Energy storage market for off-grid renewable energy in India to touch Rs 16,500 crore by 2022: CEEW
The energy storage market for off-grid renewable energy in India would be worth Rs 16,500 crore by 2022, according to a report released by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) during the Solar India Expo 2017. CEEW, the policy and research partner for Solar India 2017, shared the key findings of the analysis at the Expo. “Rooftop solar will itself account for 80 per cent of the total energy storage market for off-grid renewables and will be worth INR 130 billion (USD 2 billion) in 2022,” the report said. The report adds that the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy’s target to install 10,000 micro-grid or 500 megawatt (MW) of micro and mini-grids will offer an additional opportunity to the tune of Rs 3,300 crore for battery manufacturers. ”Batteries are a critical component of micro/mini-grid systems, since 100 per cent backup is often required to supply electricity to rural households during evening hours,” the report noted. The analysis provides an overview of the current Indian energy storage market for off-grid solar segment, examining multiple storage technologies under development and assessing opportunities arising due to rapid adoption of off-grid renewable energy. “Though a number of projects for grid-connected storage are being called for, the markets that are served poorly by the existing grid – mobile towers in remote locations, petrol pumps, ATMs are easy pickings for storage systems to cater,” said Dr Arunabha Ghosh, Chief Executive Officer, CEEW. According to CEEW, higher cost of energy storage solutions limits rooftop solar system installation to cater to base load. “Solar PV systems with energy storage could be a potential replacement to existing diesel generators and it would also save about Rs 4-5 per unit of electricity, compared to diesel, for industrial and commercial consumers,” the report said. CEEW’s analysis finds that advanced battery technologies could support rapid deployment of rooftop solar installations in the commercial and industrial segment. Bruce Irvin Jersey
India Ranks 2nd in the ‘Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Index’, Says An EY Report
India has moved up to the second spot this year, from the third spot for the last two years, in this year’s ‘Renewable energy country attractiveness index’, said a report released by EY globally. This as per the E&Y report is primarily due to a combination of strong government support and increasingly attractive economics. As per the report, India continued its upward trend in the index to second position with the Government’s program to build 175 GW in renewable energy generation by 2022 and to have renewable energy account for 40% of installed capacity by 2040. The country has added more than 10GW of solar capacity in the last three years – starting from a low base of 2.6GW in 2014. “In the medium term, as renewable energy penetration rates increase, the Government will have to turn its attention to the ability of India’s grid to manage intermittent renewables, especially around the evening peak, when solar availability falls away. The cost and availability of energy storage technology could dictate how close India gets to meeting its renewable targets. Meanwhile, India’s regulators must be mindful of the erosion of electricity market peaks caused by growing volumes of renewables and storage – this can undermine the economics of thermal power plants, risking the stability of the system as a whole,” said Somesh Kumar, Partner & Leader, Power & Utilities, EY India. The report also suggests that the Indian Government needs to increase compliance with the Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO), as well as ensure that India’s distribution companies, many of which are financially distressed, have the capacity to continue to purchase renewable electricity, especially if bid prices level off or rise. And the availability of capital remains a concern; the Government could ease rules around tapping foreign debt. Also, the Government’s additional emphasis on photovoltaic (PV) parks will help to plug the gap, but it needs to do more to encourage rooftop solar installations. The report cites that China (1) and India (2) have surpassed the US and the fall – the first for the US since 2015 – to third in the ranking of the top 40 countries follows a marked shift in US policy under the new administration. The report identifies the US Government’s executive orders to rollback many of the past administration’s climate change policies, revive the US coal industry and review the US Clean Power Plan as key downward pressures on renewable investment attractiveness. Economically viable renewable energy alternatives coupled with security of supply concerns are encouraging more countries to support a clean energy future. Kazakhstan (37), Panama (38) and the Dominican Republic (39) have all entered the index for the first time. Sam Hubbard Jersey
World Lags on Clean Energy Goals
