Solar Energy In India

According to a report, India needs 3,128 Trillionwatt hour per year (TWH) of electrical energy in the future. This annual need could be met through renewable energy sources alone in the form of solar power, wind and hydroelectric power. But is this change in energy mix really feasible? How significant would it be if India could meet its energy needs using renewable sources?

Presently, India is confronting the triple challenge of climate change, energy security and economic development. At present, coal accounts for about 42 per cent of India’s energy consumption. Being the largest raw material contributing to electricity generation, the domestic shortage of coal has slowed down the production of electricity and, as a consequence, its imports have gone up.

Also, significant coal reserves and mines have not been opened fully due to disputes over environmental concerns and land permits. Hence, in order to become self sufficient in its energy needs India needs to exploit the renewable energy sector in a big way.

According to the latest report of the WorldWatch Institute, India is among the fastest growing nations, after China, Brazil and the US, in the renewable energy sector with investments rising to 62 per cent—the highest growth rate for any single country over 2010 totals.

After seeing success in the wind energy sector in 2001, the Indian government initiated a nationwide programme to provide clean, off-grid and mostly solar-generated power in remote areas of the country.

The solar power programme, now a part of the National Action Plan for Climate Change, started as an off-grid clean energy source to bring self sufficiency and reduce the consumption of kerosene, particularly in the rural areas.

While it was initially promoted as a means to achieve energy security, it now helps in mitigating the impact of climate change. To meet this, the Remote Village Electrification Programme (RVEP) was started in 2001 by the Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources (MNES), later renamed the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) in 2006.

The programme offered one or two compact fluorescent lamps CFLs, a solar panel, a battery and a solar charge regulator. Unfortunately, RVEP could cover only 9,000 villages against a target of 18,000. A number of reasons identified for this:

• manufacturing defects due to poor manufacturing of batteries and CFLs;
• poor after-sales issues; and
• corruption in the system of distribution, both top-down and bottom-up.

Government Programmes

In 2010, the Government launched the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission in the Eleventh Five Year Plan (FYP), which was an off-grid clean energy mission. The Mission set the following target:

1. Enabling policy framework for deployment of 20,000 megawatt (MW) of solar power by 2022.
2. To increase capacity of grid connected solar power to 1,000 MW by 2013 and an additional capacity of 3,000 MW by 2017.
3. To create favourable conditions for developing solar manufacturing capability in the country.
4. To promote deployment of 20 million solar lights by 2025. The mission aim is to make India a global leader in solar energy.

As can be seen from the above table this mission adopted a three phase approach. It started with the last year of the Eleventh FYP (2010-11) and the first year of Twelfth Plan (2012-13).

The Way Ahead

Globally, the solar power industry has grown by 75-80 per cent. The total installed capacity of solar PV systems has reached approximately 40 Gigawatt in 2010, with Germany leading in capacity addition.

In spite of loans given by the US EXIM bank (which was one of the largest financer of renewable projects in India) to the tune of $176 million in 2011 for seven solar transactions in the country, the share of solar energy in grid interactive renewable power accounts to nearly zero per cent in the overall energy mix.

However, the total installed capacity of grid interactive renewable power had increased up to 16,817 MW in 2009-10, as compared to 14,486 MW in 2008-09, indicating a growth of 16.1 per cent during that period.

So the question remains: can solar energy be the next big thing? Major challenges that are impacting the progress of solar energy today are:

• the land needed for installation,
• project development,
• high cost of solar PV technology,
• energy storage, and
• high initial costs.

Is it possible to alter the energy mix by using more of renewable energy, especially solar (both PV and thermal)? The real challenge is the unpredictable nature of solar energy. Thus many technical challenges, not just financial, will have to be resolved if renewable energy sources alone are to meet India’s energy demand.