India’s ambitious renewable energy plans

IWTMA_logoAs a follow up of the ‘Make in India’ initiative launched by the Indian Prime Minister late last year,  his Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, along with IREDA and the two main industry organizations CII and FICCI organized the first Renewable Energy Global Investors Meet & Expo (RE-INVEST) between 15-17 February 2015 in New Delhi.
At the inauguration, 293 companies committed to a target of 266 GW of renewable energy by 2020 under the government’s ambitious RE-Invest programme. The target includes achieving over 80 GW of wind capacity cumulatively by 2020.

RE-INVEST 2015

The 1st Renewable Energy Global Investors Meet and Expo (RE-Invest) 2015 was conducted at New Delhi from 15th to 17th February 2015. The three-day conference was inaugurated by the Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi. Inaugurating the conference, Mr. Modi said that the solar, wind and biomass sources of energy are the way forward and the government is working towards making solar power more viable. There should be thrust on equipment manufacturing under the ‘Make in India’ plan as it will go a long way in job creation. He added that there is a need to develop hybrid plants as well for optimum utilisation of available land. Prime Minister emphasized the need for change from Mega Watt to Giga Watt.

 

Green Energy Commitments

At the inauguration, 293 companies committed to generate 266 GW of renewable energy in the next five years under the government’s ambitious RE-Invest programme by setting up renewable power plants and manufacture the equipment as well. The commitments made for wind energy was for 45296 MW by power producers, and 36350 MW from manufacturers.

 

Onshore Wind Energy on 17th February 2015 sponsored by IWTMA:

As a part of Re-invest, IWTMA sponsored a session on Onshore Wind on 17th February 2015. The session focussed on policy, regulatory, financing and other major issues concerning wind power business in India and concentrated on building a comprehensive roadmap for achieving our targets.

 

60 MW Target:

With an ambitious target of 60 GW by 2022 set by Government of India, the wind energy sector is poised to achieve 10 GW per annum installation in the next 5 years. This will require focusing and solving the following main issues:

  • Continuation of AD should be there till critical mass is achieved. This will encourage more IPPs and PSUs to invest in the RE projects.
  • Adequate funds should be made available for Generation Based Incentive.
  • To achieve ‘Make in India’ for renewable energy, the government should endeavour for developing the entire supply chain.
  • Together with the focus on supply, attention would have to be paid to creating This can be done by strengthening RPO and ensuring its compliance by States by introducing Energy Law and making RPO compliance mandatory.

 

Push for Wind Solar Hybrid Systems:

There is a push for wind solar hybrid systems by using an optimum combination of wind-turbines and solar-PV with an efficiently shared infrastructure like land, evacuation, operations and maintenance etc. allowing greater economic and social utilization of all resources. As the wind generation is predominant during evening & night and solar peaks during the day resulting in to supply of energy produced by both the sources to the grid using common evacuation resources, thus enabling greater power production and evacuated per unit area. Wind Solar Hybrid System also finds a place in the proposed National Wind Mission announced by MNRE.

 

Scheduling and Forecasting for Higher Penetration of Wind:

Though the RRF mechanism has been put to hold, the efforts to put Scheduling and Forecasting are going on for greater penetration of wind in the grid. The wind power industry is working with concerned agencies to improve acceptability of wind energy by state utilities in a time bound manner. The Renewable Energy Management Centres (REMCs) are to be started in the wind rich States of India. REMCs will be equipped with advanced forecasting tools, smart dispatching solutions, real time monitoring of RE generation and closely coordinating with SLDC/RLDC. The forecasting by the state REMC would be passed on to the state SLDC, which would be used for scheduling.

 

Wind Installations in 2014-15:

Industry hopes to cover 2.2 GW of installations during 2014-15 and is looking at 3.5 to 4.00 GW installations in 2015-16.

 

Repowering

Another focus area for increase in RE generation is Repowering. Till 2000-02 In India the Wind Electric Generator (WEG) ratings were from 225 kW to 600 kW with rotor diameter 30 to 40 meter and hub height of 30 meter getting CUF in the range of 15%. Now-a-days almost all WEG are rated 1.5 MW to 2.1 MW and even higher with rotor diameter of 90-100 meters and hub-height of 80-100 meter with CUF of 20% in low wind area and 25-30% in high wind sites. The old WEGs are incidentally located in reasonably good wind sites. With the repowering the installed capacity would increase marginally but generation would increase substantially.

Indo German Energy Forum (IGEF) Support Office has initiated a study supported by Ministry of New and Renewable Energy and National Institute of Wind Energy titled “Roadmap for developing conducive framework for repowering of old wind turbines and the assessment of its market potential in India”. The study aims to understand the issues, policy requirements, techno-financial needs and the total market potential for repowering of the old wind turbines in India. One of the objectives is to understand the policy requirements that MNRE may choose to include in a policy for repowering. For this purpose, IGEF Support Office has engaged Idam Infrastructure Advisory Pvt Ltd to undertake this study.

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