Issues referred to in factsheets

1. Solar Rooftop (SRT)

a. Conflict of interest - Lack of enthusiasm of discoms that fear losses by C&I customer
migration. To facilitate SRT should it be discoms or SNAs?
b. Data gaps - MNRE reports figures of 2.6 GW however, data about individual homes is
not captured. Actual installation figures at 5.44 GW (BTI)
c. Targets - Is growth rate of SRT declining? 1.8 GW in 2019, 1.4 GW in 2020. Target is 40
GW by 2022. What is causing this shortfall? Discom?
d. States do not have uniform policies – different caps of sizes, types of metering, subsidies
and mandates. Delhi has GBI of Rs. 2/unit, TN has allowed 100% sanctioned load to be
installed.
e. Residential rooftop has not succeeded – due to low residential tariffs, lack of access to
financing facility, reliable facilitators, quality and standards of equipment, quality of
servicing
f. Will Phase II work? – shifted charge of SRT to discoms, transferred incentives to
residential (Rs 11,814 Cr subsidy - indigenous), trying to incentivize discoms (Rs 4,950 Cr
as performance-based incentive to install SRT)
2. Wind Energy
a. Shortfall – CRISIL reports a possible shortfall of targets to 45 GW by 2022 (60 GW target)
b. Is target of 60 GW modest – potential of 302 GW @ 100m and 695 @ 120m
c. Tariff cap unviable - Industry says increased risks have driven up costs and current tariff
cap is unviable. 3.46 to 2.43 to 2.93 and undersubscribed response 45%.
d. Discom problems – Late payments, curtailments
e. Transmission networks delay – commissioning delays for Green Energy Corridors I and II
(66.5 GW RE capacity)
f. Access to windy sites – Only Gujarat and TN has viable sites under current tariff caps but
state are unwilling to give up land
g. Manufacturing companies exiting – low capacity auctions has resulted in exit of most
manufacturers
h. Repowering – 10 GW potential but repowering policy has failed
i. Wind-solar hybrid – 4,500 MW announced since 2018 but less that 1/3 rd under
implementation
3. Energy Storage
a. Global outlook – until 2018 Pumped Hydro dominates capacity (94.30%) followed by
Electrochemical storage (with Li-Ion dominating this segment). Share of Pumped Hydro
will likely decline due to battery production
b. India has 4.7 GW of Pumped Hydro
c. Assessment done by CEA during 1978-87 showing potential to be 96.5 GW. No new
assessment is available. Commonly mentioned barriers to PHS are long gestation, civil
works, and social/political challenges.
d. EVs and energy access could cause a surge in batteries from 9 GW today to 1095 GW by
2040. Growth led by China & US.
i. Li-Ion prices fell by 87% to reach $156/kWh in 2019 and expected to fall to $100
by 2023
 e. CEA forecasts India would require 34GW/136GWh battery by 2030 for grid stability –
NITI Aayong 6X10GW gigawatt scale factories by 2025 and 12X10GW by 2030. Finalizing
of Giga-scale Lithium-Ion Battery Manufacturing Programme in India. Storage cost
expected to fall from 7 Cr/MW to 4.3 Cr/MW in 2030
f. National Mission on Transformative Mobility and Battery Storage includes a 5-year
phased manufacturing programme to set up large-scale battery and cell manufacturing
giga-sized plants in India. However, the Mission has not taken off yet. The current
storage market seems restricted to battery energy storage systems.
g. India Smart Grid Forum has come up with an Energy Storage Roadmap for India (2019-
2032)
h. SECI Tender highlights
i. Off-grid – PV plants in Andamans, Leh and Lakshadweep to be backed up by
small scale storage (<60MWh)
ii. 1,200 MW RE+Storage under ISTS
i. Need to develop local manufacturing capacity, proper regulatory framework for
recycling and disposal of batteries (batteries have 3-10 years of life)
4. Large Scale Solar
a. The 100 GW target (~32+2 today) is not likely to be achieved as tenders have been
unsuccessful and achievements are slipping. Covid-19 is an additional burden.
b. for the last two fiscals (2018-19 and 2019-20), annual capacity addition is on a
decreasing trend with 6.5 GW and 5.7 GW addition respectively against the previous
year of 2017-18 when 9.4 GW was installed
c. Payment/Investment risks – Discoms unable to pay dues (~10,000 Cr), curtail solar
power and attempt to renegotiate tariff
d. Tariff ceilings – this has caused concerns and MNRE is moving away from imposing it but
if states continue this practice, progress will stall
e. Safeguard duties – import duties and basic customs duty
f. GST – Costs have increased as effective rate is 9%
5. Solar Manufacturing
a. 1 GW of backward integrated solar panel manufacturing capacity, right from the
manufacturing-grade silica, works out to Rs 3,200 crore
b. India has Solar PV cells capacity 3 GW/year, modules 10 GW/year
c. 1/3rd of manufacturing capacities were operational, but they were significantly under-
utilized
d. Cheap imports account for 80-90 per cent of the total installations
e. Safeguard duty offset by further fall in Chinese production costs resulting very little
change in imports
f. Manufacturing requires a streamlined and comprehensive policy – at the moment govt
is pushing through procurement mandates (subsidies in Phase-II of Rooftop solar,
KUSUM, CPSU Phase-II), capital subsides and interest subvention for manufacturing
facilities (MNRE, Ministry of Electronics), customs duties etc
6. Biomass Power
a. MNRE estimates surplus biomass availability at about 120-150 MMT per annum (agricultural and
forestry residues)
i. 18,000 MW
ii. Bagasse cogeneration is 8,000 MW additionally
b. Target of 10,000 MW achieved in 2019
c. Biomass Power receives incentives
i. Rs 25 L/MW of ‘surplus exportable capacity’
ii. Preferential tariffs
iii. Tax holiday
iv. Must run status
d. Capacity additions have stopped
i. Generation is declining (drastic decrease in the plant load factor (PLF) of biomass plants Ð
from 46 per cent in 2015 to 17.1 per cent in 2019 as per the data from CEA (see Graph 3).
This, when the CERC recommends that the PLF of biomass plants would range from 60-80
per cent.)
e. Industry states shortage of biomass and increasing prices
f. Biomass-solar mini-grids by Husk power uses biomass as energy storage