A recent report of the Global Wind Energy Council exposes India’s modest performance vis-à-vis more green energy-conscious nations in using wind as a renewable source of power. The fresh addition to wind energy capacity in India in 2011 was merely 3,000 megawatts (Mw), which compares very poorly indeed with China’s 18,000 Mw — and is just a fraction of the 41,000 Mw capacity created globally. The country’s total installed wind power generation capacity, too, seems abysmally low. It is barely 16,000 Mw. This is worrying, given that India has a vast, windy coastline and several inland regions with constant flows of high-velocity winds, such as most parts of the peninsula and the sprawling arid tracts of Rajasthan. Besides, wind-generated energy is cheaper to tap than that from other renewable sources, including solar energy — though the latter has seen much more hype. Moreover, wind energy generation needs very little land; solar voltaic cells require almost one square kilometre to produce 20-odd Mw of power. It is, therefore, hardly surprising that wind energy is the fastest-growing renewable energy globally, with an average annual growth of over 27 per cent.
True, India cannot be accused of totally disregarding renewable sources for power production as part of its energy security strategy. In fact, it was the first country in the world to create a full-fledged ministry for non-conventional energy sources, way back in the early 1980s. But its priorities in this sector have been rather lopsided — tilted heavily, in fact, in favour of solar energy relative to other sustainable sources, like wind or biomass. Solar energy, regardless of its massive potential, still requires a great deal of technological refinement to be able to compete with energy from some other green sources, let alone with fossil fuels. The initial cost of installation of solar power production capacity, as also solar’s per-unit production cost, is still relatively high. (It is, though, declining rapidly thanks to ongoing research and development.) For wind energy, on the other hand, the per-unit production cost, even today, is deemed similar to that for new coal- or natural gas-based power installations. Oddly enough, even the national action plan on climate change – which is supposed to promote all environment-friendly sources of energy – has not placed as much emphasis on the gainful utilisation of wind, water or biomass as it does on sunshine. As a result, much of the potential of these sources remains under-tapped.
In fact, the most under-exploited renewable resource is perhaps biomass, available as agricultural residues, like paddy straw, rice husk, coconut shells or bagasse — and, of course, as millions of tonnes of animal waste. These resources can together generate enough power to meet close to half of the country’s power needs, especially in rural areas yet to see the benefits of grid-connected power. Solar power may ultimately dominate the non-conventional energy sector, but that should not happen until its cost of production drops further, and it becomes viable without heavy subsidisation. For now, other renewable sources merit equal, if not greater, attention.
