Renewable Energy For India

On July 30, the world’s largest solar steam cooking system was installed at the Saibaba Sansthan Trust in Shirdi, Maharashtra, to cook food for 20,000 pilgrims every day.

The system, designed and installed by Gujarat-based Gaddhia Solar Energy Systems was completed within 10 months. It comprises 73 automatically tracked solar dishes and generates around 3,500 kg of steam daily. The system has been designed such that even if the electricity is not available to run the feed water pump for circulating water in the system, it can generate sufficient steam to cook food for the required number of people. It has a steam header connected with a large number of receivers where water can be stored in the morning, when electricity is available.

The total cost of the system is Rs 1.33 crore and the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) provided a subsidy of Rs 58.4 lakh to the Trust for the same. The system is expected to save around 100,000 kg of liquified petroleum gas (LPG) per year, which is equivalent to around Rs 20 lakh.

Manufacturers of small capacity solar-powered systems like Gadhia which make home lighting systems, solar lanterns, pumps, traffic blinkers, illuminating hoardings and billboards, cookers, geysers, traffic signals and even standalone power plants — all clubbed as ‘off-grid’ — have a lot more reason to smile.

The Centre is finalising its plans to offer them soft loans and subsidies. Not only through central and state government ministries and departments but also through local bodies, public sector undertakings, educational/technical institutions, non-banking financial companies , self-help groups, non-governmental organisations and the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency(Ireda) itself.

“The volumes of off-grid connections have a huge potential. We believe that if we offer soft loans, it will open up the sector to smaller manufacturers too. However, it will need third-party monitoring,” says Gauri Singh, joint secretary, MNRE. The scheme, though, will not be applicable to larger manufacturers of solar photovoltaic (SPV) cells and modules.

India, where most regions enjoy nearly 300 sunny days a year (solar energy equivalent to over 5,000 trillion Kwh per year), is an ideal market for solar power companies. However, the high cost of light-to-electricity conversion — at Rs 12 to Rs 20 per Kwh (kilowatt-hour) — is a major deterrent.

Thus, despite being in the business for over two decades, the domestic revenues of the country’s solar power industry are estimated to be between $250 million and $500 million, with 60-70 per cent of solar ware being exported to Europe, North America and China.

The government has set a target of 1,000 Mw for solar power generation during the Eleventh Five Year Plan, and 20 Giga watts (Gw) by 2020. These primarily comprise huge grid-connect solar power plants from the likes of Tata BP Solar India and Moser Baer.

However, the little-documented story is that of off-grid solar-based applications, for which the government has planned an outlay of Rs 375 crore till the remaining period of the 11th Plan.

“While cost is indeed a deterrent in most cases, we believe that financing such innovative projects will help the cause of solar-based projects in a big way,” concurs Debashish Majumdar, chairman and managing director, Ireda. The Indian Semiconductor Association (ISA) feels the same. Its president Poornima Shenoy believes this step will help in boosting the fortunes of off-grid applications.

The government is targeting 2 million such SPV applications by 2020. Till March-end this year, a total of about 637,000 solar cookers, 434,692 home lighting systems, and 697,419 lanterns have been provided to people in the country.

Moreover, solar home lighting systems have been provided in most of the 5,379 unelectrified villages under the government’s Remote Village Electrification Programme.

The governments of Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Chhatisgarh and Union Territories of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Chandigarh have also issued orders to urban local bodies to make solar water heaters mandatory in functional buildings.

The MNRE, on its part, has been providing financial support between 25 and 50 per cent on concentrating cookers and 50-90 per cent on home lighting systems, depending on general/special category states, including the North-East region, which has been made available to people under the schemes. A subsidy of Rs 2,400 is also available for solar lanterns in unelectrified villages and hamlets of special category states and Union Territories.

During the last three years, around Rs 195 crore had been spent on solar cookers and SPV systems, which include solar lanterns and solar home lighting systems. In the current year, an amount of Rs 89 crore has been allocated for SPV systems and demonstration programmes on solar thermal systems, including solar cookers. The schemes are mainly for rural areas.

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Chennai, Sept. 18 Vestas India has bagged an order to supply 60 wind turbines for a Rs 600-crore wind farm to be set up by the CLP group in Tamil Nadu.

According to a press release from Vestas Wind Systems A/S, Denmark, Vestas India will supply 1.65 MW wind turbines for the 99-MW wind farm to be set up in Theni, Tamil Nadu by the CLP group. The delivery of turbines from Vestas’ Chennai plant is to start from the fourth quarter of 2009 for the project to be commissioned in January 2010. The contract includes supplying and commissioning the turbines, installing an online monitoring system and a 10-year service and maintenance agreement.

