Over view of Non - Conventional Energy Sector in India
Introduction: India is poised to make an evolutionary change in the areas of generation and consumption of nonconventional energy resources. Currently, India’s commercial energy consumption basket comprises of coal, oil,
natural gas, nuclear power, hydro electricity and renewables. In terms of million tonne oil equivalent (MTOE) it
has gone up from 320.8 in 2003-04 to 648.8 MTOE in 2013-14. Table -1 below showing the growth in the
commercial energy basket, registered a CAGR of 6.61% (between 2003 and 2014); but highest growth had taken
place in renewables around 25 % followed by others. Of the total capacity of 272503 megawatt now in the country
renewable energy accounts for 35777 megawatt.
Table –1: India’s Commercial Energy Consumption Basket1
2003
2013
2014
Coal
Oil
Natural Gas
Consumption (MTOE)
Nuclear
Hydro Electricity
Renewables
Total
156.8
324.3
360.2
116.5
175.3
180.7
26.6
46.3
45.6
4.1
7.5
7.8
1.2
12.5
13.9
320.8
595.7
648.8
15.7
29.8
29.6
Solar and Renewable Energy: The country is endowed with a very vast solar energy potential. Most parts of the
country have about 300 sunny days. Solar energy has high potential and it can be utilized through solar
photovoltaic technology which enables direct conversion of sunlight into energy and solar thermal technologies.
Over the last three decades several solar energy based systems and devices have been developed and deployed in
India which are successfully providing energy solutions for lighting, cooking, water heating, air heating, drawing
and electricity generation. The research and development in this sector have also helped in better efficiency,
affordability and quality of the products. As a result many solar energy systems and devices are commercially
available with affordable cost in the market.
Current stance of the Government : The current government’s aim is to achieve energy security and generate
enough power to keep the country’s economic engine chugging and energy should be available at affordable price
to make the country competitive in manufacturing arena. Current focus of the power ministry is to put national
assets to good use to keep energy costs affordable and address peak shortages.
The new government marked a fundamental shift, a leap forward in the energy policy, to promote solar and
renewable energy as the prime driver of energy security for the country. The government plans to achieve
1,75,000 MW of power by 2022, from current installed capacity of 31692.14 MW. Solar power will be around 56
% plus 99588 MW in the total. Below presented (see Table -2) regional distribution of different renewable energy
sources the country wants to achieve.
Table –2: Tentative Region-wise break-up of Renewable Power target to be achieved by the year 2022.
Solar Power (MW)
Northern
Western
Southern
Eastern
North Eastern
Island
All India
1
31120
28410
26531
12237
1205
31
99533
Source : BP –World Energy Statistics 2030
Wind (MW)
SHP (MW)
8600
22600
28200
600
60000
1
2450
125
1675
135
615
5000
Biomass Power (MW)
4149
2875
2612
244
120
10000
Global Scenario: World energy consumption has increased from 10919.6 MTOE in 2004 to 12928.4 MTOE in
2014(see Table 3 below). During the same period renewable energy consumption has increased from 84.9
MTOE to 316.9 MTOE. The CAGR ( given in the last column) of renewable energy consumption growth is
much higher during this period than the growth of world primary energy consumption. Further, growth of
consumption of renewable energy was much higher than world average during this period in the Asia Pacific
region and consumption in India is higher than Asia Pacific region also. China has however surpassed India’s
growth in renewable consumption during the same period.
Table-3 : Consumption of Primary Energy and Renewable Energy (MTOE)
World Primary Energy Consumption
World Renewable Energy Consumption
Asia Pacific
India
China
Japan
2004
2014
10919.6
84.9
17.2
2.3
1.1
6.5
12928.4
316.9
94.2
13.9
53.1
11.6
CAGR
2004-14
1.70
14.08
18.54
19.70
47.35
5.96
Issues in Technology: Given the strong focus of solar enery in the country, educational and research institutions
are carrying on researches in the areas of solar photovolataic and solar thermal to make it effective and
commercially viable. Indian institutions like BITS Pilani, IITs, BESU of Kolkta, CSIR-IICT of Hyderabad,
NPL-CISR of New Delhi, Universities of Delhi, Cochin, Gandhinagar are engaged in research and development
of solar photovoltaic. In the area of solar thermal WRST of Mumbai, IITs of Mumbai and Jodhpur, CEPT of
Ahmedabad, RGVP of Bhopal and Sunborne Energy Technologies Pvt Limited Gurgaon are engaged in
research and development activity.
Global research work are going on at Stanford University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology on the area
of photovoltaic. Methylammonium lead oxide, a compound of cannary–yellow liquid, throws up possibilities of
dramatic increase in the world’s use of power from the sun, also termed as to the category of pervoskites.This
compound can be used in solar cells. As Economist (16 May 2015) reported ..” Solar cells, perovskite ones
included, all function broadly the same way. When lights hit a crystal of the material they are made from, it frees
electrons (which are negatively charged) and leaves behind what are, in effect, positively charged holes in the
crystal lattice. This formation of crystal-hole pairs is characteristic of semiconductors exposed to light.
Neighbouring materials then capture the positive and negative charges and transport them to electrode layers
on the cell’s outer faces, where they generate a current. Last year Michael Gratzel of Swiss Federal Institute of
Technology, in Lusanne, devised a cell in which the perovskites were infused in to the electron capturing
material rather than being a separate layer. It is being said perovskite are cheap to turn into cells and can be a
strong rival of silicon solar cells. In 2009 the first perovskite solar cells converted 3.8% of the light falling on them
into electricity which has gone up to 20% over a period. Researcher expect it can go up even to 25% in the time to
come.
Conclusion: Given the current state of research and development in the areas of renewable energy in general and
solar energy in particular, successful implementation of renewable projects will not only change the energy mix in
the country but dependence on fossil fuel would come down. Cost of electricity for all sectors of consumers
would come down, disposable income would increase for all segments of customers. There are possibilities of
drawing foreign investment in this sector, since current government policy to push renewable energy to top of the
country’s energy security agenda - would assure better return on investment for the investors.
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