - in excess of1,000 GW! The break up is reportedly as below: 1. Solar: 750 GW (assuming 3% waste- land made available) 2. Wind:302 GW with a hub height 100 m 3. Offshore wind: 70 GW (mainly Gujarat and Tamil Nadu coast) 4. Bio energy: 25 GW • The renewable energy potential can increase further to more than 1300 GW as it is estimated that wind power poten- tial can reach up to 695 GW with the hub height of 120 m instead of 100 m. • India’s INDC (Intended Nationally De- termined Contribution) goal is to install 175 GW of renewable power capacity by 2022. This includes 100 GW from solar energy, 60 GW from wind energy, 10 GW bio-energy, and 5 GW small hydro power plants. India has achieved remarkable growth in increasing the renewable energy capac- ity during the past few years. The share of renewable power in the country’s to- tal energy capacity has increased from 10% in 2014-15 to 23% by December 31st, 2019 - a jump of 130%. Fig1 pro- vides the latest share of source-wise energy capacities. • As of December 2019, India could es- tablish only 87GW of the renewable en- ergy capacity. This means that herculean efforts are needed to achieve the 2022 target of 175GW renewable energy. • The 100 GW target of solar energy consisted of 60 GW from grid-connect- ed, ground-mounted large solar power plants and 40 GW from rooftop solar power systems. • As on December 31st, 2019, while the ground-mounted installed solar pow- er capacity was 33.73 GW, in the rooftop solar sector, a mere 2.42GW is reported- ly installed till February 2020. • The Standing Committee on Energy of the Parliament of India during its meeting on December 6th, 2019 expressed con- cern on the shortfalls in the year-on-year achievements of the solar energy tar- gets. For example, during the year2018- 19, only 8,519.52 MW capacity could be installed against the target of 15,355 MW i.e. a shortfall of 44.50 %. • As regards rooftop solar (RTS), the parliamentary Committee pointed out that there should have been an installed RTS Capacity of 16,000MW by 2018- 19. But, as on October 15, 2019, only 1826MW of RTS capacity has reported- ly been installed i.e. the achievement is only 11.50 % of the target. Thus, while the overall shortfall in the in- stalled capacity in the renewable sector is around 50% of 2022 target, the short- age in RTS is around 12%. Operational Energy Consumption in Buildings in India Globally, buildings consume approxi- mately half of the total energy produced and nearly 40 % of the total CO2 emis- sion is attributed to them. In India, reli- able estimate of energy consumptions in buildings is not available. A passing reference to the same is however avail- able in the ‘Introduction’ chapter of ‘Eco-Niwas Samhita 2018’, which states that “The building sector in India con- sumes over 30% of the total electricity consumed in the country …out of which 75% is used in residential buildings”. It is further states that the gross electric- ity consumption in residential buildings in India is increasing sharply – from 55 TWh in 1996-97 to 260 TWh in 2016-17. Future projections of energy require- ments and associated emissions from buildings are available in a working paper on ‘India’s Energy and Emission Outlook’ from the NITI Aayog. The paper postulates that the electricity consump- tion in residential buildings is going to rise anywhere from 630 and 940 TWh in 2032. Providing reference to the IEA energetica INDIA- September_2020 55 Fig 1 Glimpse of Energy Scenario in India (MW) as on December 31st, 2019