Mr Arvind Kaul, Managing Director, Vestas India, said that the order is a “good addition” to 2,000 MW of Vestas’s wind energy generators operating in India. It strengthens the company’s presence in one of its largest markets.

According to industry experts, this is the first large independent power producer model wind farm project in Tamil Nadu. This has been made possible by the attractive Rs 3.39 a kWh tariff for wind energy projects in Tamil Nadu. Till now, such IPP model wind energy projects were largely confined to Maharashtra, Gujarat and Karnataka.

The order from CLP is one of the largest single deals of its kind in Tamil Nadu, which has nearly half the country’s installed capacity of wind power, he said.

According to CLP officials, the project estimated at about $125 million follows the favourable policy environment for wind energy in the State. The company is in the process of finalising the project details.

The Hong Kong-based CLP Group is among the largest foreign investors in the power sector, including wind power generation, in India. Through its subsidiaries here, CLP has about 230 MW of wind power projects, in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Karnataka.

The release quoting Mr Rajiv Mishra, Managing Director, India, CLP, said that the project in Theni adds to its current renewable portfolio of 350 MW of wind power in the country.

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Sept. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Contracts to build the world’s largest solar power facility in India’s Gujarat state, valued at $10 billion and backed by former U.S. President Bill Clinton, will be awarded by January, a state government official said.

The 3,000 megawatt project will get help with logistics and finding financing from the William J. Clinton Foundation, a charitable group started by the former president, said S. Jagdeesan, principal secretary, energy and petrochemicals in the government of Gujarat. The foundation and the Gujarat government signed a preliminary agreement on Sept. 8.

“The Clinton Foundation will help us in bringing manufacturers and power generators and also in providing access to international funding at cost-effective interest rates,” Jagdeesan said in an interview. “They are facilitators. We will invest in the infrastructure.” The project may be developed on 10,000 hectares of land spread across three locations within an area of 150 square kilometers (58 square miles) in Gujarat.

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The main purpose of the IPO is to raise resources for the company’s photovoltaic solar cell manufacturing unit in an SEZ at Bhachau in Gujarat’s Kutch district. The plant, being built at a cost of Rs 178.03 crores, will have a capacity of 40MW per year.

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New Delhi: A recent report on the wind energy industry in India reveals that turbine prices have always been lower than the global average due to lower labour and production costs in the country. More than a dozen international companies now manufacture wind turbines in India.

"Over the past few years, both the government and the wind power industry have succeeded in injecting greater stability into the Indian market. This has encouraged larger private and public sector enterprises to invest in wind," states the report published by the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) and the Indian Wind Turbine Manufacturers Association (IWTMA).

"It has also stimulated a stronger domestic manufacturing sector; some foreign companies now source more than 80% of the components for their turbines in India. The current annual production capacity of wind turbines manufactured in India is about 3,000-3,500 MW, including turbines for the domestic as well as for the export markets. However, the actual number of turbines produced is driven by market forces, and high interest rates often do not allow for the accumulation of inventory. Thanks to new market entrants, it is expected that the annual production capacity will rise to 5,000 MW per year by 2015," adds the report.

Companies operating in this segment in India include Suzlon, Vestas Wind Tech, RRB Energy, Enercon, Vestas, GE, Gamesa, Siemens, ReGen Power Tech, LMGlasfiber, WinWinD, Kenersys and Global Wind Power.

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NEW DELHI: The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) on Thursday announced tariff norms for electricity generated from renewable energy sources such as solar, wind and biomass.

The new tariff regime will offer 19% on pre-tax return on investment (ROI) in new projects for the first 10 years and 23% in the subsequent period.

“The new tariff regulations are expected to promote investments in renewable sector that is also required to meet the goals stipulated in the National Action Plan on Climate Change,” CERC chairman Pramod Deo said.

While notifying tariff regulations for electricity generated from renewable energy sources, the power sector regulator said that specifying capital cost norms and fixing tariff upfront for the whole tariff period are the two main features of the new regulations.

The tariff permitted to a project under these regulations would apply for the whole tariff period, which is 13 years for wind power projects, 25 years for solar power projects and for small hydro (below 5mw) it has been kept as 35 years, another CERC official said.

However, the regulations provide normative capital costs for projects based on different renewable technologies and they will be revised every year for incorporating escalation.

“This is important especially for solar as the data available with us is scanty and mostly from outside the country. As we get more data for solar, producers can come and file a separate petition for revision,” Mr Deo said.

The regulations are significant in view of the National Action Plan on Climate Change which stipulates that minimum renewable purchase standards may be set at 5% of the total power purchases by 2010. At present, only 3% power is generated through renewable sources such as wind and solar.

CERC and other state regulators have also agreed to implement renewable energy certificate (REC) mechanism which will allow states with less renewable energy sources to purchase RECs, from those that have excess of it, to fulfil renewable purchase obligations.

