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The Power Of The Sun

BW Online Bureau Nov 08, 2014

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><root available-locales="en_US," default-locale="en_US"><static-content language-id="en_US"><![CDATA[Sunlight has been around long before humans arrived on earth. However, it had not been harnessed for power till recently. As the world heads towards a shortage of fossil fuels, everyone is looking to tap solar energy. India is among the countries that has the highest solar radiation. For solar to be a mass energy source, costs have to come down substantially. That's what James Abraham, managing director and CEO, SunBorne Energy, is banking on. He spoke to Businessworld's Anup Jayaram on the potential of solar energy in India. Excerpts: The government has set a target of 20 GW (gigawatts) of solar power by 2020. Do you see that being achieved? Achieving or exceeding that is based on getting solar power costs down. If costs remain as they are in the next 10 years, we won't get anywhere near that number. Our forecast is that by 2016-17, the cost should get to Rs 7 per kilowatt hour. So I should be building plants. If we get to that number, then 20 gigawatts will be blown out of the water. KPMG's estimate is 66 gigawatts by 2022. So it is linked completely to the achievability of the cost target. If it is achievable, then we can get to 66 GW. Most people who bid in the first round of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission have looked at technologies around the world, and how much we can make in India. The plants being built in India today are already 20-30 per cent lower in cost than the best plants globally. To achieve the next level, we need to innovate — not imported innovation, but local innovation. I am not talking of R&D, but practical applications engineering like how do you make structures that hold mirrors, how do you focus the energy, how do you make the materials and construction methods simple. That is the innovation we need. You have joined hands with Suntech Power for solar power. Could you give us some details on this project? We have an agreement to source 100 MW from Suntech over the next set of projects. It is based on continuously decrea-sing prices from their side. They will help meet some local content requirements. Suntech's panels are high on quality. If we can build demand, they will come and manufacture panels in India. We built our first 10 MW out of that in Gujarat. We will source the rest over the next two years. Our total target in the next 30 months is to do 200 MW. Suntech will be a part of it. Our focus is on Gujarat, Rajasthan and parts of Andhra Pradesh. Gujarat and Rajasthan have the best solar radiation. As solar power tariffs will be high, State Electricity Boards (SEBs) will not be in a position to buy power. How will it reach the consumer? The National Solar Mission scheme goes through the NVVN (NTPV Vidyut Vyapar Nigam) and is sold as bundled power to SEBs. If you look at SEBs payments to the central government, their records are unblemished. Coal import costs are rising and there are availability issues. So we'll get covered. Next year, solar power will get parity with diesel power and will start to get parity with distributed power. By 2017, we should be able to compete with gas-based power and by 2022, with coal-based power. By then, the price of coal-based power will also rise from the current Rs 2.5-3 per unit to about Rs 5 per unit. The focus of the government in renewable energy is largely on solar power. Your comment? I am not sure if they are looking more at solar than others. Solar is more expensive, so the government is providing more subsidy. They are doing this with the idea that one day it will cost less. If you aggregate all the renewable (power) available today, it is just a fraction of the potential of solar. Just 5 per cent of India's desert can power all of India. If you take 5 per cent of India's desert and cover it with currently available solar technology, then you can shut down every other power plant in the country. That is the sheer abundance of solar power. The government has approved over 800 MW of grid-connected solar projects this year. Do you see all that happening? They approved 500 MW of solar thermal and over 200 MW of photo voltaic (PV). All of these have apparently gone through financial closure. I think things are moving. That they have achieved financial closure is a big, big step. This is the year of execution. At the start of the year, India had 10-15 MW, at the close of the year you will have 200 MW. (This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 22-08-2011)