Renewable Energy Workshop: Innovative Strategies for Mainstreaming Solar, Bio Mass and Wind in India

WASHINGTON, April 28 /PRNewswire/ -- IPPAI (Independent Power Producers Association of India) organized its Renewable Energy workshop on 'Innovative strategies for mainstreaming Renewable Energy in India: Solar, Bio Mass and Wind' in Arlington, Virginia. "The workshop intends to offer clarity to the investors interested in the sector and help them understand the incentives and policies offered by the Government for establishing renewable energy projects in India," said Mr. Harry Dhaul, Director General, IPPAI in his opening remarks. Considering, the rising sensitivity towards global warming and environmental degradation, the rapidly depleting fossil fuel reserves have increased the demand for renewable energy. India, being a developing economy creates a huge market for such kind of investments. The Indian Government has stated a target for renewable energy to contribute 10% to the total power generation capacity and is aiming to have a 5% renewable share in its electricity mix by 2012.

The topics that were discussed during the conference were: Emerging Scenario in the Renewable Energy Sector in India, Challenges in Financing Renewable Energy Projects in India, Innovative Strategies for Mainstreaming Renewables, Solar Power and the Grid-US perspective, Investment opportunities in Decentralized Distributed Power Generation- Biomass and Wind Energy in India-Policy & Regulatory Imperatives. The speakers included Mr. Harry Dhaul, Director General, IPPAI, V S Senthil, Economic Minister, Embassy of India, USA, Mark J. Riedy, Member, Mintz Levin Co Ferris Glovsky and Popeo PC, V. Subramanian, Former Secretary, Minister of New & Renewable Energy, Ken Zweibel, Director, George Washington Solar Institute, Dr. G C Datta Roy, Chief Executive Officer, DSCL Energy Services Company Limited and Chintan Shah- Strategic Business Development, Suzlon Energy.

It was said that to meet India's formidable challenges in meeting its energy needs, it would require a four-fold increase in energy supply, with a six-fold increase in power generating installed capacity. The Government of India has initiated several reform measures to create a favourable environment for the addition of new generating capacity in the country. A further boost to this sector has come with the implementation of the Electricity Act 2003, which lay emphasis on the use of renewable sources of energy for power generation.

In the session of Emerging Scenario in the Renewable Energy, it was highlighted that historically solar technologies are propagated in India mainly for off-grid and electricity substitution applications. However, to achieve the potential of Solar Energy in practise, it should, in long term, meet the three important thresholds of costs- must be competitive, availability- should be 'dispatch able' and reliability- can be ensured by judicious grid mixing of sources like hydro, geothermal and biomass based generation. In biomass based projects, large biomass projects are becoming commercially unsustainable due to lack of sufficient availability and other competitive uses of the biomass, hence, there is a need for small MW capacity Biomass Power plants. The ministry is promoting the biomass based systems in a big way. The programme envisages implementation of such projects with involvement of IPPs, ESCOs, co-operatives, Panchayats, SHGs, NGOs, manufacturers or entrepreneurs, promoters, developers etc.

In the session of Wind Power, there was a mutual consensus that wind energy has emerged, world wide, as a mature and booming global business. The Indian government has promoted the wind energy sector since the early '90s, through fiscal incentives such as 80% accelerated depreciation in the first year, concessional custom duty on certain components of wind electric generators, excise duty exemption, ten years' tax holiday on income generated from wind power projects and loan from IREDA, and other financial institutions.

SOURCE Independent Power Producers Association of India