M1L9: Renewable Energy-I

In the last lecture, we tried to see unconventional fuels like CBM and Shale gas. One another unconventional fuel is Methane Gas Hydrate for which the government has recently come it with a policy

Methane gas hydrates (MGH) are crystalline form of methane and water, and exist below arctic ice and in the shallow sediments of outer continental margins. The delineation of gas from hydra (water) is must for recovering methane.

MGH (aka frozen heat) is found along the Indian continental margin and can help to meet the overwhelming demand of energy for India. As per United States Geological Survey, India possesses the highest amount of Gas hydrates in the world. They are found on Andaman Islands.

We return back to our original chart. Check out whatever topics have been covered in previous lectures.

Almost 70% of the topics including coal, oil, gas, e-vehciles and fuel cells are covered. The ones that are left include solar, wind, hydro and nuclear. We shall divide them into two parts

This lecture shall try to cover Solar, Wind, Hydro and piezoelectric energy and the latter one will discuss Nuclear energy and JCPOA. Once these two things are done, your first module Energy Security will be over.

So, let’s start with Solar. When we look at this map, we find that India’ location is such that, it is blessed with insolation. (incoming solar radiation). So, shouldn’t we exploit this resource at the fullest? If the answer is affirmative, then why hasn’t India exploited this resource to its fullest? Kya isme bhi Gandhi or Nehru yaa Pakistan aur Mughal samrajya kaa haath he?

To answer this, lets dig deeper into the challenges that we face while using solar panels.

Issues related to solar cell

The main problem with solar power that has stifled its use is the fact that energy production only takes place when the sun is shining. Large storage systems need to be developed to provide a constant and reliable source of electricity when the sun isn't shining at night or when a cloud goes overhead. In addition to this, since electricity fluctuation is a frequent phenomenon due to movement of clouds and sun from East to West, capacitors are needed to maintain grid stability. Extreme fluctuations during events like eclipse may prove detrimental to electronics connected om the demand side.

When solar panels are not producing energy, it takes longer to recoup their installation and maintenance cost. This is due to the fact that solar panels use expensive semiconductor material to generate electricity directly from sunlight. These semiconductor factories need 'clean' manufacturing environments and are expensive to build & maintain. Thus, initial investment is very much high & out of budget (unless the government provides subsidies for it and mass production of solar panels is done to achieve larger economies of scale.)

The maximum efficiency of solar panels at this moment is only about 22% compared to 36%-38% from coal. More efficient photovoltaic cells have been discovered (up to 43% efficient but these are still in relatively new and are expensive to manufacture. In India, the solar panels we use are only 3%-4% efficient as they belong to first generation)

Installing solar panels on a house is expensive and requires experienced people. Alignment systems that rotate solar panels in the direction of the movement of the sun from East to West are too expensive for the average homeowner. Additionally, since every inch of a solar panel must be kept clear of debris, this also requires time for cleaning.

All the above factors combined, this makes the cost of producing electricity through solar panels five to eleven times more expensive than producing electricity than coal.

Other factors that deter the use of solar electricity on a large scale are as follows

To build giant solar farms, we need large inexpensive tracks of lands. They are found far from cities where the power is needed. This implies, that while we try to reduce the cost of land, this also inversely leads to an increase in the length of transmission lines that are needed to bring the power to a distant market (With this, T&D losses and cost of cable also increase). Such giant solar farms (solar thermal power house) also contribute to light pollution and distract the migratory birds from their actual paths.

The Ministry of New Renewable Energy, Government of India has taken an initiative to installed 175 GW solar project by 2022 in co-ordination with State Nodal Agencies to execute India’ INDCs, that it has pledged under Paris agreement. However, there are gaps in the capacity and quality of training infrastructure as well as outputs, insufficient focus on workforce aspirations, lack of certification and common standards and a pointed lack of focus on the unorganized sector. In order to achieve this mission more than 50,000 skilled manpower are required for installation, commissioning, operation and maintenance in the field of solar technology.

Recognizing the need and urgency of quickly coordinating the efforts of all concerned stakeholders in this field, the government has tasked TERI (The energy and research institute, New Delhi) to develop clean energy workforce, that are skilled on various aspects of solar technology. They will be called Surya Mitra. Suryamitra initiative is also a part of Make in India. Apart from that, the government has also launched Aditya Urja shops to supply components vital for installation, commissioning, operation and maintenance of solar power plants & equipment

Recently, MNRE also came out with an instrument called as Surya jyoti (shown below) that can be fitted in a dome or a ceiling of a house. Now why do we find that MNRE is launching these products? If you recall, the government has also launched Saubhagya scheme that aims to provide power to each and every household before the end of 2019. If the village is located far from the powerhouse, it would be an immaturity to extend the grid to that place unless there is a clear benefit on the investment done. In such scenarios, it would be better to go for decentralized option like constructing a solar tree (shown below) to provide electricity.

India and solar alliance

Back in the 20^th century, we saw the countries using hard power as the tool of diplomacy. Then came soft power (thanx to Joseph Nye) and now we have smart power. But have you heard about public diplomacy?

India and China are resorting to public diplomacy to increase their influence. Climate change, feminism, coalition to counter terror are some issues that are very close to the heart of people. When a country rises to take responsibility and leadership in either of these fields, every netizen/global citizen recognizes that country. This is known as public diplomacy where the government tickles and churns the emotions of the public to improve its influence. This is unlike other forms of diplomacy where the government of two countries engage with each other. Here in this case, the government bypasses the other government and directly attaches itself to a cause that is very close to the public.

