India′s feasible but difficult mission : India Inc. Interview

India′s feasible but difficult mission : India Inc. Interview

Rangan Banerjee is the Forbes Marshall Chair Professor and the Head of Department of Energy Science and Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. He has been involved in setting up a 1 MW scale solar thermal power plant cum test facility in India and was the faculty advisor to Team Shunya - India's first team in the Solar Decathlon finals.India Inc. caught up with Prof. Banerjee to review the Indian government's Solar India challenge and potential for global alliances in the sector.Are India's solar energy targets realistic and achievable India's solar PV [photovoltaic] sector has seen a significant growth from 3 MW in 2008 to about 4000 MW (4GW) in 2015. The target of 100 GW by 2022 involves continued growth at a 60% annual growth rate. This is technically feasible but difficult to achieve.The key bottleneck would be investments. Even considering Rs 70 million / MW this would involve an investment of Rs. 628,000 million in solar PV in India. India has higher rates of debt and access to capital is an issue. The challenge would be to attract investors.Affordability of electricity could be an issue. However, if preferential tariffs for PV continue, the average tariff may increase by less than 50 paise/kWh. This amount may need to be provided from Green funds on the cess on coal.What more can the private sector do within the solar space Private players need to focus on the roof top market. There is also a need to focus on standardisation and cost reduction: large commercial and industrial installations who pay significantly high targets are prime targets for PV. Package PV solutions should be supported by aggressive marketing to make them desirable products for the affluent and middle class.What kind of global alliances can be formed to achieve India's renewable goal An important factor for India is enhancing and supporting indigenous industry for cells, modules and systems. Global alliances to help make PV in India would be useful. Global alliances for supporting investments and financing the PV sector would help achieve the target.What should India's stance be at the Paris climate change summit in December India's stance at the climate negotiations should indicate the need for funding for clean energy developments, availability of green IP for developing countries, access to low interest capital funds and funds for energy access. There are potential trade - offs between low carbon growth and development.Higher investments in renewables should not imply cutting down on investments in development sectors. This implies a need for financial support from countries with higher emissions borders.Carbon reduction targets should not reduce India's development on growth options.Any latest developments in the sector that excite you The possibility of printed PV cells, low dye sensitised PV seem promising. I also see the need for advances in battery technology. The focus has to be on significant cost reductions.

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