India's Renewable Energy Sector

Since after signing the Paris Climate Deal, the renewable energy installation is in high rise in India. By end of FY20, India's renewable energy is at 132 GW (36% of total installed) and at 82 GW excluding Hydropower (22%). Back in 31st March 2014, the installed Solar and Wind power capacity was 2632 MW and 23354 MW respectively. By 31 August 2020, the installed Solar and Wind energy rose to 35739 MW (1357%) and 38124 MW (163%) respectively. This makes India 4th largest Wind and 5th largest Solar installed nations in the World. As a result India's Wind and Solar combined share rose from 3% of total generation in 2015 to 10% in H1 of 2020. Coal share in same time span fell from 77% to 68%. The International Solar Alliance (ISA) is an alliance of 121 countries initiated by India, most of them being sunshine countries, which lie either completely or partly between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. The primary objective of the alliance is to work for efficient consumption of solar energy to reduce dependence on fossil fuels.

Some of the biggest Solar Parks in India are -

1. Bhadla Solar Park, Rajasthan - 2245 MW - World's largest

2. Shakti Sthala, Pavagada, Karnataka - 2050 MW - World's 2nd largest (cost ₹14400 crore)

3. Kurnool Ultra Mega, Andhra Pradesh - 1000 MW

4. Ananthapuram Ultra Mega, Andhra Pradesh - 900 MW

5. Rewa Ultra Mega, Madhya Pradesh - 750 MW

6. Charnaka Solar, Gujarat - 690 MW

7. Kamuthi, Tamil Nadu - 648 MW

India has World's 3rd and 4th largest onshore wind farms. They are -

#3 - Muppandal, Tamil Nadu - 1500 MW

#4 - Jaisalmer, Rajasthan - 1064 MW

Pune based Suzlon Energy Limited is one of the World's largest (5th largest based on MAKE) wind turbine manufacturer. The cumulative capacity (2020) is 17 GW. The other wind turbine manufacturer in India are - 

  1. GE Wind Energy (American, HQ : Pune, India)
  2. Inox Wind (Parent: Gujarat Fluorochemicals Ltd., Mfg unit - Gujarat, MP, HP)
  3. RRB Energy (HQ: New Delhi, Mfg unit - Chennai)
  4. Vestas India (Danish, began operation in India in 1997; Nacelles - Chennai; Blades - Ahmedabad; R&D - Largest outside Denmark in Chennai)
  5. Wind World India Ltd (estd in 1994, formerly Enercon)
  6. Siemens Gamesa (The company has two blade factories in Nellore (Andhra Pradesh), and Halol (Gujarat), a nacelle factory in Mamandur (Chennai, Tamil Nadu), and an operations & maintenance center in Red Hills (Chennai, Tamil Nadu).)
  7. LM Wind Power (Subsidiary of GE, wind rotor blades maker, opened manufacturing unit in Vadodara in 2016)

India has a solar cell manufacturing capacity of 3 GW, where as the annual demand is 20 GW. So a majority of Solar cells are imported from likes of JinkoSolar(HQ: Shanghai, China), JA Solar (HQ: Beijing, China), Trina Solar(HQ: Changzhou, China) etc. India currently makes enough solar panels to produce 16GW power, solar modules to generate 8 GW and enough cells to generate 3GW. There are almost 100 module makers and 15 cell producers, largely for the domestic market, but no wafer makers. Some of the Indian Solar cell manufacturers that are competing with Chinese makers are - Adani Solar (Mundra SEZ), Waaree (HQ: Mumbai), Vikram Solar (HQ: Kolkata), Goldi Solar (HQ: Surat) etc. Top 10 solar PV project developers in India accounted for over 68% of all utility scale project installations. ReNew Power was the top developer with the most utility-scale solar installations in the year 2019. Huawei was the top solar inverter supplier in the Indian market with approximately 54% of total shipments in 2019. But everything has both positive and negative sides. Solar Modules use potentially hazardous materials, including lead compounds, polymers, cadmium compounds etc. , known as "Solar Waste". IRENA projected that the Solar waste could reach 78 MMT by 2050. Kochi Airport in Kerala became World's first Solar powered Airport. Some of the biggest Solar bidders in India are - Adani Green Energy, Azure Power, MoserBaer Power, Kotak Urja, ACME Group, TATA Solar etc. A global ranking on Sep. 2020 revealed that Adani Green Energy (AGEL), part of the Adani Group conglomerate, had overtaken Hong Kong's GCL New Energy to become the world's top solar developer. Some of the leading Solar EPC contractors are - Stopnot Energy, Sure Energy, Involute Engineering, Red Solar etc.

The export of Indian solar cells and modules surged from ₹847 crore in 2018-19 to ₹1,506 crore in 2019-20, the volume growth was also robust, rising a remarkable 175 per cent over the same period, from 2.5 million units to 6.9 million units in the same period.


 

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