Now may I ask, why did the Prime Minister select EU as a place to declare that India is ready to take responsibility to combat climate change? Obviously, International Solar Alliance (ISA) will help India to create an international body on its own soil and thereby, increase its soft power. But why did he select EU to declare his plans of creating an ISA?

 EU is close to Arctic. Which means that any further melting of ice in Arctic will immediately impact EU in some or the other way. Be it, changes in weather or hydrological levels or expansion of some desert or shift in agricultural lands or vector borne/zoological disease. So, the first casualty of Arctic ice melt will be EU which makes them over anxious about the impact of Climate change on them.

So, by declaring that India (as a rising power) is ready to take responsibility/ leadership to combat climate change, this will obviously influence the people within EU to create a pressure on their governments to support India for such a noble cause. This is what, I call as public diplomacy wherein people in democratic countries, are influenced to drive decision making of their governments in our favor.

Now you must have heard about Kyoto protocol, isn’t it? Do you remember these tools, that are provided for trade between Annex-I and Annex-II countries?

[1] Clean Development Mechanism (CDM): investment in emission reduction or removal enhancement projects in developing countries that contribute to their sustainable development

[2] Emissions Trading (ET): allows countries that have emission units to spare - emissions permitted them but not "used" - to sell this excess capacity to countries that are over their targets.

[3] Joint Implementation (JI): enables developed countries to carry out emission reduction or removal enhancement projects in other developed countries.

[4] Removal Unit (RMU): on the basis of land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) activities such as reforestation

If you remember them correctly, I believe you must have guessed now that with ISA, India will be more capable to engage with OECD countries in a better way. (particularly those that want to shift the burden of their carbon emissions on other countries without compromising their lifestyles.)

Thus ISA, will help India in two ways. It will help India attract FDI and thereby promote Make in India program in renewable energy (where 100% FDI is allowed under automatic route). At the same time, through Joint ventures and other modes of execution, Indian firms working on green and clean energy projects will get access to better technologies and contracts from the MNCs and their host governments of the developed countries.

But how do we execute CDM, JI and ET in India? For this, we need to return back to the electricity sector that we studied in lecture 2.

Layer 1 : Power producer / Power utility provider

Powerhouse => Transmission lines

Layer 2 : Discoms / Aggregators

Transformer => Substation transformer => Distribution lines

Layer 3 : Customers

Houses and apartments

workplaces and commercial offices

factories and industries

agriculture and farming

Thus, support mechanisms to promote renewable energy can be done on both the sides. We will start with the supply side

1. Enforce electric utility quota obligation on power producer/power utility provider/ power house

This refers to the obligations to use a predetermined minimum targeted renewable share of installed capacity, or electricity or heat generated or sold, and may also include penalties for non-compliance.

2. provide fiscal incentives and public financing

In this case, the government provides investment or production tax credits for e.g. through reductions in taxes on production & sales, VAT or other taxes. Public investment is also promoted through easy loans, grants, capital subsidies or rebates

3. Feed-in tariff / Feed-in premium payment

The government guarantees renewable energy generators specified payments per unit (akin to Minimum Support Price) over a fixed period of time.

4. Tendering / Reverse auctions

Tenders are procurement mechanisms wherein the supplier is selected through the process of competitive bidding. In this case, the seller who offers the bids to supply electricity at the lowest price to the end consumer is awarded the contract.

5. Tradable REC

The RECs are renewable energy certificates awarded to certify the generation of one unit of renewable energy (typically 1 MWh of electricity or heat). They can be used for trading among consumers and/or producers as a means of enabling purchases of voluntary green energy.

On the demand side, we have houses and apartments, workplaces and commercial offices, factories and industries, agriculture and farming sector. Here the government has used an incentive framework to promote the use of solar panels in individual houses or collectively on the terrace of the apartment or a building etc. This technique is called as net metering wherein, the owner will be able to sell the electricity back to the grid and earn revenue. Henceforth, at the end of the month, the payable amount will be the net of his electricity consumption and the number of units he sold back to the grid using those solar panels.

In order to do this, the government gave Solar Roof Top Subsidy of 15% of the benchmark cost to projects under four categories

1. Residential &

2. Institutional (schools, educational institutions, medical colleges, hospitals and R & D institutions – both public and private)

3. Government (both central and state government organizations as also all Panchayati Raj buildings)

4. Social sectors (old age homes, orphanages, common service centers and welfare homes, etc)

This policy was earlier called Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission and it is a part of National Solar Mission under National Action Plan for climate Change. This yojana has been recently renamed as KUSUM. The government implemented subsidies only for those solar panels, that were purchased from domestic companies. Foreign MNCs alleged that this policy, is biased towards Indian manufacturers and producers. USA complained on their behalf, against India in WTO, alleging that this is hurting American manufacturers.

The following is the timeline of Indo-US dispute related to solar @ WTO

Jan 2010:      India launches national solar mission

Oct 2013:       Cabinet committee approves domestic content requirements, meaning

solar power developers have to use solar cells & modules made in India.

Feb 2014:      USA challenges India’ solar policy in WTO for violating

1. Principle of national treatment

2. TRIMS agreement (TRIMS = Trade related investment measures, WTO agreement on investment measures related to trade in goods)

3. SCM agreement (SCM = Subsidies & Countervailing agreement, US claimed that Indian govt. provides subsidies on solar modules made by domestic companies & therefore US companies are suffering loss).

India failed to justify its case and lost twice in WTO’ dispute settlement body.