CEE Jul-Sep-2012

No government has had the political will to scrap state monopoly in coal. The Left's ideological opposition came in handy for UP A-1. UP A-ll probably relies on Mamata's Left-colonized opposition. Once coal mining is freed up, captive mining, a field where inefficiency and moral hazard run riot, can also be scrapped. Mining should be done by professional miners who dig up coal, pay royalty on the mined coal and pay corporate tax on profits. Courlesy: London Commodity News, London - 14 June 2012 Renewable Energy I RENEWABLE ENERGY GOT 9.5 BILLION EURO INJECTION LAST YEAR Vittalkumar A. Dhage, energy-sector specialist, European Business and Technology Centre, speaks about how India can draw lessons from innovations done in the European Union (EU) member countries in the Renewable Energy sector and how India' s participation in the research and development collaboration platform, promoted by the EU, can bring significant value in building nation's technological expertise in the sector. "India is sti ll an energy deficit country, with around one lakh villages yet to be electrified. On an average, urban India faces a peak power deficit of about 15 percent on a dai ly basi s. In spite of best concerted efforts to find ways to reach a larger population that is still electricity starved, recent statistics reveal that about 40 per cent of Indian p6pulation still has no direct access to electricity. However, in the recent past, there are many policy directions promoting Renewable Energy, which address both access and deficit, issues in a sustainable manner. Here is a great potential for many market players including European Union member countries, to tap opportunities in India. Countries, of European Union have far excelled in terms of innovation in alternative energy than its counterparts in other parts of the world. Especially in countries like Germany, UK and France , the SME sector (small and medium enterprises) is engaged in many innovations which European Busi ness and Technology Centre (EBTC) wants to sub-sectors like wind and solar power instilled much confidence in the investors across the globe to look at Indian as a hot destination for alternative energy installations. According to a recently released REN 21 report (Renewable Energy Policy last year alone, close to EUR 9.5 billion was invested in the development of Renewable Energy in India. This is almost a 62 per cent growth on the base year (201 0), the highest growth recorded among G-20 countries. Also the kind of policy initiatives that the government has taken such as the launch of Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM) in 2010 which is set to achieve 20,000 MW capacity by 2022 is a key measure to meet the energy security challenge in India. JNNSM has initiated spurt of solar projects in India and power producers are competing with reverse bidd ing that has considerably brought down the per unit cost of solar power generation on par with electricity generated using back up DG sets cost wise. In 2010 , solar energy's installed capacity was just under 20 MW which rose to 1000 MW in June this year. This is a tremendous growth, out of which about 65 per cent alone is implemented in Gujarat. One should learn from the way Gujarat has scaled up its solar energy capacity addition within such a short span of time. The two schemes of MNRE namely 'accelerated depreciation' and 'generation based incentives' in wind energy have proved to be instrumental in the sector's growth. Wind power alone has been contributing to about two third of the total Renewable Energy installation over the pas decade. All these initiatives have boosted growth of the sector, but lack of innovation and various challenges on the execution fron t have actually slowed down the development pace. While it takes just 6 months for a solar plant to start operating in European countries, it may take beyond 13 months for a solar project to kick start in India. The execution challenges make it difficult for European companies to set up plants here. EU has set up a mission for the year 2020, to achieve about 20 per cent of the total energy required from renewable sources, similar to India's JNNSM. But certainly, EUs execution process is faster than India's JNNSM. promote in India. The SME sector in Germany, But certainly, EUs execution process is faster than India's. SMEs in countries like France and Germany has shown remarkable progress in bringing out innovative ideas of tapping natural sources of The Renewable Energy sector is sti ll in its initial stages of development in India, with a few years of existence here. However, a recent spurt of growth in various UK and France is engaged in many innovations which EBTC wants to promote in India. 27