Betting on the sun
Solar energy mission needs to show some real action
That a sun-soaked country like India should invest in solar energy is a no-brainer. That it should build green, energy-efficient buildings while conserving scarce water resources is also an obvious thing to do. It should also invest in afforestation and practise sustainable agriculture. These are some of the initiatives that form the National Action Plan on Climate Change, or NAPCC. What is called an action plan is in fact a wish-list of desirable objectives; still, it is a smart way to focus energies on doing what officials term as “no-regret” measures while putting the country on a higher moral ground at the climate change negotiating table.
The final blueprints for action in the eight national missions that constitute the NAPCC are yet to be finalised. It is well known that the national mission on solar energy occupies pre-eminent place, though the other missions — on energy efficiency, sustainable habitat, water conservation, sustainable agriculture, Himalayan ecosystem sustenance, greening India and on building knowledge on climate change — are no less important. The solar mission is probably also the most ambitious mission, with the improbable target being an installed capacity of 20,000 mw of solar power by 2020, from less than 5 mw today. This will have a significant cost attached, since solar is the most expensive form of renewable power today, with capital cost of up to Rs 25 crore per mw, or six times more than for a thermal power plant. As a result, the unit cost of power is also much higher — at Rs 16-20 per unit, compared to Rs 3 or less for thermal power. Solar enthusiasts argue that the large-scale deployment being proposed would bring about a sharp downswing in these costs, as has happened in telecom services. That parallel may or may not be valid, so the questions about viability remain.
While the solar mission, and other energy-related missions in the NAPCC, come wrapped in the climate change package, they will also help the country along on the road to energy security. Climate change is not a problem created by India, whose per capita emission of carbon dioxide is just a little over one tonne, compared to over 20 tonnes for the US, but there is no getting away from the fact that India is now under pressure to commit to emission reductions, or face the threat of trade sanctions. Putting questions of fairness aside, the country is now on notice that it has to show that it is alive to the problem of climate change. The Prime Minister has unilaterally and voluntarily declared that India will not allow its per capita emissions to exceed that of the developing countries. But the NAPCC, which is at the heart of developing that promise, is now a year old and there has been little real action. The time for intellectual arguments is over, and the incentive to do something is there; time then for some real action.