Scope For Renewable Energy In India

By Author: Rohan Sinha
Total Articles: 276
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Over the past few years, India has achieved a significant grown in the power generation sector in the country. The installed generation capacity was 1300 megawatt (MW) at the time of independence is now 1, 44,520 MW which includes power generation through various sectors like Hydro, Thermal and Nuclear. In today’s time when fossil fuel is depleting rapidly, the emphasis should be on power generation through renewable energy sources. Let’s take a detailed look on renewable energy sector in India.
The main items under renewable sources of energy are:

Hydro Power
Solar Power
Wind Power
Bio-mass Power
Energy from waste
Ocean energy
Alternative fuel for surface transportation

Taking a close look in the past five decades, we will see that evolution of power transformer technology in the country is really impressive. There are various manufacturers in the country with full access to the latest technology at the global level.
In the past six decades, India’s energy consumption has increased 16 times and the installed electricity capacity by 84 times. There is no doubt ...
... that India as a country suffers from massive energy poverty and pervasive electricity deficits. Strategies to meet India’s energy requirement are limited by country’s energy resources and import possibilities. Unluckily, India is not well endowed with natural energy resources. India has been making continuous progress in conventional as well as renewable power generation. The programme for renewable energy in India is looked after by the Ministry of Non-Conventional Source of Energy.
During the past several years the share of renewable energy in India has steadily increased due to the initiative taken by Government of India. It is estimated that total share of renewable energy will be 15.9% by 2022. For solar PV, a new solar projectwith total production capacity of 100 MW is being set up with smaller plants of 100 KW to 2 MW, which are connected to grid through 11 KV feeders.
As far financing of renewable energy in India is concerned, renewable power generation capacity in India has been set up largely through private sector investments. This has been possible due mainly to a conductive, strong and clear policy framework and investor friendly environment. Ernst and Young ranked India the fourth most attractive country for renewable energy investment in the world, only behind the United States, China, and Germany. The Government of India has also created a “Clean Energy Fund” by imposing a surcharge of INR 50 (US $1.11) on the sale of every tonne of coal to finance clean energy projects.