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Mumbai institute looks to develop a solar center and testing ground backed by the government of India and an industry-based consortium.

To help facilitate cost-effective solar thermal power generation, IIT Bombay plans to develop a megawatt-scale solar thermal power facility, which is being sponsored by the ministry of new and renewable energy.

"The idea is to help create cost-effective solar power. There is a huge gap between the demand and supply of electricity and one option worth developing is solar power," said a faculty member of IIT Bombay. The plan to build theplant was proposed by IIT-B last year and it will come up at the Solar Energy Centre in Gurgaon. It will be connected to a grid and supply around a megawatt to the national grid. The test and simulation facility will be set up by a consortium involving different Indian industries and IIT-B.

"While the US and Europe have already built such consortia, it will be a first in India. This facility is expected to help in developing inexpensive solar power plants in the future," he said.

Even as the test facility will enable assessment of new technologies, components, and systems for solar thermal power, the simulation can be used to scale up designs and optimise use of solar power.

"Besides developing indigenous capability, it is expected to provide the experience in concentrated solar power, which has the potential to provide a sustainable energy solution for India's power system," said the faculty member. The project, which will last for five years, is expected to start in another two years.

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GE Energy, one of the world's leading suppliers of power generation and energy delivery technologies, today announced plans to set up a wind turbine generator unit in South India and develop a local supply chain for its products.

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GE's entry in the Indian market with major expansion plans is expected to challenge the near-monopoly of the Tulsi Tanti's Suzlon Energy in the local market.

The plant would start production in the second half of 2010 with GE's 1.5XLE model Wind turbine, which, the company says, is most suited for India's low wind regimes, a company release said.

GE plans to expand wind turbine capacity in the Indian unit and eventually start supplying, on an average, 300 wind turbines of 450MW of capacity yearly.

The local facility would also enable GE Energy to create a larger sourcing base from India for critical items, including - blades, towers, gearboxes, castings and forgings, the company release said.

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Veer Energy and Infrastructure has plans to set up wind turbine generator farms with 200 megawatt capacity in Gujarat, which would cost Rs 1,000-1,200 crore. The company’s Joint Managing Director Ritesh Choksi is confident that looking at the current energy scenario in India, the requirement for renewable energy is going to go up. Further, he adds, “We are also looking at exploring new places and new projects in Tamil Nadu where wind conditions are good.”

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India may be able to generate almost five times more wind energy capacity than the government’s estimate by 2030, due to offshore wind resources, according to a study by the Global World Energy Council, reports Bloomberg News.

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CLP India is setting up close to 450 Mw of wind power capacity in Gujarat, Rajasthan and Karnataka with Rs 2,500 crore of investments, said Rajiv Mishra, managing director.

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BANGALORE: The World Institute of Sustainable Energy (WISE) with funding from the British High Commission has created a draft renewable energy plan for Karnataka, Maharashtra and Rajasthan. The plan aims to develop capacity building to implement renewable technologies for climate mitigation.

The Karnataka Renewable Energy Development Limited has already produced a draft renewable energy policy. It will be finalized and sent to the cabinet next month.

According to Founder Director General, WISE, GM Pillai, the three states were chosen because they have the highest potential. "Tamil Nadu also has very high potential but they are already in advanced stages of implementation. It is important to focus on renewable energy now because fossil fuels are depleting at a rapid rate. Half of NTPC's projects are running short of coal," said Pillai. Karnataka has already implemented a good amount of Hydel power and has above 25,000 MW potential for wind and solar respectively.

Managing director, KREDL, Shivananda Murthy said they were pushing for grid strengthening. Power allocation for 8000 MW of wind energy is already done, 540 MW is being generated from co-gen projects, 420 MW from mini-hydel and 100 MW has been allocated for solar power. Three small solar projects of 1 KW each are being started at Kolar, Belgaum and Raichur to power irrigation projects there.
"Solar water heaters have been very successful. They have already covered 23 lakh sq metres in the city. Similarly, we want to introduce solar roof-top systems in commercial and individual buildings," Murthy said. Pico-hydro projects are also increasingly becoming popular in the Western Ghats.

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Due to the increasing confidence in the State and the State bureaucracy Canasia is broadening its scope of activities in Gujarat to include solar power, natural gas and possibly geothermal. A 2 x 25MW solar proposal was submitted to the State last month with a request for 500MW downstream.

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New Delhi, Sept. 25 The Minister for New and Renewable Energy, Mr Farooq Abdullah, has dedicated the solar home lighting systems installed in 3,900 households in 27 villages of Gurez Tehsil, Jammu & Kashmir, to the people of the area.

