Renewable energy in India : News & Updates

[Gautam]

India’s battery storage capacity hits 219.1 MWh​

India’s installed battery storage capacity reached 219.1 MWh at the end of March 2024. A recent Mercom report predicts that the nation will add 1.6 GWh of standalone battery storage and 9.7 GW of renewable projects with storage by 2027.

JULY 10, 2024
By UMA GUPTA

Image: Fluence

India had installed 219.1 MWh/111.7 MW cumulative battery energy storage system (BESS) capacity as of March 2024. Mercom India’s new report, “India’s Energy Storage Landscape,” states that 120 MWh/40 MW of this capacity was added in the first quarter of 2024.

According to the report, PV systems combined with battery energy storage systems account for 90.6% of the total installed BESS capacity.

Mercom details the status of energy storage installations in India and highlights key states for energy storage capacity development. It covers tariff trends, the pipeline and installed capacity of standalone BESS projects, renewable energy plus BESS, and pumped storage.

The report states that the rapid addition of intermittent renewable energy sources like solar and wind has significantly affected grid stability. As of March 2024, solar and wind accounted for 28.9% of the country’s electricity capacity. To ensure efficient renewable integration and grid stability, policy measures such as deviation settlement mechanism, grid connectivity regulations, and ancillary services regulations are being issued, driving demand for utility-scale energy storage.

The viability gap funding (VGF) program aims to install 4 GWh of BESS, supported by a budget of INR 37.6 billion ($452 million). The VGF, along with energy storage obligations and bidding guidelines for energy storage projects, with or without renewable energy, is boosting the country’s pipeline of energy storage projects.

“India is an emerging market for energy storage, still in the early stages of development. Despite rapid growth in renewable energy, energy storage has lagged, which could potentially lead to curtailment and a lack of grid flexibility and stability. The urgency seen in renewable energy initiatives has been missing in energy storage. To meet energy transition goals and manage the exponential increase in renewable energy, the government must prioritize energy storage to avoid issues faced by other countries with growing intermittent power but insufficient storage capacity,” said Raj Prabhu, CEO of Mercom Capital Group.

The report states that Chhattisgarh leads in BESS installations, accounting for 54.8% of the cumulative installed capacity.

According to Central Electricity Authority (CEA) data, India's operational pumped hydro storage capacity totaled 3.3 GW as of March 2024. Nearly 76% of this capacity is in Telangana and West Bengal.

As of March 2024, 1.6 GWh/1 GW of standalone BESS, 9.7 GW of renewable energy projects plus energy storage, and 78.1 GW of pumped hydro projects were in various stages of development, with 60 GW under survey and investigation and 18.1 GW under development.

Rajasthan has the highest capacity of standalone BESS under development, driven by favorable provisions in the state's renewable energy policy and annual energy storage obligations through fiscal 2030.

To meet the demand for efficient energy utilization from renewable sources, government agencies have issued tenders totaling 57 GW and auctioned 11.5 GW of energy storage projects as of March 2024. Tenders for standalone and renewable projects with energy storage totaled 7.4 GW in the first quarter of 2024.

India’s battery storage capacity hits 219.1 MWh

 

[Gautam]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1838586430156935543

https://twitter.com/x/status/1838587436294901802

 

[Gautam]

India readies bidding norms for pumped storage hydro projects

India plans 74 GW of energy storage systems by 2031-32, including 27 GW from pumped storage plants and 47 GW from Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS).

By P. B. Jayakumar
24 September 2024

The Union Ministry of Power has kickstarted the setting up of pumped hydro storage (PSP) projects in the country and will soon come up with final tariff-based competitive bidding guidelines for producing electricity from pumped storage projects. Draft guidelines were issued two months ago and the deadline for comments and views from stakeholders ended in the first week of September 2024.

India plans 74 gigawatts (GW) of energy storage systems by 2031-32, including 27 GW from pumped storage plants and 47 GW from Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS). The guidelines suggest concluding financial closure within 160-190 days from the zero date, including bid submission, evaluation, technical bid evaluation and power purchase agreements. If the project is coming up on a government-owned site, it will be developed as a Build Own Operate and Transfer (BOOT) project for 40 years.

A pumped hydro storage project (PSP) is a commonly used technology in many countries, in which water is pumped from a lower elevation reservoir to a higher elevation using low-cost surplus off-peak electric power to run the generators. During peak hour electrical demand, the stored water is released through turbines to produce electric power to balance shortages in the grid. The Union Ministry of Power issued draft guidelines on pumped hydro storage projects in March last year and later for energy storage systems.

