The 1-in-10 achievement

India’s renewables and electric mobility story for 2019, and beyond, is evident from a few key numbers. The share of renewable energy in generation is reaching 10 per cent, and the country’s first gigawatt-scale floating solar tender is out.

• Renewables share: The power produced by renewable energy plants in the country is reaching an important milestone.  Almost 10 per cent of the total generation is from renewables now — mostly wind and solar [see box]. At the other end of the spectrum is Germany, where renewable energy became the biggest source of power in 2018, accounting for 40 per cent of the total generation, marginally ahead of coal’s 39 per cent share. 

In terms of installed capacity in India, the share of renewables is touching 21 per cent, with over 70 gigawatts of capacity operational, according to the latest data.

• Gigawatt-scale floating solar: Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company invited bids for procuring 1 gigawatt of solar power via competitive bidding from floating projects on the Ujjani Dam in Solapur. This is a fairly large tender, given that globally, commissioned floating solar projects total about 1.3 gigawatts currently, according to BloombergNEF. These are mostly in countries with limited land available for solar such as China, which accounts for 80 per cent of this capacity, followed by Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. 

The ceiling tariff for the Maharashtra tender has been set at Rs 3 per unit. The power purchase agreement signed by the discom will be for 25 years. The 1 gigawatt capacity is broken down into 10 clusters of 100 megawatts each. The last date for submission of technical and financial bids is January 28, 2019. 

Additionally, last week, the Solar Energy Corporation of India issued a tender to build 7.5 gigawatts of solar power in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. The capacity is offered in three tranches of 2.5 gigawatts each, with a 35-year power purchase agreement. A 1.2-gigawatt wind tender has also been issued — with a ceiling tariff of Rs 2.85 per unit — though dates for receiving bids, and for the reverse auctions, are yet to be announced.

• Net power export: India’s exports to its neighbours Bangladesh, Nepal and Myanmar have been rising. 

India exported 4,809 million units of power to Bangladesh in 2017-18, against 4,420MUs in the year earlier.  Exports to Nepal totaled 2,389MU against 2,021MUs in the year prior to that. Exports to Mynamar were limited to about 5MUs in 2017-18, higher than 3MUs the year before.

We also continue to import power from Bhutan, and that import will increase as the 720-megawatt Mangdechhu hydro project starts generating. "At present, the country is a net exporter of electricity," power minister Raj Kumar Singh told parliamentarians on December 20.

• Thousand-plus charging sites for electric vehicles: The power ministry set out guidelines for public and private electric vehicle charging infrastructure last month. In the first phase (one-three years), nine mega cities with populations of four million or more, and the expressways and highways connecting them, will be taken up for coverage. BloombergNEF estimates that over 1,000 charging sites (having multiple charging stations) will need to be built to meet the targets set by the government for this phase. The policy prioritises the existing retail outlets of oil marketing companies for installation of charging stations, especially company-owned and company-operated outlets.

The author is editor, Global Policy for Bloomberg NEF. Email: vgombar@bloomberg.net