India misses its Green Energy Target

The Indian renewable energy industry is not in the pink of health, as is portrayed by a number of ignorant mainstream media journalists. The country’s wind energy sector has taken a battering over the last two years as subsidies have been abruptly removed, grid constraints have cropped up and interest rates soared. While India’s conventional power sector is suffering from fuel shortages, no such issue is present for the wind and solar power sectors which make up almost 80% of the power capacity added. Only 2 GW of renewable energy capacity was added as against a target of 4.3 GW set for FY 13-14. It does not look like too much capacity will be installed till March. JNNSM Phase 2 has only started, while state solar policies are caught up in a regulatory nightmare. Wind Energy has recently got back the GBI sop though the accelerated depreciation subsidy is not present. Wind energy addition has suffered badly with only 1 GW installed. The government plans to rev up the sector through a National Wind Energy Mission (NWEM) but that will only come up with the new government.

India needs to make renewable energy the centerpiece of its energy policy, given that the country has no substantial oil and gas deposits. The billions of dollars in oil imports each month have brought the country to the brink of a fiscal disaster. Corruption and faulty policies have made India into a coal importer, despite possessing one of the largest coal reserves in the world. Solar and wind power offer a green alternative without fuel issues. Solar energy costs have fallen by almost 75% in the last 5 years and they are already competitive with retail and industrial electricity rates. Wind power is already competitive with other forms of power as well. As scale grows, costs for these green forms of power will fall even more. Not only are these electricity sources green, but they also help in the country’s energy security. The Indian government needs to focus on solar, wind and coal to help the country grow at a decent rate which would allow millions of poor to come out of poverty. Business as usual with oil and gas imports will not help. The solutions are not hard – dismantling of the coal monopoly of Coal India, transparent and corruption free oil and gas exploration policies, growth in solar and wind through well targeted subsidies. India needs to stop subsidizing gas consumption of rich consumers and diesel guzzling SUVs. These need to be redirected towards renewable energy sources.

The Hindu

The country’s renewable energy sector is likely to miss its capacity addition target for the second year in a row. As against the annual target of 4,325 MW, only 1,922 MW has been achieved during the first nine months of the current fiscal, according to the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. During April-December 2013, wind and solar segments contributed 1096 MW and 495 MW respectively, while the rest was contributed by small hydro, bagasse co-generation, biomass and waste-to-energy categories. Besides, 67 mw of off-grid/ captive power generation capacity from different renewable energy sources were also added during the period.