It may be the 21st century but more than three billion people still use fire for cooking and heating. Of those, one billion people have no access to electricity despite a global effort launched at the 2011 Vienna Energy Forum to bring electricity to everyone on the planet. “We are not on track to meet our goal of universal access by 2030, which is also the Sustainable Development Goal for energy,” said Rachel Kyte, CEO for Sustainable Energy for All and Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General. “We must all go further, faster—together,” Kyte told more than 1500 delegates and government ministers at the 2017 version of the biannual Vienna Energy Forum this week, organized by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). Kyte reminded everyone that the 2015 Sustainable Development Goal for energy (SDG 7) was a unanimous promise to bring decarbonized, decentralized energy to everyone and that this would transform the world bringing “clean air, new jobs, warm schools, clean buses, pumped water and better yields of nutritious food”. Moreover, to prevent catastrophic climate change the world committed to net zero CO2 emissions by 2050 under the 2015 Paris Agreement, she said. “Why are we not moving more quickly?” At the current pace in 2030 there will still be one person in ten without electricity, according to the Global Tracking Framework 2017 report. Most of those people will be in Africa. In Chad, Niger, South Sudan and Democratic Republic of the Congo only one person in ten currently has access and this is falling as populations increase, said Elisa Portale , an energy economist at the World Bank who presented the report’s findings. Although renewable energy like solar and wind gets a great deal of press and attention, the world is failing to meet the SDG target of decarbonizing 36 percent the global energy system and will only get to 21 percent by 2030. Currently it is about 18 percent since renewables include hydropower and biomass. A few countries managed to increase their renewable share by 1 percent per year but some others like Canada and Brazil are actually going backwards, she said. Decarbonizing electricity is going much faster than decarbonizing energy for heating and for transportation, which is seen to be more challenging. Improvements in energy efficiency are also far behind. Investment in energy efficiency needs to increase by a factor of 3 to 6 from the current 250 billion dollars a year in order to reach the 2030 objective, the report concluded. The biggest failure the Global Tracking Framework revealed was that the current number of people still using traditional, solid fuels to cook increased slightly since 2011 to 3.04 billion. Those fuels are responsible for deadly levels of indoor air pollution that shorten the lives of tens of millions and kill four million, mainly children, every year according to the World Health Organization. This seems to be a low priority and by 2030 only 72 percent of the world will be using clean cooking fuels, said Portale. In other words, 2.5 billion people – mostly in the Asia-Pacific region and Africa – will still be burning wood, charcoal or dung to cook their foods. Clean cooking is not a priority for most governments although Indonesia is doing quite well, said Vivien Foster, Global Lead for Energy Economics, Markets & Institutions, The World Bank. “Indoor air pollution has a bigger health impact than HIV/AIDS and malaria combined,” Foster told IPS. One reason clean cooking is a low priority is that men are largely the decisions makers in governments and at the household level and they often are not involved in cooking. Environmental health issues generally get far less attention from governments she said. “Sadly, it’s often mobile phones before toilets,” Foster said. However, the situation in India is dramatically different. Green energy – decarbonized, decentralized energy — is no longer expensive or difficult. It is also the most suitable form of energy for developing nations because both access and benefits can come very quickly, said Piyush Goyal, India’s Minister of Energy. Access to clean liquid propane gas (LPG) for cooking has increased 33 percent in the last three years, which is about 190 million homes. In the last year alone 20 million of the poorest of the poor received LPG for free, Goyal told IPS. Although millions have no connection to electricity, Goyal said it was his personal belief this will no longer be the case by 2019, three years before India’s 2022 target. “Prime Minister Modi is completely committed to universal access,” he said. “He grew up poor. He knows what it is like to not have electrical power.” India is adding 160 gigawatt (GW) of wind and solar by 2022 and it may beat that target too as the cost of solar and wind are well below coal, the country’s main source of energy. The US currently has just over 100 (GW) in total. One GW can power 100 million LED lightbulbs used in homes. On the energy efficiency front, India is also closing in on a target of replacing all of its lighting with LEDs, saving tens of millions in energy costs and reducing CO2 emissions by as much as 80 million tonnes annually. “We are doing this even if no one else is. We have a big role to play in the fight against climate change,” Goyal said. New York Jets Jersey
Cheaper, greener way to grow semiconductor films found
Scientists have developed a greener and cheaper way to make single-crystalline semiconductor films, components at the heart of our electric gadgets, including smartphones, computers and solar panels. The fastest integrated circuits feature transistors consisting of germanium films on silicon. However, such materials are typically only prepared at elevated temperatures, with complex machinery that involve hazardous gases. Researchers at University of Michigan (UM) in the US invented a method to simultaneously synthesise and deposit crystalline semiconductor films from water at room temperatures using equipment that can be assembled for just a few dollars. “Our method does not require excess heat, and everything is done in an aqueous solution so we are not using any toxic precursors,” said Stephen Maldonado, an associate professor at UM. “And