Estimates say India has an on-river pumped storage potential of 103 GW. About eight projects (4745.60 MW) are presently in operation, four projects (2780 MW) are under construction, and 24 projects (26,630 MW) have been allotted by states which are under different stages of development, say sources. Out of about 56 projects with a potential of 73,240 MW identified, about 18 are in Maharashtra and about 10 projects are in the Northeast.

Renewable energy-focused companies like Tata Power, Adani Green Energy, JSW Neo Energy, Torrent Power and Greenko are planning big entry into PSPs. Nearly 40 GW of PSPs are being proposed by National Hydro Electric Power Corporation (NHPC), Tata Power, Adani Green Energy etc and nearly half of these potential sites are in Western Ghats. JSW Energy's subsidiary, JSW Neo Energy plans to set up a 960 MW capacity PSP at Pane (Raigarh) and plans to have 10 GW PSPs in Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, and Rajasthan.

Tata Power has already announced the construction of two projects - an 1800 MW PSP at Shirawata, Pune district and a 1000 MW PSP at Bhivpuri in Raigad district in Maharashtra with an investment of ₹13,000 crore. It has also identified three more potential sites with 9000 MW capacity, 3000 MW each at Potalpali in Thokarwadi, Kataldhara at Walwhan and Nenavali in Mulshi, all in Raigad district of Maharashtra.

Torrent Power is planning to invest ₹27,000 crore in three PHPs at Karjat (3,000 MW) in the Raigarh district and at Maval (1,200 MW) and Junnar (1,500 MW) in the Pune district of Maharashtra. The Greenko group is building a 1,680 MW PSP near Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh and is planning three more large PSPs. The NHPC has an agreement with the Maharashtra government to build pumped storage hydro projects totalling 7,350 MW capacity at Kalu - 1,150 MW, Savitri - 2,250 MW, Jalond - 2,400 MW and Kengadi -1,550 MW. Adani Green Energy's agreement with the Maharashtra Government is to invest nearly ₹60,000 crore in PSP projects over the next five years. NHPC and Gujarat Power Corporation Limited (GPCL) are planning to develop a 750 MW Kuppa Pumped Hydro Storage Project in Chhota Udaipur, Gujarat.

India readies bidding norms for pumped storage hydro projects

 

[Asterion Moloc]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1757642067633651775

Google takes power from Indian billionaire Adani's mega-plant five times size of Paris​

Google is to take power from a 30GW green energy mega-project in India under development by the renewables business of Indian billionaire Gautam Adani.

The Adani Group today (Thursday) said it has entered a partnership with the web giant over the supply of energy from a planned wind-solar hybrid project that forms part of the massive Khavda complex in Gujarat.

Khavda, which will cover more than 500 sq km – or an area five times the size of Paris – is billed by Adani as the world’s biggest of its kind, and will when fully built out feature about 26GW of solar and 4GW of wind.

Google – like other tech giants such as Amazon and Meta already a massive consumer of green power globally – will take power from the project from the third quarter of 2025.

The demands of AI, cloud computing and stretching corporate decarbonisation goals are expected to create unprecedented extra demand from the tech sector in the next decade.

A statement from the pair said: “This innovative collaboration will help advance Google’s 24/7 carbon-free energy goal by ensuring cloud services and operations in India are supported by clean energy and thereby contribute to the sustainable growth of Google in India.”

Google takes power from Indian billionaire Adani's mega-plant five times size of Paris | Recharge

Web giant and Adani Group say collaboration will secure power for Indian cloud services

www.rechargenews.com

 

[Gautam]

India is finally becoming a clean energy superpower

By David Fickling, Bloomberg
Last Updated: Oct 15, 2024, 09:36:00 AM IST

Synopsis
India's clean energy sector is finally making significant strides, with substantial increases in solar and wind installations. The country is on track to meet its ambitious renewable energy targets, potentially reducing its carbon footprint ahead of schedule and setting a model for sustainable development for other emerging economies.​

It’s better to under-promise and over-deliver. India’s clean power industry is finally making good on that dictum.

For several years, the country has fallen well short of the rosy visions proclaimed by its leaders. India should become the first major economy to industrialize without carbonizing, to paraphrase its Group of 20 sherpa Amitabh Kant. Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised to connect 500 gigawatts of clean energy by 2030, equivalent to all the generators in France, Germany and Italy put together.

