by Sachidanand Upadhyay, CEO & Director - Lord's Mark Industries
India is a signatory to the declaration on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development comprising seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Agenda was tabled by the United Nations at its Sustainable Development Summit held in September 2015. Goal 7 of the SDGs aims to ensure that people from various strata of society, especially the underprivileged sections have unhindered access to affordable, clean and reliable energy supply by the year 2030.
Countries in Asia have conventionally been witnessing non-renewable fossil fuels like coal and crude oil dominating their total energy mix. However, the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic put focus on the disruptions caused to the global energy infrastructure and supply chains. The pandemic has forced the world to have a relook at its energy policies, re-evaluate its energy security positions and accelerate the transition towards renewable energy on a priority basis. From a macro perspective, the world has realised the need to seamlessly shift towards a zero-carbon emission regime with an emphasis on facilitating a sustainable and climate-friendly energy sector. A carbon-neutral economy has a key role to play in insulating global economies, especially those in developing countries, from future economic shocks and making them highly resilient to emerging unforeseen disruptions.
By leveraging new-age advanced digital tools and solutions, a large number of emerging economies in the Asian region, led by India, have placed thrust on boosting investments towards ramping up their clean energy infrastructure. Data collated from Rystad Energy has pointed to the fact that a surge is foreseen in the installed capacity of renewable energy in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region from 517 GW in 2020 to 815 GW in 2025. The world is witnessing a rapid shift towards generation of power by harnessing renewable energy sources like solar power, wind power and hydropower.
India reiterated an avowed resolve to bolster its clean energy initiatives when it committed to install 175 GW of renewable power by 2022 comprising 100 GW of solar power, 60 GW of wind power, 10 GW of bio-power and 5 GW of small hydropower. This was just before the Paris climate summit. To ensure higher compliance towards net-zero commitments, the Indian government under PM Modi has set an ambitious target of installing 450 GW of renewable energy by 2030. The government has also taken steps to ensure that benefits of solar energy reach grassroots populations by providing 17 lakh solar pumps to farmers under the Pradhan Mantri Kusum Yojana.
Solar power to play key role in electrifying rural India
Around 65% of India’s population resides in the country’s rural areas. Harnessing the potential of renewable energy in general and solar energy in particular has been pivotal to bridging the gap in electricity access for rural India, both for households and commercial activities like agriculture. Solar energy has also played a key role in enabling mass electrification of villages in the country. It has ensured universal power access and energy equity for the rural diaspora.
There is a direct correlation between development of renewable energy and creating robust local self-sustaining economies in rural hinterlands. It has the potential to position rural areas as domestic demand and consumption hubs by improving the living standards of village communities. Mainstreaming the use of renewable energy, especially solar energy in rural areas will not only reduce carbon footprints but also create suitable pathways for sustainable rural development.
Solar power and smart cities
PM Narendra Modi announced the Smart Cities Mission in June 2015. Leveraging the advanced potential of information and communication technology (ICT), the Smart Cities Mission aims at providing a sustainable living environment and world-class infrastructure to city inhabitants. In order to create a clean and green energy ecosystem in the future-focused cities of tomorrow, it has been mandated by the government that 10% of the energy needs of the urban dwellings need to be supplied through solar energy. The Mission has further reaffirmed that 80% of buildings in a smart urban setting need to be energy-efficient. Solar power will not only play a key role in building the smart and sustainable cities of the future but also ensure high energy resilience for such cities.
Optimizers: smart solutions for boosting solar energy production
High transmission and distribution costs associated with conventional energy sources has fuelled the demand for solar energy big time in India. Large-scale tapping of solar energy by residential complexes along with industrial & commercial galas has the potential to bring huge cost rationalization in their power tariffs. Solar power is generated through solar modules installed on rooftops. However, accumulation of dust, shade or any other obstruction prevents sunlight from reaching the modules, in turn, impacting their power generating capacity. In order to ensure that module degeneration effects are mitigated and losses are minimized, an optimizer is used in which power passed from the modules is broken into pulses (packets) prior to being transferred to an inverter and then distributed to consumers. Smart technologies and advanced digital tools have accentuated the functionalities of all modules as individual entities, not connected through a series. This ensures that an equilibrium is maintained in the overall power generation ratio as the production capacities of normally operational single modules balance the under-performances of affected modules.
Make in India: Giving a thrust to clean and renewable solar energy
The “Make in India” initiative of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has identified the increased use of renewable energy sources like solar energy as a key focus area in tandem with reaffirming to the commitment of reducing the carbon footprint in the country. The onus here is to reduce the overwhelming dependence on conventional, polluting energy sources like coal and crude and increase the share of clean, renewable energy sources like solar in the national power grid. The government has initiated several programs to make India one of the largest producers of solar power in the world.
The broader focus of “Make in India” should be to promote and fund indigenous technology and expertise by incentivizing domestic solar equipment manufacturers and making the domestic industry globally competitive. It has been seen that presently solar modules and equipment is sourced from countries like China on account of lower costs. It is high time that a suitable policy is promulgated to boost the functional competencies of the Indian solar generation equipment industry.
With home to one of the world’s largest clean energy expansion programs, India is witnessing an exponentially rising domestic and global investor interest in its renewable energy space. The Indian government should expedite the process of creating a robust and vibrant renewable energy sector in India and position the country as an important player in the global clean energy domain.
