Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency

Mini-grids (MG) — the small power stations that are scaled-down versions of city power grids — are today recognised for their role in bringing reliability to power supply. They are also known for their inherent ability to utilise the abundant renewable energy (RE) present in India, and for providing a controllable and independent energy-service option to consumers. Mini-grids are crucial for creating a national-level distributed grid system too.

The Indian power ministry recently mandated periodic energy accounting to reduce electricity losses for distribution companies (DISCOMs). This move will help identify areas of high transmission and distribution (T&D) losses and theft and enable corrective action. It will also provide detailed information about electricity consumption by different consumer categories and will make DISCOM officials accountable for any losses and/or thefts falling under their purview.

In India, solar photovoltaics (PV), which is environmentally friendly and safer, is gaining popularity as a viable alternative to fossil fuels. With technological advancements in the last decade, India’s solar sector has made significant growth, with an installed capacity of 46.2 GW of the country’s total renewable energy (RE) capacity of 101.5 GW.

Over the last few years, the use of solar energy has increased considerably in India. While the overall installed solar capacity has increased by 17 times in the last seven years and stood at 47.7 GW as of October 2021, its share in the energy mix is just about 12 per cent, according to Central Energy Authority (CEA) data. This share is likely to increase in the future, considering the steady efforts from the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) towards promoting clean energy technologies.

India, the world’s third-largest GHGs emitter, has its transport sector contributing 10% of total national GHG emissions, with road transportation contributing about 87% of the sector’s total emissions. The adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) is one way to bring down emissions. While the Indian Government has issued various policy measures, successful EV uptake lies in policy implementation at the State level.

India has 21 of the 30 cities with the worst air quality in the world. Every year, we keep exploring options to curb air pollution. The transport sector is a significant contributor to air pollution in the cities. The electric vehicle (EV) segment could play a key role in decarbonising the sector. However, to realise green mobility in its truest sense, electric vehicles (EVs) need to run on clean energy. India’s power grid is predominantly coal-based at the moment.

India has 21 of the 30 cities with the worst air quality in the world. The transport sector is a major contributor (40%–80%) to air pollution in the cities. Hence, decarbonising the transport sector with the deployment of electric vehicles (EVs)is a crucial step in mitigating air pollution. Running an electric vehicle in the USA leads to a greater reduction in CO2 emissions than running it in India since the grid energy (used by the EV) in India is predominantly generated using coal.

A differential pricing mechanism that calculates different pumping and generation prices for pumped-hydro energy storage (PHES) should be employed for its growth in India, recommends a recent study by the Center for Study of Science, Technology and Policy (CSTEP).

On 29 November 2021, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) announced that the country’s total installed renewable energy (RE) capacity (including hydro) had crossed 150 gigawatts (GW), while also setting a new target of reaching 175 GW capacity of RE by 2022.

India plans to install 450 gigawatt (GW) of renewable energy (RE) generation capacity by 2030. However, RE is highly intermittent in nature and cannot be dispatched on the basis of real-time demand. Utility-scale energy storage technologies such as battery and pumped-hydro could be the answer to this problem. Pumped-hydro energy storage (PHES) is the oldest and most mature large-scale storage technology and accounts for 96% of global installed energy storage capacity.