Renewable, yes, but what is the question?

Five years ago, when the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) published its first State of Renewable Energy report, the sector was just taking wing. We were part of its cheerleaders — an environmental research and advocacy group that strongly believed the world needed to move out of fossil fuels because of growing risks of climate change.

Five years later, when we publish the 2019 State of Renewable Energy, much has changed and yet much remains the same. The government of India has an ambitious target for renewable energy (RE) — 175 GW by 2022. There is no question now that RE has arrived. Nobody argues about its imperative or feasibility. The industry has matured. There are RE companies that can bid and out-bid each other for the supply of panels, solar power plants or wind turbines. RE is an industry with sparkling offices, new-age companies and flamboyant leaders. It is no longer in the musty world of scientists or activist NGOs. It has grown out of the world of community groups in villages working small projects. It is real. It is big. RE plants compete with coal-based energy. Renewables are now under the Ministry of Power — RE is no longer a peripheral scientific sector, struggling to compete with the big boys.

The testimony to this growth is in its numbers. Today, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) says that the country has hit 73,000 Mw of installed RE power, which is some 20 per cent of the country’s installed capacity for power generation. On good days, when the sun is shining and the wind is blowing, RE meets some 12.5 per cent of the country’s electricity demand. On other days, it is over 7 per cent. This is not small. But it is not big either.

This, therefore, is not the time to be complacent or to pat our back for the work done. Even as RE has grown, the challenges that confront India have also grown — in fact, become even more troublesome and crippling. This is what we must discuss.

First, there is the challenge of access to energy. The fact is that even as the grid reaches everywhere, the light does not. Whatever the reason, millions in the country are still in darkness. Second, there is the challenge of clean cooking energy. This is the world’s wicked, wicked problem. Women across the developing world continue to be exposed to toxic emissions because of the biomass they burn to fuel their cooking stoves. The Indian government’s much-needed push to provide LPG to poor households has made a dent in the cooking energy sector. But it is also a fact that in spite of this, households are still using dirty biomass fuels; there is a definite correlation between income and cooking fuel. So, households do not get the refill of their cylinder as frequently as they must. The “other” energy crisis still exists, RE or not.

The third challenge is air pollution. The health impact of the foul air is now so big that even governments cannot deny the problem. Clean combustion, in other words RE, has a big role to play in clearing the air of toxins. But it is just not there.

Fourth, without any doubt, is the climate conundrum — the world and India remain addicted to fossil fuels. The developing world needs to provide affordable energy to large numbers of its people. How can it replace coal and yet provide this energy security? How? This is the question. This is where RE must matter.

So, I would argue, given these challenges, it is time we began an altogether different discourse about RE. We need to redefine its objective (and certainly its language) so that it can meet societal needs. It cannot be enough to meet targets. It must meet the poor’s energy, clean-air and climate-change needs. Frankly, this RE market needs to be embedded in societal principles. It needs to be emboldened and driven so that it is the change. 

So, how will it happen? The fact is that energy security for vast numbers of the poor requires an energy-delivery system that is different. It will require taking energy that costs less but is advanced and cleaner to households that cannot even afford to buy basic fuel or light. As yet, our track record (as 2019 State of Renewable Energy report shows) on these fronts is not commendable. RE is like all energy sources — it could be coal or gas. It is produced and pushed into the grid. It is supplied through the conventional (and broken) distribution network. It is limited by its environment and its imagination.

This is the course correction we must seek in 2019 and beyond. RE has to be the moral and economic imperative for a cleaner and more inclusive world. Anything less is selling us short. Anything else must be unacceptable.

The writer is at the Centre for Science and Environment

sunita@cseindia.org

Twitter: @sunitanar