Last week I published Renewable Friday: India Up To COP21, about India's reluctance to move to renewable energy until then. Their turnaround at COP21 is an excellent instance of Bucky Fuller's trimtab process. You turn giant ships by moving the rudder to one side, but the rudder is so big that it needs its own smaller rudder, called a trimtab, in order to overcome its resistance to moving.
The first reaction in India to PM Modi's stirring salute to the world at COP21
was the power ministry saying "Nohow" and "Contrariwise". The Disney Version:
The original musical version is down below.
tl;dr India will be one of the biggest markets for renewables in the world, but insists on doing it by fighting the forces of economics, instead of working with them. The Licence Raj Lives!
Coal Rush in India Could Tip Balance on Climate Change
“India’s development imperatives cannot be sacrificed at the altar of potential climate changes many years in the future,” India’s power minister, Piyush Goyal, said at a recent conference in New Delhi in response to a question. “The West will have to recognize we have the needs of the poor.”
Mr. Goyal has promised to double India’s use of domestic coal from 565 million tons last year to more than a billion tons by 2019, and he is trying to sell coal-mining licenses as swiftly as possible after years of delay. The government has signaled that it may denationalize commercial coal mining to accelerate extraction.
That was what a coal minister could say before COP21. No longer.
Because there are consequences that cannot be ignored any more. And of course, renewables are now much cheaper than coal.
Indian cities are already the world’s most polluted, with Delhi’s air almost three times more toxic than Beijing’s by one crucial measure. An estimated 37 million Indians could be displaced by rising seas by 2050, far more than in any other country. India’s megacities are among the world’s hottest, with springtime temperatures in Delhi reaching 120 degrees. Traffic, which will only increase with new mining activity, is already the world’s most deadly. And half of Indians are farmers who rely on water from melting Himalayan glaciers and increasingly fitful monsoons.
India’s coal is mostly of poor quality with a high ash content that makes it roughly twice as polluting as coal from the West. And while China gets 90 percent of its coal from underground mines, 90 percent of India’s coal is from strip mines, which are far more environmentally costly. In a country three times more densely populated than China, India’s mines and power plants directly affect millions of residents. Mercury poisoning has cursed generations of villagers in places like Bagesati, in Uttar Pradesh, with contorted bodies, decaying teeth and mental disorders.
This resistance from the power ministry is classic mindless bureaucratic empire-building, regardless of consequences. It is nonsensical, because India cannot get coal to its existing power plants, and yet some wanted to build more. In addition, lack of water at coal-fired plants has severely reduced generation capacity.
India’s Switch from Environmental Victim to Renewable Energy Champ
In my recent travels through 13 of India’s state capitals, I have seen that there is finally a power surplus. This does not mean that every individual has access to electricity but it is a substantial improvement from the days of rolling blackouts, the likes of which left 600 million people without access to electricity in the summer of 2012.
Even after getting past this initial speedbump, policy lacks and administrative hurdles have continued to get in the way.
Rapid Growth in India's Solar Energy Market: Stronger Policies to Achieve 100 GW by 2020
India also has a new Renewable Energy Corporation of India (RECI). Formerly the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), RECI has greater authority and responsibilities, including the power to own and operate renewable plants and trade renewable power. RECI's ability to sell solar power may provide some needed assistance for struggling distribution companies (DISCOMs) in India.
India will need a sizable influx in finance to achieve the 100 GW solar target—which will require a total of $100 billion in investments and create up to 1 million domestic jobs.
India’s renewable energy sector hits a milestone but loses speed
Though the original target was to achieve 20,000 MW in solar installations by 2022, the current dispensation’s thrust on renewable energy had accelerated capacity additions. However, midway through, chinks have surfaced to take the wind out of the programme’s sails.
What a beautiful mixing of metaphoric paints!
The wind energy sector was expected to return to growth this year, but is increasingly looking unlikely.
The new bidding regime and enhanced execution timelines have prolonged the transition. Energy infrastructure constraints are also making developers wary. Last month, the Solar Energy Corp. of India had cancelled a 2,000 MW tender after it was under-subscribed due to insufficient transmission infrastructure.
As a result, renewable energy industry research provider Wood Mackenzie, formerly Make Consulting, has downgraded its capacity addition outlook for India.
Many in India remain upbeat, though.
Modi government propelled India’s renewables growth: CEO survey
However, the survey respondents said that the Modi government has failed to maintain consistent policies. The imposition of trade barriers and GST has created uncertainty and confusion for businesses, they claimed. The most pressing issue for the industry is offtake risk, followed by challenges related to land acquisition and uncertainty in the overall policy environment. Almost half the respondents said that they feel that bidding in the sector is irrationally aggressive.
