Can Solar In India Change The World?

Article published on www.cleantechnica.com , in August 20th, 2015

The Indian solar story is much bigger than the story of one country and one technology. It is one of those game-changing developments that will have an impact on many aspects of our lives, around the globe.

It is the opportunity of a lifetime for India, for the global energy industry, and for the climate. Here is why:

A Lifetime Opportunity for Indians

India is where China was 30 years ago: It needs to industrialise, and for that, it needs to massively expand its energy infrastructure. The difference is: its choices are much better and clearer.

A look at China shows the downsides of a coal-heavy strategy: severe pollution and enormous water-usage. At the same time, the costs of wind and solar have fallen to about 10% of what they were in 1990.

India today has an option China never had: to build its future energy infrastructure around solar (and other renewables, storage, and smart grids), rather than coal.

This will be a choice that costs less, is much cleaner, saves water, provides a maximum of energy security, and allows India to move to the forefront of key future technologies. Solar has enough potential to satisfy vastly increased power demand in India.

It is also the opportunity of a lifetime for Indians that have no access to power (mostly in the villages) or face highly unreliable power (in many cities and industrial hubs). Solar now puts the power into the hands of consumers. It is quick and easy to install, making distributed power generation possible. In the future, if the government won’t fix it, consumers will do it themselves.

A Lifetime Opportunity for Energy Companies

India is a huge market, perhaps the largest future energy opportunity anywhere. As compared to China, it is also a much more open market. Also, solar is typically a more transparent (less corrupt, less political), more competitive, less complex, and more environmentally friendly market than thermal power.

The promise of the Indian solar market attracts an entirely new crowd of international investors, ranging from American and European utilities to the Japanese entrepreneur Masayoshi Son and his Softbank, to leading private equity investors and the Russian oil major Rosneft — often shifting away from other energy businesses (oil, coal, nuclear). They are making investment bets as large as any in the global energy market and India has attracted the biggest share of international investments this year.

A Lifetime Opportunity for the Global Climate

Last but not least, solar in India is one of the biggest single measures to save the global climate. If India goes down China’s path of coal, it will be very near impossible to keep the 2° Celsius target.

On the other hand, if India can build a modern energy infrastructure around solar, it will be of enormous benefit to everyone. And think of the effect this would have on development conversations everywhere: it can show the way for many other countries in a similar stage of development in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East — altogether half the world’s population. 

Floating solar is now a viable and installed alternative to ground mounting system. India has a high potential for systems.

Indian State Of Uttar Pradesh Signs 600 MW Solar Power Agreements

Article originally published in cleantechnica.com, on May 6th 2015

Indian states are gearing up to develop ambitious ultra mega solar power projects in association with the Solar Energy Corporation of India.

The state of Uttar Pradesh has signed agreements with the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) for installation of four solar PV power projects with a total capacity of 600 MW. The projects will be set up under the Indian government’s larger policy to add 20 GW solar power capacity through ultra mega solar power projects in the next few years. The capacity of these projects is expected to be between 500 MW and 4 GW, however, states where adequate land is not available will distribute the total capacity into relatively smaller sizes of few hundred megawatts.

The four projects planned in Uttar Pradesh will be distributed in a project of 350 MW, a project of 50 MW and two projects of 100 MW each. The timeline for implementation of these projects has not been revealed but the projects are part of the updated National Solar Mission which plans to add new capacity worth 97 GW by 2022.

While Uttar Pradesh has a solar power policy of its own, it is yet to see any significant momentum. Being one of the largest states, in terms of population as well as area, Uttar Pradesh holds tremendous solar power generation potential. Various state governments have so far failed to tap that potential.

SECI, for its part, has initiated procedures to set up these projects. The government agencyissued an engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) services tender to facilitate installation of 2 GW solar power capacity.

Agreements with 7 state governments representing 9.85 GW solar PV have so far been signed by the SECI.

India Plans Several Green Bond Issues To Fund Renewable Energy Expansion

Article originally published in cleantechnica.com, on april 17th 2015

India is looking at several avenues to finance its ambitious plans to expand renewable energy capacity. The Indian government has reportedly asked at least 8 financial institutions to raisefunds for renewable capacity expansion. These funds are expected to be raised through issuance of green bonds.

Public sector entities like Rural Electrification Corporation, Power Finance Corporation, IDBI Bank, Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency, and private sector entities like India Infrastructure Finance Limited, ICICI Bank, and Yes Bank, have all been asked to issue green bonds to raise funds for renewable energy projects.

While media reports have not provided details of the bonds, they may be issued to foreign as well as domestic investors. The Indian government has incentivised infrastructure bonds by making investing in them tax free. A similar approach may be taken to attract domestic investors.