we are doing this without sacrificing any quality in the crystallinity of the material, which is usually the trade-off,” said Maldonado. To do this, Maldonado and his team make a thin, liquid metal film that rests on a substrate that they connect to a power supply. When they electrify the metal film, molecules on the surface of that film – if they are in contact with water – can be reduced into their elemental parts. In this case, units of dissolved germanium oxide are transformed into germanium atoms that dissolve into the liquid metal film. “If the liquid metal film is thin enough, the germanium atoms will precipitate out, but selectively at the bottom and as a uniform crystalline film,” Maldonado said. “The cool thing about this is we are taking an oxidised precursor – like what you’d find in nature – and in one process step, we can produce a technologically relevant film that is one large contiguous crystal,” he said. The team’s next steps will be to do the same process with silicon. The chemistry is more nuanced but the principle is the same. Ultimately, without complex machinery and high temperatures, the new process could provide a cheaper, greener way to produce semiconductors. “There is a reason why everyone on the face of this planet does not have access to advanced electronics. Making high performance semiconductor devices requires a substantial infrastructure,” Maldonado said. The research was published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Karl Joseph Jersey
If we simplify process of tariff fixing, it will reduce corruption: Piyush Goyal
With the NDA government’s efforts to make India a power surplus and energy secured nation, electricity will never be a political subject, says power, coal, renewable energy and mines minister Piyush Goyal. The government has put in place an honest and transparent system in the energy sector that will be irreversible, he told ET’s Sarita C Singh in an interview on the sidelines of Vienna Energy Forum. Goyal said states are working towards removing land ownership as requirement for providing connections to give electricity access to slums. Electricity access and lower tariff has always been a political agenda and part of electoral promises in India. With power surplus scenario, do you think this situation will change? Energy is not a political issue for the Modi government. It is our commitment to provide electricity to every household of the country. If there are honest governments in states and the Centre, I don’t think power will now be an issue at all. Some of the things that we are doing are irreversible. For example, reverse auction of power has put an end to the regime of negotiated tariffs, feed-in tariffs, mutual consultation tariff, etc. We have created such an honest and transparent system that anyone will be afraid of trying to corrupt it again. Once we make electricity available to every household, would it be possible to keep people deprived of electricity? What role will rationalisation and simplification of categories of tariff play in reducing corruption? Corruption is the by-product of discretion, when there is scope for interpretation of policies. Some states have more than 100 categories and sub-categories of tariff and therefore one gets ample opportunities to interpret those provisions. I believe if we simplify the process of tariff fixing with lesser tariff slabs and rationalise the process, it will reduce corruption and simultaneously it will enable supply of adequate and cheap power to the poor as well as to farmers. We are also working on making merit order dispatch transparent. We want to make transparency one of the means to get rid of corruption. It has got game changing quality. You would need RTI because the government is going to tell you everything through a transparent mechanism. The government’s target of power for all by 2019 is a challenge in states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. How would you ensure every citizen gets legal electricity connection? Earlier, the union government used to give money to grant free electricity connections to poor and farmers but states like Uttar Pradesh were not doing it. Now Uttar Pradesh government is working toward providing electricity to all. Yogiji’s government has accepted my suggestions that the state government will give free electricity connection to urban as well as rural poor, and will ensure that power is available when demanded by simplifying the application process. There shouldn’t be undue paper work and questioning for giving a new connection. Earlier, one had prove ownership of the property for getting a connection but the current government in Uttar Pradesh is working on a system to de-link ownership with electricity connection whereby you will be given a connection where you are residing. If you have to leave the property for any illegality, the connection will be removed. Uttar Pradesh has decided to do it and other states are willing to do it. There have been instances where people are not willing to take legal electricity connections. How are you tackling that? It’s a problem we are facing that a number of people are not willing to apply. I have asked states to organise awareness camps that people need not worry about huge power bills anymore. UPA has been a sad example as during its tenure people used to receive high power bills all of a sudden. In some cases the poor will not receive bills for months together and one day will receive a bill for last two years. Then he is harassed to pay up. We are talking to all states that they have to ensure monthly bills so people don’t have to get a shocker