An official statement issued here on Friday said, the solar lights will enable 30,000 people living in these villages to enjoy the benefits of modern lighting. Illumination provided by the lights will be sufficient not only for household chores but also for reading and writing, the statement said.

The Gurez valley in North Kashmir has been deprived of conventional electrification due to its remoteness. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy contributed Rs 4.5 crore of the project cost of Rs 5 crore. The balance has been contributed by the State Government, the statement said.

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In a bid to exploit the available potential in the bio-mass sector, the Orissa government has approved two more bio-mass based power projects with a combined generating capacity of 39 Mw of power.

With this the total envisaged generating capacity in the bio-mass sector will increase to 129 Mw. Earlier, the government had approved 8 bio-mass based power projects with a combined generation capacity of 90 Mw.

Though states like Chhatishgarh have been able to generate about 135Mw from bio-mass based power plants, Orissa was unable to utilise its potential in this sector.

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Steve Sawyer , secretary general, Global Wind Energy Council, was in Delhi recently to release a report on the Indian Wind Energy Outlook
for 2009. He tells Narayani Ganesh that at least one quarter of India's energy requirements could be met with wind power by 2030:

Is it realistic to say that by 2030, 25 per cent of India's energy requirements would be met by wind power?

That's the projection the Indian Wind Energy Outlook 2009 report makes in its presentation of an advanced scenario, on the premise that by then, there would be opportunities to tap the country's full potential for wind generated electricity. This does not include future potential of similar power generated from offshore wind farms, something that holds great promise considering that India has a 7,000 km coastline.

India has the technology; in fact it is among the leaders and the technology is still evolving. All of the major manufacturers of wind equipment have operations in India. In order to reach full potential it would be necessary to develop offshore technology since along the coast winds are steady and in some places concentration of resources is close to load centres in metros. India ranks fifth in total installed capacity with 9,645 MW of wind power installed at the end of 2008.

Won't high capital costs hike per unit cost to consumer?

With wind, it's a one-time capital cost and almost all costs are capital costs whereas with conventional power plants, it is ongoing. Once a wind farm is set up, there are no further capital costs like buying fuel as in other power plants that have to source coal, gas etc whose costs too vary from one time to the next. In due course it is hoped that wind farm capital costs too will get reduced but first, private financiers have to get convinced.

Around five billion tonnes of CO2 emissions would be reduced cumulatively from now to 2030 that is, amounting to 500-plus million tonnes per year. This is not to do with current emissions; only the projected ones. In climate change negotiations it is important to show that there is huge mitigation potential in India and China but the question is, who will pay for that?

What more policy initiatives are required?

Right now solar energy is four times costlier than wind energy. But certainly it is a good investment, since it generates power as well as employment opportunities. Earlier, Germany's wind energy industry was driven by environmental concerns; now it is driven by the business of creating a large number of jobs. In India, presently 15,000 people are employed directly in the wind industry and 75,000 indirectly. The key is not to look at technology in isolation but to see it in the light of energy security, and its potential for employment, export, emissions reduction potential and saving water. Thermal power stations consume hundreds of millions of gallons of water per day. Wind energy consumes no water.

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Leitner Shriram Manufacturing Ltd, a joint venture between Shriram EPC and Italy-based Leitner Technologies, on Friday inaugurated its Rs 200-crore facility at Gummidippondi near Chennai.

Spread across 20 acres, the facility would have a manufacturing capacity of 150 wind turbines per annum in Phase I. The plant was inaugurated by Union minister of state for power Bharatsinh Solanki.

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According to estimates, India has the potential to generate 45,000 Mw of wind power. Since, these wind farms are set up in rural areas, it generates opportunities for employment in the form of electrical, civil and mechanical engineers and technicians. The total capacity installed in India stood at 10,134 Mw as of March 31, 2009.

Greenfield windfarms The two joint venture partners are planning to set up greenfield windfarms in the country, said Shivaraman. Oriental Green Power, a renewable energy generation company promoted by Shriram EPC, is in the process of acquiring wind assets.

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Sugen (Surat), Sept 30 (PTI) Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi today appealed to the Centre for setting up a solar energy park on Gujarat-Rajasthan border to tap solar energy.

Modi suggested that the project will benefit the BSF deployed at the border of two states.

He was speaking at a programme to announce the country's first Rs 3000-crore 1150 MW gas-based power project of Torrent Power at Kamrej taluka here.

Gujarat Government has also signed an MoU with Clinton foundation to set up a 3000-MW solar park in the state, he said.

"We want to transform the state of Gujarat into an integrated solar generation hub for the entire nation," he said.

The Chief Minister announced to give power connections to the tribal farmers of Vapi and Ambaji as part of golden jubilee celebration of the Gujarat State in 2010.

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