Solar Power Gets Place in the Sun

Events in the last few weeks show that the role of solar power in India’s energy may be bigger than portrayed. From repeated concerns by judicial authorities to private power companies dumping coal projects in favour of solar, India’s energy policy is in a state of flux.

Ports-to-power conglomerate Adani Group has frozen its investment in Australia’s largest proposed coalmine until world coal prices show a clear recovery amid a huge move by the company into solar energy. The group plans to set up a capacity of 10,000 MW of solar power by 2022. Adani Green Energy Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Adani Enterprises, has forayed into solar power generation and PV equipment manufacturing. At present, the group operates a 40 MW solar power plant in Bitta (Gujarat). Its 648 MW plant is under construction in Ramanathapuram (Tamil Nadu).

Two weeks ago, Reliance Power, one of the three largest private power companies in India, said it wanted to abandon the proposed 4,000 MW Krishnapatnam mega power project in Andhra Pradesh as part of its retreat from coal-centred expansion and move towards solar and other renewables.

The strategic shift has been underscored by an announcement by RattanIndia Power—another major private power generation company—that it wants the Punjab government to approve the use of a 324-hectare site for a solar plant instead of a proposed coal plant. The economics of solar, the company stated, are better than that of coal.

The winning solar power price bids at the recent reverse auctions held in January bolster this reasoning. The auction price came in at `4.34 per kilowatt hour (kWh), a 7 per cent fall since 2015.

It is the lowest price obtained so far in India, which aims to instal more than 100 GW of solar capacity by 2022, and was hailed by Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal as a sign that solar power is now cheaper than coal power. Just two months ago, the lowest tariff ‘discovered’ through a reverse auction for a 500-MW project in Andhra Pradesh was `4.63 per unit.

With the prices for solar power in India having fallen by 20 per cent in 2015 and 80 per cent over five years, new coal power plants are facing stiffer competition far sooner than most expected.

Tariffs are sliding in the rest of the world too. China, the world’s largest clean energy investor, reduced solar tariffs from January 1.

Just as public revulsion over air and water pollution has driven a dramatic shift in energy policy in China, it is coming to the fore in India too. While pollution from cars and burning waste are significant contributors, coal is coming in for its fair share of attention.

Last week, the Goa State Pollution Control Board directed subsidiaries of Adani and JSW to cut coal imports by 25 per cent after reviewing data, which showed air pollution at up to double permitted levels. It also imposed a set of other conditions to cut coal dust pollution at port facilities, where the two companies import 12.4 million tonnes of coal a year.

The ruling came on top of another judgment against Adani by the National Green Tribunal, which imposed a multi-million-dollar fine towards restoration cost for air pollution. Adani’s appeal was recently rejected by the Supreme Court, which directed the company to deposit the fine within four weeks.

(Vajpeyi is a freelance journalist and media consultant)

 yogesh.vajpeyi@gmail.com

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