Mr.Anand Gupta
Editor & CEO
EQ International
Germany’s solar installations are expected to decrease for the full year of 2011 compared to 2010. This is because of weak sales earlier in the year.German PV installations in 2011 are forecasted to amount to 5.9 gigawatts (GW), down 20.4 percent from 7.4 GW in 2010. Installations in 2012 will decline another 15.3 percent to 5.0 GW.Dr.Abdullah, Minister of New & Renewable Energy said “the RPO mechanism alone is expected to create a requirement of at least 30,000 MW of solar power by 2022”. The Minister said that a system of tradable renewable energy certificates has been initiated so that areas where surplus power is available can help fulfill the RPO requirements of areas where solar power is either difficult or more expensive to generate.
On the policy front, Dr. Abdullah said that the guidelines for selection of another 350 MW capacity of PV projects have been announced and it has been decided to increase the size of individual projects from 5 MW to a maximum of 20 MW per site. He said a company is allowed to bid for a maximum of 50 MW capacity in this batch and the Government will continue to directly purchase solar power from the project developers. He said an even more ambitious Phase –II of the Mission is being planned.Over 150 companies have evinced interest in developing large solar photovoltaic projects of up to 20 MW. These include Reliance (ADAG), Lanco, Moser Baer and the Tatas.Official sources reported that the request for selection (RFS) were received for 218 solar PV projects for over 2,500 MW capacity, much higher than the capacity offered – 350 MW.Further, for the second batch of the Mission, the Government has increased the timeline to achieve financial closure by a month to seven months or 210 days for the bidders from the time of signing the power purchase agreements.
Dr. Abdullah said that the recent estimates by the Lawrence-Berkley National laboratory indicate that a potential of over 600 GW electric power capacity exists in India from wind energy alone. He said that in addition, the solar photovoltaic and solar thermal energy has the potential to generate around 50 MW per square km. of area while small hydro and Biomass could add another 40 GW capacity.Highlighting that India today stands among the top five countries of the world in terms of renewable energy capacity, Dr. Abdullah said that India has an installed base of over 20 GW, which is around 11 per cent of India’s total power generation capacity and contributes over 6 per cent to the electricity mix. He said that investment in renewables in India grew by 25% last year and contributed nearly $3.8 billion.
The Minister said that this is just the beginning as the National Action Plan on Climate Change mandates an increase in the share of renewable power in the electricity mix to 15 per cent by the year 2020.Dr. Abdullah added that to meet the 15% renewable targets by 2020 as espoused in the National Action Plan, an additional 50 GW of Renewable Energy based capacity is required with capital investments of around US $100 Billion. He said an investment opportunity of over 2 billion US $ is conservatively estimated in the rural clean energy sector alone. The Minister pointed out that a recent report by Ernst & Young in May 2011 ranked India as the 3rd best investment destination in Renewable Energy sector, next only to China and the USA and called upon the entrepreneurs and stakeholders to join together in this effort.
India is actively pursuing a low carbon growth strategy in the Power Sector to address climate related issues. This was stated by the Minister of Power ShriSushilkumarShinde at the International Energy Agency (IEA) Ministerial Meeting in Paris. The Hon’ble Minister also Delivered the keynote address at the 8th India Investment Forum in New York. Calling upon the American investors to invest in Indian power sector, ShriShinde said that an independent regulatory framework in India now provides business confidence to power companies and a fairly lucrative rate of return on equity of 15.5 per cent per annum.
