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For developing countries like India, Greenpeace has proposed a feed-in-tariff system which would provide the financing to enable massive renewable energy uptake. The scheme proposes a mechanism where the additional costs of renewable energies are financed by a combination of new sectoral emissions trading mechanisms and direct finance from technology funds to be developed in the Copenhagen climate deal.

Especially in developing countries, renewable energy investment and hence total generation costs, remains higher than those of existing coal or gas-fired power stations and this is unlikely to change in the next five to ten years. To bridge this investment and cost gap between conventional fossil fuel based power generation and renewable energy, a support mechanism is required. The Feed in Tariff Support Mechanism (FTSM) is a concept conceived by Greenpeace International. The aim of the mechanism is to expand the use of renewable energy in developing countries with financial support from industrialized nations. It is a mechanism which can allow for rapid deployment of renewable energy technologies via a new sectoral no-lose mechanism or through a technology transfer fund under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

In this backdrop, Greenpeace estimated the future installed capacity growth for renewable energy in India, including Solar PV. This estimate is based on two probable scenarios, the reference and the revolution scenario. The reference scenario is comparatively conservative and the revolution scenario assumes aggressive government policies and investments towards the growth of renewable energy.

Reference scenario

In this scenario, the installed capacity of solar PV is estimated to increase to 3GW by 2020 from current installed capacity.

India: Projected Installed Capacity (GW)

Year

 Solar PV Installed Capacity (GW)

2020

3

2030

7

2040

11

2050

16

Source: http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/files/energy-revolution.pdf

 Revolution scenario

Under the revolution scenario, it is estimated that the installed capacity of solar PV will increase to 10 GW by 2020.  The solar PV capacity is projected to outpace the future installed capacity of wind power in 2040.

India: Projected Installed Capacity (GW)

Year

Solar PV Installed Capacity (GW)

2020

10

2030

118

2040

486

2050

1093

Source: http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/files/energy-revolution.pdf

National Solar Mission

Transcending the estimates of the revolution scenario of Greenpeace, the recently launched Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (NSM) has three successive stages leading up to an installed capacity of 20,000 MW of solar energy including solar thermal by the end of the 13th Five Year Plan in 2022. The solar mission states to achieve off grid solar applications of 200 MW by 2013; 1,000 MW by 2017; and 2,000 MW by 2022. In utility grid power for both solar PV and solar thermal, including rooftop, it targets 1,000-2,000 MW by 2013; 4,000-10,000 MW by 2017; and 20,000 MW by 2022.

National Solar Mission Targets

 

Year

 

Target installed capacity (GW)

2013

1-2

2017

4-10

2022

20

                  Source: Ministry of New and Renewable Energy

Know About Solar Prospect In The Next 5 Years

 

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