Dollar-denominated green bonds may be issued to foreign investors. Yes Bank recently raised $150 million through India’s first green bond issue. The response to Yes Bank’s green bond issue was overwhelming, raising double the amount it had initially targeted. The International Finance Corporation is believed to have expressed interest in investing in such green bonds.

The Indian Export-Import Bank raised $500 million through the first dollar-denominated green bond issue in India. India offers very high deposit rates compared to developed countries where the green bonds market has been traditionally centred. Thus, rupee-denominated bond issues are expected to be much more attractive, as has been the case with the Yes Bank issue.

India plans to increase its renewable energy capacity from current 35 GW to 175 GW by 2022. This includes fresh solar power capacity addition of 97 GW.

How France Is Helping India Meet Its 100 GW Solar Target

Article published in cleantechnica.com, on april 14th, 2015.

During Modi’s recent visit to Paris, India and France signed a memorandum of understanding to expand cooperation in the fields of solar and other renewable energies.

The memorandum was signed between the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy and France’s Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy. France is eyeing major cooperation with India in the field of solar energy. So far, French firms are involved in the production of 10% of the solar electricity output in India.

A joint statement issued by the two countries read:

France welcomes the very ambitious objectives set by the Indian government in terms of energy access to all and the development of renewable energy. France is already supporting India’s efforts to secure its energy supply and develop its sources of renewable energy, including solar power. India welcomed the target set by French companies aimed at developing 8 to 10 GW of solar energy in India by 2020-2022. France is also willing to support other renewable sources in India, such as wind, biomass and hydropower.

The Indian government was in talks with the French Development Agency (Agence Française de Développement, or AFD) among others, to raise low-cost debt finance for both utility scale and rooftop solar power projects. President Hollande confirmed the target of AFD credit line of 1 billion euros over the next three years for sustainable infrastructure and urban development in India.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Francois Hollande while jointly addressing the media

French solar projects developer Solairedirect SA has been present in India almost since the start of India’s National Solar Mission. While the majority of the company’s installations are located in France, India represents the second largest market for the company.

As of now Solairedirect has four solar projects in operation or under construction, with a total capacity of 72 MW. This includes a 21 MW solar PV plant inaugurated in Fazilka district of Punjab in Februray 2015. Very recently, the company won a new tender from the state of Telangana for three projects with a total installed capacity of 57.5 MW. As per its announcements at the Indian RE-INVEST international renewable energy investors summit, Solairedirect has set goals to install 2 GW of solar PV capacity in India over the next few years. If the company achieves its target, it could see India becoming its largest market terms of generation capacity.

The renewable energy arm of French state-run utility Electricite De France SA (EDF), EDF Energies Nouvelles (EDF EN), and Luxembourg-based EREN have a 25% stake each in ACME Solar Energy Ltd, the solar energy arm of New Delhi-based ACME Cleantech Solutions.

In the deal notified in December 2013, ACME was to get Rs 5.5 billion spread over three years. Only last year, ACME Solar declared plans to own 1,000 megawatts of installed solar power projects by 2017.

PR Fonroche, a joint-venture between PR Clean Energy (India) and Fonroche Energie S.a.s (France) commissioned two solar photovoltaic based power plants (5 MW and 15 MW)  in Bikaner, Rajasthan. These projects were awarded to the company under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission’s Phase I Batch II scheme.

Incidentally, the first of the two projects of 5 MW capacity, which was commissioned in December 2012, was the first Indo-French collaboration in the Indian Renewable Energy sector.

Areva Solar (now closed), the CSP arm of nuclear major Areva had been awarded a contract by Reliance Power Limited to build a 250 megawatt (MW) concentrated solar power (CSP) installation in India.

Under the contract, AREVA was to build two 125 MW CSP plants using its Compact Linear Fresnel Reflector (CLFR) technology in Rajasthan. However, with Areva Solar closing its shutters, only one plant was realised and came online last year. The second unit is said to be in the planning phase.

In another interesting partnership, Bengaluru based  Enzen Global Solutions Pvt (EGSPL) has tied up with with the French company Ciel et Terre to build floating solar power plants in India. The State of Karnataka, (India) alone is said to have 36000 irrigation lakes of more than 24 acres. As per information on EGSPL’s website, a detailed project report (DPR) has been submitted to the authorities for the the state’s first floating solar power station on water, to come up on Nittur Lake of Tumakuru district.

For expansion in Eastern and North-Eastern India, Ciel et Terre has entered into an agreement with Klystron Electronics, which is one of the leading Electrical Construction House in Eastern India

Other French companies present in the Indian solar space include the oil major, Total, present through its subsidiary SunPower , and Alstom Power is engaged in four solar power plants of 25 MW for supplying steam turbines.

Photo Credit: French Embassy In India via Flickr