The IEEFA believes India’s announcement last week that it will pursue a fivefold increase in renewable energy by 2022 would not only mean less reliance on coal-fired generation but drive technology, innovation and cost reduction beyond India more broadly across the globe.
India committed in its Intended Nationally Determined Contribution to lift renewable energy installations from the current 36 gigawatts to 175GW by 2022 and to push new renewable energy installs to 40% of installed capacity by 2030, up from 13% today.
“These goals are in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s push toward a rapid energy transition, and it’s not just a government phenomenon that’s occurring,” IEEFA director of energy finance studies, Australasia Tim Buckley said.
“A number of leading Indian firms have made significant new capital investment commitments to renewables – ReNew Power, Welspun Energy, NTPC, Reliance Power, Tata Power and Suzlon Energy have collectively announced tens of billion dollars of proposed investments in Indian solar and wind projects in recent months.
“Adani Enterprises has the world’s largest solar plant already under construction in Tamil Nadu, and Adani has announced it will invest a total of $16 billion in eight new solar projects across India.
“Major global companies are also angling for a piece of the fast-growing renewable energy pie in India. These include Trina Solar, SunEdison, First Solar, ABB, Engie, Enel Green Power and China Light & Power – all of which are bringing global capital and technological expertise to the country.
“This is on top of the recent joint commitment by SoftBank, Foxconn and Bharti Enterprises to invest $20 billion over the next five years in Indian solar.”
Buckley said India is increasingly emphasising energy efficiency just when its coal-fired power sector is “slipping further into financial distress”
“Utilization rates dropped to a new low of 58.4% in July 2015, notwithstanding record-high coal availability, and India’s coal-import appetite is waning,” Buckley said.
“Domestic coal production growth is running at double electricity demand growth of 3% year on year so far in 2015-16, and coal imports declined 5% yoy in July-August 2015. That’s in line with Energy Minister Piyush Goyal’s pledge to end coal imports altogether.”
His report, however, forgets the fact that India is at the forefront of the widespread roll-out of high-efficiency, low emissions (HELE) units across Asia.
India and fellow Asian economies Bangladesh, Japan, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam, are operating 670 HELE coal-fired power station units which the International Energy Agency says have already reduced carbon dioxide emissions by 479 million tonnes a year.
Those efforts are accelerating too, as those same countries have another 1066 HELE units either under construction or in the planning stage.
