The International Energy Agency (IEA) visualises renewable energy (wind, solar and hydel) outgrowing gas-based energy and becoming the second largest source of electricity, after coal, as early as 2015. A Greenpeace report last month was even more optimistic, holding that nearly 30 per cent of the world's total energy supplies would come from the renewable sector by the same year, against 23 per cent projected by IEA. What makes such assessments credible is the compulsion to use clean energy. Growing ecological concerns are bound to translate into steeper penalties on environment-unfriendly energy production and consumption. Fresh investments are inevitable in refinement of the technology for producing power from replenishable sources so as to cut down production costs.
Unfortunately, the outlook for non-conventional energy in India remains bleak, despite there being no shortage of potential. The targets for the creation of wind, solar and hydel energy capacity have been missed by wide margins; only 11,500 MW of cumulative renewable power generation capacity has been installed though each of the last few five-year plans has been pitching the goal at over 10,000 MW for the respective plan period. The current, 11th Plan’s target is 15,000 MW.
One reason for this track record could be the emphasis on creating grid-interactive power capacity, which requires heavy initial investment, besides larger chunks of land, and therefore is not an attractive commercial proposition despite the incentives offered by the government. Smaller, isolated units, for supplying power to individuals or small clusters of consumers, require lower initial costs and are easier to manage and maintain. Such units, moreover, are free of price disputes and power sharing arrangements with the grids. Time therefore for a shift in strategy?