Renewable energy in India: Solar leads the pack!
At a time when the ministry of new and renewable energy (MNRE) seems to be on course to reach a cumulative wind capacity target of 60 GW by FY2022, a globally leading job portal has suggested that there has been a surge of interest in jobs in the renewable energy sector in India. If a recent study by Indeed, one of the top job sites in the world with presence in more than 60 countries, is anything to go by, the solar energy sector in India is leading the race with an increase of 76 per cent in the number of job searches between October 2014 and October 2017.
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"With the introduction of the Central Government’s Scheme for the Development of Solar Parks in December 2014, various parts of India have seen the installation of solar plants, making the solar energy sector account for one of the highest generation capacities in the Indian electricity grid," the Indeed study said.
It added, "In recent years, India’s increasing efforts towards the expansion of renewable energy have led to a substantial increase in solar power generation, through the setting up of several solar parks and solar power projects. In 2017, India saw its solar power generation capacity cross 21.5 billion units (BU) of electricity. At the same time, there has been an increase in job searches for solar design engineers by 404 per cent, solar project engineers by 332 per cent and solar electrical engineers by 169 per cent between October 2014 and October 2017.
Quite interestingly however, the wind energy sector, which is largely complementary to solar in India, saw only a 28 per cent increase in the number of job searches during the same time period, according to Indeed study. This is notwithstanding the fact that MNRE along with the distribution utilities in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu have awarded wind-power capacity of 7.6 GW over the past 15 months and another 10 GW each are proposed to be awarded in FY2019 and FY2020. The project awarded so far are expected to improve the capacity addition in the wind power segment to about 3-3.5 GW in FY2019 against 1.7 GW in FY2018.
However there is a word of caution from Girishkumar Kadam, sector head & vice president, ICRA Ltd, which could possibly explain the slow pick-up in the wind energy sector. "The winning bidders in these auctions face the twin challenges of project viability at the quoted tariffs and securing connectivity & long-term access to inter-state transmission network. While the regulations recently notified by the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) on connectivity for renewable energy projects are positive for these developers, the adequacy of the existing inter-state transmission infrastructure in the states with high wind potential remains a challenge…… Moreover, the augmentation of transmission infrastructure would take about 24-36 months, whereas the winning developers must commission the wind power projects within 18 months from the date of award," said Kadam.
Meanwhile, Sashi Kumar, managing director, Indeed India, on his parts, is extremely bullish from hiring perspectives. "India has witnessed substantial growth in the renewable energy sector since 2014, which has led to the rise in the number of job seekers looking for work opportunities in the field. India has also taken the lead in demonstrating its commitment to the environment, with initiatives and policies such as the International Solar Alliance (ISA), which was founded in 2016 towards the promotion and development of solar technologies, especially to poor and remote regions," said Kumar.
He said that initiatives such as the Solar Cities Programme, the launch of an Indian satellite to monitor greenhouse gases, and the Indian Network for Climate Change Assessment (INCCA) have opened doors for employment for skilled professionals in India. With the increased participation of women in the renewable energy sector, India can safely hope to achieve the projected target of employing over 300,000 people in the sector by 2022.
Therefore, 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 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.
That should not however give the wrong impression that nothing is happening on the renewable energy front in West Bengal or in the east and north-east, not at least, if what West Bengal Power and Non-conventional Energy Sources Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay said is anything to go by.
"We have a lot of plans on how to efficiently harness renewable energy sources. Our endeavour is to have one-fourth (25 per cent) of the total power generation from renewable energy sources. According to the Central government, this share should be increased even more- up to one-half (50 per cent). We are at the moment trying to generate one-fourth of total power from alternatives. The whole world is moving towards clear alternative sources of energy and West Bengal is on the right track," said Chatterjee.
He added, "Here in our state, wind power is not conducive for generating electricity. This is because we do not have steady wind. Uninterrupted wind force is required to keep the wind mill rotating, and this is what generates electricity. In Frazerganj (Sagar Island), there were four wind power plants. However, lack of steady wind flow made two plants inoperable. We are trying to get the two plants back in operation. Normally, we need particular wind-speed, and frequency to generate wind energy. Most of the studies so far have showed that there are only 5-6 pockets in India that can be harnessed to produce wind energy. Unfortunately, West Bengal is not one of them."
- TradeBriefs Bureau -