A report by http://www.researchgate.net named Renewable energy in India: Current status and future potentials states –
The renewable energy sources like wind energy, solar energy, geothermal energy, ocean energy, biomass energy and fuel cell technology can be used to overcome energy shortage in India. To meet the energy requirement for such a fast growing economy, India will require an assured supply of 3–4 times more energy than the total energy consumed today. The renewable energy is one of the options to meet this requirement. Today, renewable account for about 33% of India’s primary energy consumptions. India is increasingly adopting responsible renewable energy techniques and taking positive steps towards carbon emissions, cleaning the air and ensuring a more sustainable future. In India, from the last two and half decades there has been a vigorous pursuit of activities relating to research, development, demonstration, production and application of a variety of renewable energy technologies for use in different sectors. In this paper, efforts have been made to summarize the availability, current status, major achievements and future potentials of renewable energy options in India. This paper also assesses specific policy interventions for overcoming the barriers and enhancing deployment of renewables for the future.
(PDF) Renewable energy in India: Current status and future potentials. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/221991068_Renewable_energy_in_India_Current_status_and_future_potentials [accessed Dec 31 2018].
The overall scenario in the country with regard to solar energy has been quite encouraging. India has reached its 20 GW cumulative solar installations target four years ahead of schedule. And that’s not all. When it comes to new power capacity additions in India during calendar year 2017, solar, for the first time, has come up as the top source of energy. Solar installations in the country has reached 9.6 GW and accounted for 45 per cent of total capacity additions. At least that’s what the latest research report by Mercom India released on Tuesday, has come up with. Interestingly, 20 GW had been the initial goal set up for 2022 by the National Solar Mission and India is already gearing up to achieve the revised target of 100 GW solar by 2022.
According to the latest Mercom’s India Solar Project Tracker, the utility-scale cumulative installations total for India now stands at 18.4 GW, with rooftop solar accounting for another 1.6 GW (totaling 20 GW installations). Besides, this was the first time, solar energy turned out to be the top source of new power capacity additions in the country in 2017 (calendar year). The preliminary figures compiled by Mercom shows that solar installations have reached 9.6 GW and accounted for 45 per cent of total capacity additions.
The top four states
The top four states in terms of new solar installations in the last year were Telangana, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Rajasthan. Andhra Pradesh surpassed Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh to become India’s top state for solar deployment. Interestingly, nearly 53 per cent of India’s solar pipeline concentrated in three southern states- Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telengana. Significantly, India installed 5.5 GW in the last fiscal and the total utility scale solar capacity reached 12.5 GW by March 2017, according to the latest edition of ‘India Solar Map 2017’ by BRIDGE TO INDIA, a leading consulting and knowledge services provider in the Indian cleantech market. BRIDGE TO INDIA expects India to add 8 GW in the upcoming year and therefore expects market volumes to expand by 45 per cent. Ironically none of the eastern states figured in this list.
Huge demand for trained and well groomed personnel and professional
A number of studies suggest that if India is to reach its solar goals, the country would be needing at least 1 million trained and well groomed personnel and professional. The number would be even higher if one considers other forms of renewable energy. There have lots of initiatives from the government side to impart skill development training on solar energy. But one common complaint against such two-day programmes are that they do virtually nothing but churn out ‘certified solar professional’. Students going through such two day programmes, in many cases, do not even get to solar products, equipments, panels and accessories, said Sashanka Jana, a student who had gone through one such programmes.
NE India has immense potential
Moving towards the north east, the region holds a great potential in the form of natural resources, including hydro resources and hydrocarbons. While Arunachal Pradesh is hydro power house, Assam is home to the earliest hydrocarbon discovery in India. The region is also known for its potent and rich large quantities of low ash coal resources, limestone and dolomite deposits.
Recently, in order to feed the surplus power from the North East to other parts of India, the state-run Power Grid Corporation of India Limited has erected 800-kv capacity and 1,728 km long High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) transmission line from Biswanath Chariali in Assam to Agra in UP at an investment of Rs 12,000 crore. Amongst the available resources, the hydro power generation can be pegged as the key driver for the growth of the energy sector of the region. In view of the prospects, the Power Ministry has finalized a policy for the revival of 40 hydro power projects of 11,639 MW and has also provided support of Rs. 16,709 crores., plus has declared all large and small hydro projects as renewable energy projects.
As per solar resource potential estimated by the union power ministry, NE as a total has potential of setting up 62 GW of solar PV. While current installed capacity is less than 50 MW, MNRE has put forward a target of 1.2 GW by FY22 (as against national target of 100GW). When it comes to hydro, The NE region is endowed with significant hydro potential (of 63GW) of which only 1.7 GW is currently operational and 4.5 GW is under various stages of construction. Union ministry of power has finalized a policy for reviving 40 hydro power projects of 11,639 MW, with a financial support of Rs 16,709 crore and declare all large and small hydro projects as renewable energy.