Renewable Energy Sources for Energy Security – Solar Power Shri Vineet Gupta Director, Central Water Commission, New Delhi vineetgupta-cwc@nic.in

India’s Energy scenario India’s substantial & sustained economic growth, increasing prosperity and urbanisation, rise in per capita consumption and spread of energy access is placing enormous demand on its energy sources, requiring serious efforts to augment energy supplies. Electricity supply shortages, resulting in consumption of huge quantities of diesel and furnace oil by all sectors- industrial, commercial, institutional etc. and lack of rural lighting leading to large scale use of kerosene. This is leading to enormous costs in the form of subsidies and increasing the country’s import dependence.

A very large proportion of the population continue to have no access to electricity and other forms of commercial energy for their living and livelihood. Others, with access, have to cope with the poor and erratic availability of electricity and other fuels. With constraints faced in resource availability and in delivery mechanisms, traditional means of energy supply are falling short.

Renewable Energy solves the sustainability problem associated with conventional fuels as these sources are non-exhaustible and relatively clean Renewable Energy is also economical off-grid energy solution for remote locations. It has been realized that renewable energy has to play a much deeper role in achieving energy security in the years ahead and be an integral part of the energy planning process. Renewable energy is no longer ‘alternate energy’ but will increasingly become a key part of the solution to the nation’s energy needs.

Growth of Renewable Energy based power generation The Renewable Energy based power generation installed capacity has grown from 3475 MW (about 2 % of the total installed capacity in the country) in April, 2002 to about 45,000 MW in 2016-17 (about 15 % of the total installed capacity in the country) The Government of India has up-scaled the target of renewable power capacity to 1,75,000 MW (175 GW) to be achieved by 2022.

Initiatives taken by Government for promotion of renewable energy The political commitment of renewable energy manifested itself in the establishment of Deptt. of Non-conventional Energy sources in 1982 which was then upgraded to a full-fledged Ministry of Non-conventional Energy sources in 1992 subsequently renamed as Ministry of New and renewable Energy Sources. The Narendra Modi Government has set a target of 1,00,000 MW (100GW) of solar power capacity by the year 2022, which once achieved will increase the share of renewable energy in the total electricity generation from current level of 7% to about 19%.

Initiatives taken by Government for promotion of renewable energy The Government of India through Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) is playing a proactive role in promoting the adoption of renewable energy resources by offering various incentives such as generation-based incentives (GBIs), capital and interest subsidies, viability gap funding (VGF), concessional finance, fiscal incentives etc. 

Initiatives taken by Government for promotion of Solar energy The Government of India has taken several initiatives during the last two years such as the introduction of the concept of solar parks, organizing global investors’ meet, launching of a massive grid-connected rooftop solar programme, solar pump scheme with a target of installing 100,000 solar pumps and programme to train 50,000 people for solar installations under the Surya Mitra scheme.

Initiatives taken by Government for promotion of Solar energy All major sectors i.e. Railways, Airports, Hospitals, Educational Institutions, Government Buildings of Central/State/PSUs are being targeted besides, the private sector for installation of roof-top solar panels. Renewable energy is becoming increasingly cost-competitive as compared to fossil fuel-based generation, like the prices of solar modules have declined by almost 80% since 2008. Solar tariffs have fallen to an unprecedented low of Rs.4.34 / kWh. This trend is continuing and is moving towards grid parity.

External factors affecting the growth of renewable energy sector Opportunities Conducive Policy and regulatory framework Increasing energy demand-supply gap Increasing pressure on availability of conventional fuels Possibility of significant reduction in costs of solar technologies Increasing awareness of climate change concerns Threats Non-availability of financial resources for supporting RE Continuation of high subsidies for diesel, kerosene etc. Infrastructure bottlenecks Lack of skilled & technical man-power Quality and therefore reliability of equipment

Pros and Cons of renewable energy Non-availability of financial resources for supporting RE Continuation of high subsidies for diesel, kerosene etc. Infrastructure bottlenecks Lack of skilled & technical man-power Quality and therefore reliability of equipment RE projects require land, which is a scarce resource Pros Can help reduces emission of Green House Gases. Considering life cycle approach, the net CO2 emissions from RE projects is significanty lower than that of conventional sources Environmental and social impacts of RE projects are negligible

Canal Top Solar Power Plants – One example of Shri Narendra Modi’s Gujarat Model The canal-top solar panels installed in India’s sunniest state of Gujarat in 2012. The aim was to utilise the area above the canals, saving the government the cost, time and inconvenience associated with land acquisition. The success of the project offers great hope at a time when the country aims for a almost nine-fold increase in solar capacity in the next five years to fulfill its global climate-change commitments and reduce its dependence on imported fuels.

Canal Top Solar Power Plants – One example of Shri Narendra Modi’s Gujarat Model The state of Gujarat alone has a canal network of about 80,000 Km. Using even 30% of this network for canal-top solar projects, an estimated 18,000 MW of solar power could be produced in just Gujarat, meeting nearly a fifth of India’s solar power generation targets by 2022. Currently about 100 MW of solar installations atop and besides canal are either approved or under construction in eight states.

Canal Top Solar Power Plants – One example of Shri Narendra Modi’s Gujarat Model Currently Government subsidies are limited to public-sector companies that own canals or canal banks, but if successful, private-sector involvement is inevitable.

Conclusions The real potential in a sunny country, India, is to replace fossil fuels with solar. India has a renewable energy potential of about 895 GW, of which 750 GW is solar. By the year 2022, solar energy could achieve grid-parity in India, meaning it would cost the same as other sources of electricity, although some reports suggest this might happen by 2018. The critical issue around solar installation in India is space i.e. land. That’s where the nation’s vast canal network comes in. Canal-top solar power is most efficient, has longer life and saves precious water (reduces evaporation losses).

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