Govt planning huge thrust to revive biofuel, hydro power: Piyush Goyal

Minister says will try to woo international companies to invest in India, leaves door open to both debt or equity inflows

Piyush Goyal, Minister or state with independent charge for power, coal, new and renewable energy, admitted at the Make in India, Mumbai edition that biofuel and hydro power had taken a bit of a backseat recently, but added that there would be a big thrust to get them going again.

“We ask ourselves: can we do away with petroleum products for biofuel?” said Goyal. He said solar and wind had matured “to a level in India” and the focus of his ministry will now be on biofuel. “Now, we want an end-to-end solar manufacturing base in India,” added Goyal.

Responding to a question on whether the manufacture of polysilicon filaments was power-intensive and raised production costs, Goyal said his ministry had been working with states to give sops to companies making the product. “Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh have some amazing incentives for such companies,” Goyal added.

The minister also said that he would try to woo international companies to invest in India and left the door open to both debt or equity inflows.

Funding, however, he said would not be issue -- a statement that was echoed by Rana Kapoor of Yes Bank as well, in a later address.

“I expect manufacturing costs to get cheaper in the next 18 months,” said Goyal. The costs, however, would only drop if Indian banks stepped forward especially when it came to working capital, said Tulsi Tanti, MD, Suzlon Energy.

Tanti explained that capital was difficult to come by and urged Karnam Sekar, deputy managing director, SBI and Kapoor of Yes Bank to be proactive. “The government should take care of the hedging… you could hedge power cost for 25 years and make back some of the investments,” said Tanti.

He also asked the minister to relax the norms on energy export. “We need more research and development facilities in India or... five per cent rebate,” Tanti added. He said that if some of these were made available, solar energy manufacturers could drop the price by Re 1. The solar power rate currently is Rs 4.34 a unit, a record low. Goyal said he was hoping that solar power would break the Rs 4 threshold soon.

The minister also asked entrepreneurs to take on the challenge put forth by wind energy.

Currently, India produces 5,000 Mw of solar energy and 18,000 Mw of wind energy. According to the Workd Bank, the country plans to reach 100,000 Mw production of solar energy and 60,000 Mw of wind energy by 2020.