The picture on the ground has, until recently, been very different. A previous aspiration to hit 175 GW by 2022 came in 40% below target and had to be fudged to avoid embarrassment. Ill-advised tariffs on solar panels, combined with contractual and political support for fossil fuels and constant changes to the rules of renewable power auctions, made matters worse.

Amid this policy chaos, wind and solar installations fell 19% last year, to 13 GW. That’s less than a third the level that would be needed for the country to be on track for Modi’s 2030 plan. Coal, the dirtiest fuel and the most readily available alternative to renewables in India, took up the slack: Usage by power plants jumped by 8.8% in the latest fiscal year through March. Plenty of analysts (including me) despaired about the prospects for a reversal.

The logjam, however, appears to be breaking. Solar panels and wind turbines have been springing up in 2024 like seedlings after the breaking of a drought. In the eight months through August, 18.8 GW of new renewable generators were connected, more than in the whole of 2023. Over the full year, that figure will increase to around 34 GW, the International Energy Agency forecast last week, before nearly doubling to 62 GW in 2030. Growth rates are set to overtake China in the second half of the decade and become the most rapid of any major nation, the IEA wrote.

The trend looks set to extend into next year as well. Tenders for renewable projects, a useful leading indicator, showed 70 GW of announcements and 33 GW of awards in the first half of the year alone, according to S&P Global Commodity Insights. Projects already in train would bring the total to 430 GW, renewable energy minister Pralhad Joshi told parliament in August. All but 76 GW of the total is either operating or under construction, sharply reducing the risk this is the same old case of over-promising and under-delivering.

Solar module manufacturers, encouraged by those counterproductive tariffs, have been busy building out factories. By 2026, the country will be able to assemble 172 GW of panels per year, according to Mercom India Research, a renewables consultancy. That’s sufficient to meet its own projected needs well into the 2040s, even on a pathway that takes the world to zero emissions.

While the Reserve Bank of India kept rates on hold last week, an easing of its monetary policy stance opens the way to cuts by the end of the year, which should also help: Finance costs have been one of the biggest factors holding back further renewable development in recent years.

The implications of all this could be profound. Rich countries and China each account for roughly a third of the world’s greenhouse pollution, but emissions from the former group have been declining for nearly two decades and China is likely to hit its peak this year. India, as the world’s most populous and fastest-growing major economy, is likely to be the biggest factor pushing up the world’s carbon footprint over the decades ahead.

That might be excusable in moral terms: India has barely contributed to the global climate problem so far, so can argue that countries who’ve been spewing CO2 for centuries should cut it some slack. But such rationalizations don’t offer much comfort to farmers in Uttar Pradesh hospitalized or killed by blistering summer heatwaves, or software developers in Bengaluru having to depend on water trucks because climate change is drying up the aquifers needed to keep India’s cities watered. What they need are signs that the upward trajectory of emissions is finally heading downwards.

We might be on the brink of that future. BloombergNEF estimates that an Indian power sector that was on track to install 506 GW of clean energy by the start of 2030 would see its own carbon footprint begin to decline as soon as 2026, putting the world as a whole on track to net zero emissions. Globally, we’re already installing enough solar and buying enough electric vehicles to avoid catastrophic climate change. Hitting Modi’s 500 GW target would be one more piece of the puzzle to avert that outcome.

Since coal furnaces kicked off Britain’s industrial revolution, it’s been an accepted fact that economic growth can only be bought at the cost of environmental damage. With the UK’s last coal-fired power station closing last month, that argument has been looking threadbare — and if India can now get rich without belching carbon, it may be dealt a decisive blow. For other emerging economies hoping to follow India’s development path, that would be a powerful lesson. The centuries-old nexus between pollution and wealth is finally being broken.

India is finally becoming a clean energy superpower

 

[mamiam23]

India is finally becoming a clean energy superpower

By David Fickling, Bloomberg
Last Updated: Oct 15, 2024, 09:36:00 AM IST
View attachment 37196

Synopsis
India's clean energy sector is finally making significant strides, with substantial increases in solar and wind installations. The country is on track to meet its ambitious renewable energy targets, potentially reducing its carbon footprint ahead of schedule and setting a model for sustainable development for other emerging economies.​

It’s better to under-promise and over-deliver. India’s clean power industry is finally making good on that dictum.

