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In 2016, record new renewable energy added, and cheaply

April 12, 2017 by Climate portal editor Leave a Comment

Recent reports bring positive news related to renewable energy investment and the feasibility of a 100% renewable energy future. The UN Environment Programme (UN Environment, or UNEP), the Frankfurt School-UNEP Collaborating Centre, and Bloomberg New Energy Finance released a report titled ‘Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment 2017,’ which finds that wind, solar, biomass and waste-to-energy, geothermal, small hydro and marine sources added 138.5 gigawatts to global power capacity in 2016, up 8% from the 127.5 gigawatts added in 2015.

The report indicates that as the cost of clean technology continues to fall, the world added record levels of renewable energy capacity in 2016, at an investment level 23% lower than the previous year. According to UN Environment, the added generating capacity roughly equals that of the world’s 16 largest existing power producing facilities combined.

Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment 2017, published on April 6th by UN Environment, the Frankfurt School-UNEP Collaborating Centre, and Bloomberg New Energy Finance, finds that all investments in renewables totaled $241.6 billion (excluding large hydro). These investments added 138.5 gigawatts to global power capacity in 2016, up 9 per cent from the 127.5 gigawatts added the year before.

Investment in renewables capacity was roughly double that in fossil fuel generation; the corresponding new capacity from renewables was equivalent to 55 per cent of all new power, the highest to date. The proportion of electricity coming from renewables excluding large hydro rose from 10.3 per cent to 11.3 per cent. This prevented the emission of an estimated 1.7 gigatons of carbon dioxide.

The total investment was $241.6 billion (excluding large hydro), the lowest since 2013. This was in large part a result of falling costs: the average dollar capital expenditure per megawatt for solar photovoltaics and wind dropped by over 10 per cent.

A district lab for solar in India

August 12, 2015 by Climate portal editor Leave a Comment

A 5MW grid-connected solar power plant in Jodhpur district, Rajasthan. Photo: MNRE

In the district of Chitradurga, Karnataka, at the edge of the town of Challakere, stands a project run by the Bangalore-based Indian Institute of Science (IISC) which is a test array for concentrated solar power. Rows of shallow parabolic troughs, made of specially coated aluminum, stretch for more than 300 metres. Above them are water pipes set to catch sunlight reflected from the troughs. When the project begins operation in a few weeks, the water in the pipes will be heated to 200 °C. The hot water will go to a heat exchanger attached to a small turbine that will produce 100 kilowatts of electricity.

A part of the Solar Energy Research Institute for India and the United States (SERIIUS), and primarily funded by the state government of Karnataka, this small solar array will be used to test various reflective materials and heat-transfer fluids (including, for instance, molten salt in addition to water) from multiple manufacturers. Dozens of small wireless sensors will collect data and send it via the Internet to a dashboard at IISC, where it can be analysed and catalogued. The objective is to find the combinations of components that best suit conditions in India.

The Solar Energy Research Institute for India and the United States (SERIIUS), co-led by the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), USA. The SERIIUS programme is to develop and prepare “emerging and revolutionary solar electricity technologies” which can be used by the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Energy Mission and the American Department of Energy’s SunShot Initiative. SERIIUS is planned to accelerate the development of solar electric technologies by lowering the cost per watt of photovoltaics (PV) and concentrated solar power (CSP).

The BJP government has pledged to create dozens of ‘ultra mega solar power parks’ of 500 megawatts and above to feed power to the national electricity grid. The government has said that energy policies such as those represented by the Challakere concentrated solar power experiment will reduce annual carbon dioxide emissions by 550 million tons. [This article was first published in the MIT Technology Review and can be found in full here.]

India pushes solar target up to 100 GW

June 18, 2015 by Climate portal editor Leave a Comment

The Union Cabinet has decided that India’s solar power capacity target under the National Solar Mission is to be dramatically revised upwards to reach 100,000 MW (or 100 GW) by 2022. The new solar target of 100 GW is expected to abate over 170 million tonnes of CO2 over its life cycle.

In the first phase, the Government of India is to provide capital subsidy to promote solar capacity addition in the country. This capital subsidy will be provided for rooftop solar projects in various cities and towns for projects to be developed through the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) and for decentralized generation through small solar projects.

Solar power projects are also to be developed using what the government calls a “bundling mechanism” together with thermal power with investments envisaged to come from large public sector undertakings and also from independent power producers. State governments meanwhile have also come out with state-specific solar policies to promote solar capacity addition.

The statement by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has said: “Solar power can contribute to the long term energy security of India, and reduce dependence on fossil fuels that puts a strain on foreign reserves and the ecology as well.” The solar manufacturing sector in India will benefit with this long term trajectory of solar capacity addition.

This scaling up plan for solar power has a target of 40 GW through decentralised solar power generation in the form of grid connected rooftop projects. Coordination is required, says the central government, so that the land areas required for the largest solar farms are unculturable land, for solar photo-voltaic units to be encouraged, and for large government buildings to be identified for rooftop solar projects, for the Ministry of Urban Development to make mandatory the provision of roof-top solar and 10% generation of renewable energy (presumably per building unit).

Financial incentives envisaged include giving the status of ‘infrastructure’ for solar projects, raising tax-free solar bonds, including roof-top solar units within housing loans provided by scheduled banks. It is also foreseen that amendments to the Electricity Act will be needed so that renewable purchase obligations and renewable generation obligations can be enforced.

The National Solar Mission was begun in 2009 with an initial target for grid-connected solar projects of 20,000 MW by 2022. In the last two to three years, the sector has witnessed rapid development with installed solar capacity increasing from 18 MW to about 3,800 MW during 2010-15. The price of solar energy has come down significantly from Rs 17.90 per unit in 2010 to under Rs 7 per unit today.