India eyes $200 billion investment in renewable energy

Eyeing an investment of $200 billion in renewable energy for a cleaner climate, India is up against a mammoth task with just about 5 gigagatts of capacity addition estimated to be taking place in 2015 -- as against a target of quadrupling the existing capacity to 175 GW by 2022.

On positive side, foreign and domestic investors have already committed to put in $20-30 billion to set up renewable energy ventures, while green bonds seem to be catching up with proceedings exceeding Rs 10,000 crore coming in in the first year itself of these ambitious targets.

A further boost is expected in the new year 2016 with the markets regulator Sebi proposing a new regulatory framework to make it easier to issue and list green bonds, while a new concept of 'YieldCo' is also in the works to help garner funds exclusively for green energy ventures.

The proposed new regime may include tax incentives and would be on the lines of REITs (Real Estate Investment Trust) and InViTs (Infrastructure Investment Trust).

A 'YieldCo' is a publicly listed company that is formed to own assets that generate a predictable cash flow, primarily through long-term contracts. In this model, the cost of capital is lowered by separation of volatile assets like development, research and construction.

The model, which has already been gaining ground in the US and some other markets, is used in the renewable energy sector to protect the investors against regulatory changes. Under this model, the investors get the annual returns like a dividend and the capital remains invested for the long term.

Besides, there are tax incentives to make this model attractive.

With climate change becoming a major global issue, the Modi government has fixed an ambitious target to quadruple its renewable power capacity to 175 gigawatts by 2022 as part of plans to supply electricity to every household. The total capacity at the start of 2015 stood at just about 34 GW.

It is targeting 100 GW of solar capacity, 60 GW of wind power, 10 GW of biomass and 5 GW of hydro projects. Also, efforts are being made to achieve 20 per cent biofuel content in motor fuels by 2017.

The goal, entailing $200 billion of investment, looks challenging amid concerns that the government may end the tax breaks that have been used to spur the introduction of renewable power.

As per the latest official data, the total capacity addition this year till October stood at about 4,300 megawatts while the overall estimated addition for the entire 2015 is being seen at around 5,000 megawatts, taking the overall capacity to close to 39-40 gigawatts at the end of this year.

This would leave a target of adding an estimated 135 GW of capacity over the next seven years to reach the 2022 target.

Experts are, however, raising concerns about the availability of the necessary funding and the costs attached to the capital.

EY India's Director (Advisory Services) Sudhanshu Gupta said the massive investment target is posing a challenge to many players in the sector and the availability of reasonably priced debt financing is certainly going to be a challenge in 2016 as well.

Some of the other challenges include aggressive bidding by players which may reduce viability, land acquisition problems, long term equipment performance and power evacuation and scheduling issues, he added.

Unperturbed the challenges, the Power Ministry is working

overtime to meet these ambitious targets and even asked state-run companies to invest in clean energy.

A top government official said that the renewable push is key to the government's aim to provide 24-hour power supply to each household by 2022 when the nation celebrates its 75th year of independence.

To realise these targets, making the green energy affordable is a key component and a major milestone was achieved on this front with the solar power tariff dropping below the Rs 5 per unit mark.

Under an e-reverse auction conducted by NTPC in November for 500 MW to be set up at Ghani Solar Park in Andhra Pradesh, the company received the lowest tariff of Rs 4.63 per unit of electricity.

SB Energy, a joint venture firm of SoftBank, Bharti Enterprises and Foxconn, has also won its first solar project in India at a tariff of Rs 4.63 per unit.

It won the NTPC bid to develop a 350 MW solar power project in Andhra Pradesh, under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission at a 25-year tariff of Rs 4.63 per unit.

However concerns have been raised in some quarters about sustainability of such a low tariff and selling of assets by solar power project developers.

Vikram Solar's CEO Gyanesh Chaudhary said, "Reverse bidding as a means of price discovery is forcing bidders to assume risky positions around availability, quality, efficiency and bank ability of the Solar Cells, Modules and Projects.

"The debacle of the thermal power producers and their manufacturers has happened because of a similar style of suicidal bidding which has led to en-mass NPAs and defaults".

The top government officials, however, sought to allay these apprehensions and said the developers set up projects taking huge risks under this model and later sell fully developed projects to pension funds or other investors.

This not only gives the investors fully-developed assets but the also help the developers realise profits and get fresh investments in other such projects, they added.

While a debate would continue on the sustainability of low tariffs, the foreign investors and big domestic corporate houses have begun warming up to the huge investment potential in the renewable energy space.

The major investment announcements made in 2015 include Japan's SoftBank committing to invest $20 billion along with Bharti Enterprises and Foxconn in setting up solar power parks in India.

China's construction equipment manufacturer Sany Group also announced investment of up to $5 billion in India including $3 billion to develop 2,000 MW of renewable energy projects.

In a global ranking of best places for renewable companies to do business, India is ranked fifth after China, Brazil, Chile and South Africa -- showing a growing competition among the developing nations to attract green energy funds.

The annual ClimateScope ranking of 55 countries, compiled by Bloomberg New Energy Finance, also showed that the majority of new clean energy investments are taking place in developing nations.

Government's continuous focus on clean energy in 2016 in view of India's commitments at various international fora for reducing its emission intensity.

In its Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), India said it aims at achieving around 40 per cent cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-fossil fuel-based energy resources by 2030.

In the 38-page document, India said it would need, as per preliminary estimates, around $206 billion between 2015 and 2030 for implementing adaptation actions in agriculture, forestry, fisheries infrastructure, water resources and ecosystems.

The other big development has been the launch of International Solar Alliance (ISA) at the CoP21 Climate Conference in Paris by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

ISA is a special platform for mutual cooperation among 121 solar resource rich countries lying fully or partially between Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn.

The alliance is dedicated to address special energy needs of ISA member countries.

Experts, however, believe India urgently needs latest technology and low-cost funding, including international financing from Green Climate Fund, as the country is running the world's largest renewable capacity expansion programme.

On its part, the government has announced several initiatives to increase the uptake of renewable energy.

The new power tariff policy also contains provisions to boost renewable energy sector. Some of these include allowing discoms to buy any amount of renewable power for its supplies.