of their lives. If there is a default, then action can be taken on a monthly due amount. Isn’t this phenomenon of not applying for connection a problem for achieving the target of power for all? Power for all includes people who are interested in getting a connection. It cannot be for people who don’t want the connection. Having said that I am confident everybody will apply for power once they are sure that they will not be short-charged. It will be helped by my smart meters programme. Once smart meters come in at the desired scale, the consumer can control his power consumption and the possibility of inflated bill will reduce substantially. What was the key agenda of India’s participation at the Vienna Energy Forum? The Vienna Energy Forum dovetailed the poverty elimination programme with the energy access programme. In a way they have taken up a more holistic view of the sustainable development goals. For India, overcoming the twin challenge of alleviating poverty and giving access to electricity to all is necessary. Shaun Livingston Womens Jersey
India jumps 73 spots to 26 rank in World Bank’s power list: Piyush Goyal
India has climbed up to the twenty-sixth position in World Bank’s electricity accessibility ranking in the current year from 99th spot in 2014, Power Minister Piyush Goyal has said. “Our ranking has improved to 26 position from 99. So, it is truly very redeeming feature and satisfying for me that Prime Minister’s vision particularly to take electricity to every home, particularly to make electricity access very easy, particularly to make energy affordable is being furthered very rapidly,” the minister said here. He also exuded confidence that by 2019, three years ahead of its original schedule, the government would able to take power to every household. He said that the government was closely working with the states to see that electricity was made available on tap. “A person should be able to apply for electricity connection. If there is infrastructure available… get it in 24 hours. If an infrastructure needs to be created he should get in less than one week,” the minister said. Elaborating on energy access to all, the minister said at the Vienna Energy Forum, held on May 11, everyone was actually impressed about India that has actually led the global efforts by its action to address the challenge of the planet change. The focus there was more about energy access. Across Vienna energy forum, everyone praised that India has actually led the global efforts by its action to address the challenge of planet change. The government’s rural electrification programme is proceeding swiftly, with over 13,000 villages electrified out of a total of 18,452 and is on track for completion within the targeted 1,000 days. Alexei Emelin Womens Jersey
Punjab, Haryana to face shortfall of cheapest BBMB power in summers
With the cheapest power from Bhakra Nangal and Beas projects all set to fall in the first quarter due to depleted level of water at reservoirs, the power utilities in Punjab and Haryana will have to spend extra buck to maintain adequate supply. Due to less rains in the catchment area, the prevailing water level at Bhakra reservoir (1200MW) and Pong (360MW) is 35 per cent and 41 per cent respectively below normal (average of last 10 years) levels. The BBMB is primarily an irrigation project and power is a by-product allocated supplied at around paise 33 per unit to beneficiary states. Punjab gets lion’s share of 51.8 per cent (1161 MW) of the total installed capacity whereas Haryana gets 37 per cent share. The projects had generated 11819 million units in 2016-17 almost 10.5 per cent lower than the previous year due to less rainfall in the catchment area. The BBMB projects have an installed capacity of 2866 MW. “Power from other sources will be arranged to cover up the shortfall and it will definitely cost more than the supply from BBMB,” a senior official of Haryana Power Generation Corporation Limited said. The dip in hydro power generation is likely to affect Punjab State Power Corporation Limited more as it also gets 1041 MW of hydro power from its share and PPAs in other projects in the North. Out of 91 main water reservoirs in the country 37 reservoirs have hydropower benefit with installed capacity of more than 60 MW. This year the water levels at such reservoirs is better than the last year and last 10 years in states of Gujarat, Odissa, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh. In states of Maharashtra, Uttrakhand, Kerela and Tamil Nadu the water level in the reservoirs having hydro generation capacity is less than normal (average of last 10 years) but better than the last year. Robert Newhouse Authentic Jersey
Wind power capacity addition outpaced predictions last year: ICRA
Capacity addition in the wind energy sector was much better than predicted by ICRA last year. This was largely attributable to a bunching up of commissioning in March 2017. This in turn was the result of removal of generation based incentive (GBI) benefit and reduction in accelerated depreciation (AD) benefit with effect from April 1, 2017. These apart, independent power producers were trying to utilise the current feed in tariff regimes in states where it existed – the apprehension being that in future, tariff based bidding, as exemplified by the award of projects by Solar Energy Corporation Ltd in February 2017, could largely replace feed-in tariff regime. ICRA has gathered from industry sources that distribution utilities in states like Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Gujarat are evaluating competitive bidding mechanism for awarding