For several years, the country has fallen well short of the rosy visions proclaimed by its leaders. India should become the first major economy to industrialize without carbonizing, to paraphrase its Group of 20 sherpa Amitabh Kant. Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised to connect 500 gigawatts of clean energy by 2030, equivalent to all the generators in France, Germany and Italy put together.

The picture on the ground has, until recently, been very different. A previous aspiration to hit 175 GW by 2022 came in 40% below target and had to be fudged to avoid embarrassment. Ill-advised tariffs on solar panels, combined with contractual and political support for fossil fuels and constant changes to the rules of renewable power auctions, made matters worse.

Amid this policy chaos, wind and solar installations fell 19% last year, to 13 GW. That’s less than a third the level that would be needed for the country to be on track for Modi’s 2030 plan. Coal, the dirtiest fuel and the most readily available alternative to renewables in India, took up the slack: Usage by power plants jumped by 8.8% in the latest fiscal year through March. Plenty of analysts (including me) despaired about the prospects for a reversal.

View attachment 37193

The logjam, however, appears to be breaking. Solar panels and wind turbines have been springing up in 2024 like seedlings after the breaking of a drought. In the eight months through August, 18.8 GW of new renewable generators were connected, more than in the whole of 2023. Over the full year, that figure will increase to around 34 GW, the International Energy Agency forecast last week, before nearly doubling to 62 GW in 2030. Growth rates are set to overtake China in the second half of the decade and become the most rapid of any major nation, the IEA wrote.

The trend looks set to extend into next year as well. Tenders for renewable projects, a useful leading indicator, showed 70 GW of announcements and 33 GW of awards in the first half of the year alone, according to S&P Global Commodity Insights. Projects already in train would bring the total to 430 GW, renewable energy minister Pralhad Joshi told parliament in August. All but 76 GW of the total is either operating or under construction, sharply reducing the risk this is the same old case of over-promising and under-delivering.

Solar module manufacturers, encouraged by those counterproductive tariffs, have been busy building out factories. By 2026, the country will be able to assemble 172 GW of panels per year, according to Mercom India Research, a renewables consultancy. That’s sufficient to meet its own projected needs well into the 2040s, even on a pathway that takes the world to zero emissions.

View attachment 37194

While the Reserve Bank of India kept rates on hold last week, an easing of its monetary policy stance opens the way to cuts by the end of the year, which should also help: Finance costs have been one of the biggest factors holding back further renewable development in recent years.

The implications of all this could be profound. Rich countries and China each account for roughly a third of the world’s greenhouse pollution, but emissions from the former group have been declining for nearly two decades and China is likely to hit its peak this year. India, as the world’s most populous and fastest-growing major economy, is likely to be the biggest factor pushing up the world’s carbon footprint over the decades ahead.

That might be excusable in moral terms: India has barely contributed to the global climate problem so far, so can argue that countries who’ve been spewing CO2 for centuries should cut it some slack. But such rationalizations don’t offer much comfort to farmers in Uttar Pradesh hospitalized or killed by blistering summer heatwaves, or software developers in Bengaluru having to depend on water trucks because climate change is drying up the aquifers needed to keep India’s cities watered. What they need are signs that the upward trajectory of emissions is finally heading downwards.

View attachment 37195

We might be on the brink of that future. BloombergNEF estimates that an Indian power sector that was on track to install 506 GW of clean energy by the start of 2030 would see its own carbon footprint begin to decline as soon as 2026, putting the world as a whole on track to net zero emissions. Globally, we’re already installing enough solar and buying enough electric vehicles to avoid catastrophic climate change. Hitting Modi’s 500 GW target would be one more piece of the puzzle to avert that outcome.

Since coal furnaces kicked off Britain’s industrial revolution, it’s been an accepted fact that economic growth can only be bought at the cost of environmental damage. With the UK’s last coal-fired power station closing last month, that argument has been looking threadbare — and if India can now get rich without belching carbon, it may be dealt a decisive blow. For other emerging economies hoping to follow India’s development path, that would be a powerful lesson. The centuries-old nexus between pollution and wealth is finally being broken.

India is finally becoming a clean energy superpower

Iam more worried about Energy Generation than installed capacity. Because that shows how much we reaped for invested. I just don't want this thing to be show pieces. If someone could put some graphs regarding power generation from various sectors it would be appreciable.