POWER May 2014 - 54

RENEWABLES
Despite Challenges, India Banks
on Renewable Energy
Wind and solar energy in India were once considered among the most exciting
growth industries in the world, but policy uncertainty and abrupt changes in
the macroeconomic framework governing the renewables sector have derailed
them in the past two years. Corrective measures are now being taken to help
wind and solar regain their lost glory.
Sarosh Bana
E
nergy-starved India has been diversifying
increasingly into renewable energy
(RE), becoming in the process one of
the world's most vibrant markets for this sector.
This bodes well for a country that has often
seen its industrial and economic growth
inhibited by a truncated supply of conventional
power.
Grid-connected renewable power (there is
yet very little off-grid renewable) accounted
for as much as 29.463 GW-or 12.6%-of
the country's 233.939 GW of installed power
capacity, as of December 31, 2013 (Figure 1).
The share of wind was 20.150 GW (68.4%)
and solar photovoltaic (PV), 2.2 GW (7.5%).
India is said to be the only country to have
an exclusive ministry for renewable power,
and its Ministry of New and Renewable
Energy (MNRE) also provides various RE
systems for decentralized generation of electricity
that has electrified 10,752 of the country's
640,867 villages so far. About 255,000
solar street lights, 993,000 solar home lighting
systems, 939,000 solar lanterns, and 138
MW of distributed solar power plants have
been installed. (See the May 2009 feature
" Powering the People: India's Expansion
Plans " at powermag.com for details of the
country's goals to reduce poverty by increasing
energy access.)
Coal-fired power, however, still has the
major share-138.213 GW, or 59.1%-of India's
installed capacity (Table 1). Volatility in
coal costs, wavering fuel linkages, and lack
of policy clarity have, however, been causing
prolonged turmoil in the Indian power generation
sector, with work suspended on several
thermal power plants across the country.
1. Total renewable capacity. Although India's Central Electricity Authority provides
29,462 MW as the total renewable capacity at the end of December 2013 (as cited in the text)
and the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) finds a total of 29,989 MW, the variance
is small. Numbers in the chart are rounded. Source: MNRE
Waste to power
Biomass
Solar Power
Bagasse cogeneration
Small hydro
Wind
99
1,285
2,180
2,513
3,763
20,150
5,000
10,000
MW
54
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15,000
20,000
25,000
With unreliable coal and gas supplies thus
denting capacity targets, solar, wind, and biomass
energies have found increased favor. India
has become the fifth-largest wind power
producer in the world, after China, the U.S.,
Germany, and Spain. Its wind power industry
has matured, being now equipped to provide
direct-drive, stall-controlled, and pitch-controlled
turbines ranging from 250 kW to 2.1
MW with hub heights and rotor sizes up to
100 meters (m). The manufacturers (Table 2),
almost entirely from the private sector, have
the capacity to produce over 9,000 MW per
year and have more than 40 models on offer,
including turbines designed to harness energy
even in low and medium wind regimes.
The country also crossed a major milestone
in solar power last year when it added
just over 1 GW of solar energy to its electrical
grid, nearly doubling its overall solar capacity
to 2.21 GW. The tally had been a mere
47 MW in 2010. After a slow start last year,
solar installation picked up rapidly, striding
towards the solar capacity targets of 10 GW
by 2017 and 20 GW by 2022.
Kick-starting this for 2014 was the launch
on Feb. 26 of a 130-MW solar power plant,
currently the largest in India, in the central Indian
state of Madhya Pradesh. The plant has
been built by Welspun Energy Ltd. (WEL),
a leading independent RE player that is part
of the $3.5 billion Mumbai-based Welspun
Group. Set up on 305 hectares of land at a
cost of Rs1,100 crore ($177.4 million), it will
supply power at Rs8.05 ($0.13) per kWh.
India, in fact, is planning to build the
world's biggest solar PV power plant, of
4,000 MW, on 48 square kilometers of salt
plains in the desert state of Rajasthan. Six
public sector companies will partner in setting
up this $4.4 billion project that will
annually supply 6.4 GWh of energy. It will
use PV modules based on crystalline silicon
technology and will be developed in phases
over seven years; the first, of 750 MW, is exPOWER
| May 2014

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POWER May 2014

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