wind power projects. The wind power capacity addition during FY2017 stood at 5.4 GW, increasing by 58% over the capacity addition of 3.4 GW achieved in FY2016. The solar power capacity addition stood at 5.5 GW in FY2017, reporting a significant jump of 83% as against the capacity addition of 3.0 GW in FY2016. Despite the record capacity addition in the wind segment, the annual capacity addition in the solar power segment exceeded the wind power segment for the first time, supported by the strong policy support and also the improved cost competitiveness of solar power against conventional as well as other renewable sources, including wind. Nevertheless, the renewable energy sector reported a record capacity addition of over 11 GW in FY2017, an increase of around 60% over 7.1 GW reported in FY2016. Large capacity additions in FY2017 in the wind power segment was mainly seen in the states of Andhra Pradesh (2190 MW), Gujarat (1275 MW) and Karnataka (882 MW), while large capacity addition in FY2017 in the solar power segment was mainly seen in the states of Andhra Pradesh (1294 MW), Karnataka (882 MW) and Telangana (759 MW). Marcus Cannon Authentic Jersey
Solar installation to touch 10 Gigawatt as module prices fall further: Mercom
Solar installations in India is expected to reach approximately 10 GW as it becomes one of the most important solar markets in the world, after China and the United States, Mercom India has forecast. Fuelled by slowdown in China’s demand the industry is expecting module prices to decline slightly in the second quarter and a more pronounced fall in the second half of the year. Nevertheless, current installed capacity of domestic cells and modules is estimated at 3 GW and 8.4 GW respectively while operational capacity of solar cells and modules is 1.5 GW and 6.6 GW respectively. The Indian solar sector is seeing strong activity with cumulative installations reaching approximately 12.8 GW at the end of Q1 2017. In fact, utility-scale projects account for about 12 GW and rooftop installations account for almost 850 MW of the installed capacity. Pipeline for utility-scale projects that are under development is currently at about 12.6 GW and there are approximately 6.1 GW of tenders pending auction. In fact, large-scale projects under the National Solar Policy (NSM or JNNSM) lead in installations followed by states like Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Telangana and Karnataka. In terms of pipeline, most of the under development and tendered projects are coming up under the NSM program in various phases and batches, followed by projects under state policies led by Telangana, Karnataka, and Madhya Pradesh. On the policy front, so far, 2.6 GW of solar projects have been commissioned under various phases. These projects are spread across states including Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh. SECI targets 1,000 mw grid connected projects under JNNSM – Phase II Batch 5 for public sector undertakings and government organizations’ self-use or third-party sale or merchant sale. Meanwhile, Chinese module prices in India have continued to slide with average selling prices coming to Rs 20.68 per watt in the first quarter of 2017, a drop of an 11 per cent from Rs 23.27 per watt in Q4 2016. Chinese module prices have now fallen by about 33 percent in the last 12 months, enabling the recent low bids of Rs 3.30 per unit and Rs 3.15 per unit in Kadapa. Matt Dumba Authentic Jersey
Tangedco defaults payment, Vallur units stop supply
A week after sounding a warning, NTPC, a joint venture partner of the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB), has stopped supply of 1,000MW power from its two thermal plants in Vallur to the state power utility owing to nonpayment of `1,156 crore in dues. On Wednesday, the joint ture company in which venture company in which TNEB has 50% stake, stopped power supply to Tangedco as well as other power distribution companies in the southern states. There are three units of 500MW each at Vallur from where Tangedco gets nearly 70% of the generated power. Apart from Tamil Nadu, Vallur power is supplied to Puducherry, Karnataka and Telangana also. Coal for the units is supplied partly by Coal India Limited. The rest of the required coal is imported from Indonesia and other countries. When all the three units run, Tamil Nadu gets 1,050 MW from Vallur alone. Along with the loss of 500MW of power from unit 1 of Kudankulam, which has been shut for refuelling, the total power shortfall for Tangedco is 1,550MW . “We have credit of 60 days from the Vallur units. Of the total `1,56.05 crore due to the joint venture firm, only `400 crore is pending for more than 60 days. We will first pay `400 crore. The balance will be paid after a few other issues are settled with the company,” said a senior Tangedco official. Meanwhile, questions are being raised as to whether Tangedco will be able to meet the growing power demand for summer. “As of now, we have good wind power generation.The cost of wind power is much lower than thermal power -`5.10 per unit. There will be no problem in meeting the power demand as within a few days, wind energy generation will improve,” said the official. In an unrelated development at midnight on Wednesday, a failure in the Manali Mylapore power distribution line left localities like Teynampet, Nandanam, Mylapore, Nungambakkam, Triplicane, Sowcarpet and most parts of north Chennai without power. Electricity minister P Thangamani said 200 Tamil Nadu Electricity Board workers were carrying out repair work and power would be restored in phases area-wise. Matt Tennyson Authentic Jersey