That said, the industry generally expects the government to improve business execution and provide policy stability.
One of the stumbling blocks has been local content requirements. So this sort of news is quite welcome.
Vikram Solar announces long-duration PV reliability test results
Tests by U.S.-based PV Evolution Labs (PVEL) show that monocrystalline silicon and polycrystalline silicon PV modules produced by India’s Vikram Solar met and exceeded international quality and performance benchmarks.
Vikram Solar has a 1.04 GW EPC portfolio in India, including ground-mounted and rooftop PV projects that are commissioned or under execution. The company has a manufacturing capacity of 1.1 GW, with a customer base across six continents.
New factory-focused solar tender in the offing for India
With last year’s embarrassing manufacturing-linked capacity tender limping along, it has been reported the Indian government – whichever form it takes after the current elections – is considering another tender to incentivize the establishment of a domestic solar industry.
India has around 3 GW of annual solar cell production capacity and 9 GW of module capacity – figures eclipsed by some individual businesses in China – and in February the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs provided Rs8,580 crore ($1.23 billion) of viability gap funding to enable government-owned companies to establish 12 GW of solar capacity with costlier Indian-made products.
An attempt by the government to staunch the flow of solar imports by applying a 25% safeguarding duty on them appears to have done little to help the expansion of domestic solar manufacturing.
Power-surplus Indian state says no to new solar capacity
Karnataka state has been forced to apply the brakes to new solar with its power distribution companies having fulfilled their renewable purchase obligations for the next two years. Projects driven by federal agencies will continue, however.
Obligations?!! The solar power isn't cheaper?
That attitude leads all the way to this kind of complete foolishness. You can't just tell a market what price to set.
Only two bidders for 1 GW solar tender in Gujarat
The procurement – for PV capacity at the Dholera Solar Park – attracted bids for just 300 MW as developers shunned a tariff ceiling of $0.039/kWh.
So much sun! So much wind! So much foolishness!
Well,
Experience teaches a dear [expensive] school, but fools will learn in no other.
Benjamin Franklin, an incurable optimist
Yes, they are doing better every year.
Resources
Solar Guidebook: Solar resource maps for India
Wind Resource Prediction Project: India
Factors that needed to be considered when locating good sites are
- road networks, for building access to the farm,
- close proximity to existing national grid connections, to cut down on expenses for 'plugging in' the wind farm
- Proximity to built up urban areas
- Slopes greater than 10 degrees
The best regions, according to this analysis, are in
- Karnataka
- Andra-Pradesh
- Gujarat
- Kerala
- Tamil-Nadu
Also
Fifth Smart Cities India Expo is on now in New Delhi, May 22-24, including Solar India.
- The country has set a target to achieve 100 GW solar power by 2021-22 worth Rs 6,000 billion. [1 rupee = 0.014 USD]
- The installed solar capacity crossed 20 GW in January 2018, with 18.4 GW in the form of ground-mounted projects and 1.6 GW on rooftops.
- India targets 40 GW solar capacity from rooftops by 2022.
- The state-run Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) is seeking bids for a 750-megawatt solar park at Ananthapuramu in Andhra Pradesh. In order to supplement the massive series of projects, SECI is looking to procure 100 megawatts of storage capacity
- Over US$ 1.3 billion annual battery storage market in India
- The total energy storage market in India is expected to grow from 4.4 GW in 2015 to 70 GW (valued roughly at US$3.32 billion) by 2022. It is estimated that energy storage devices manufacturing could attract investments of US$3 billion-6 billion by 2022.
- As of January 2018, 63 solar micro grids totaling 1,899 kWp have been installed in the country.
- The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) is providing financial assistance (up to 30 percent of the cost) for installations of these micro grids in rural areas of the country.
- Under the Government of India’s Street Lighting National Programme launched in January 2015, a total of 96,187 solar LED street lights has been installed till April 2018.
They have 63 solar microgrids,
*
Some say, compared to Bononcini,
That Mynheer Handel's but a ninny,
While others aver that he to Handel
Isn't fit to hold a candle.
Strange such difference should be
'twixt Tweedledum and Tweedledee.
Anonymous
Tweedledum and Tweedledee agreed to have a battle,
'cause Tweedledum said Tweedledee had spoiled his nice new rattle.
Just then flew down a great big crow, as big as a tar-barrel,
Which frightened both the heroes so, they quite forgot their quarrel.
Also anonymous, but taken up by Lewis Carroll