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M. Ramesh

New Delhi, Sept. 29 The Government should enact a renewable energy law requiring all utilities (electricity boards) to increase their purchase of power, year after year, from renewable sources, a report prepared by the India Semiconductor Association (ISA), with the help of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) says.

The report was released on Monday at the Solar PV Conclave 2008, organised here by the ISA. The report suggests that within ‘renewable energy’, solar energy should be given higher allocation by the utilities.

This will help in creating sustainable demand for power from renewable sources which will immensely help the solar PV (photovoltaic) manufacturing industry, it says.

Speaking at the conclave, Dr B. Bhargava, Director, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy Sources, said that the Government’s ‘generation-based incentive’ scheme had received tremendous response from the industry. The scheme is limited to a total of 50 MW across the country, but the response from the industry has come for over 1,000 MW.

Under the scheme, the Union Government pays Rs 12 a unit of electricity to a company that puts up a grid interactive solar PV or solar thermal power plant, for a period of 10 years.

In addition, the respective State electricity board would pay another Rs 3 a unit. As such, the developer would get Rs 15 a unit for 10 years.

The report calls for extending this scheme to all developers for unlimited capacity for a period of five years.

Presenting the report to the conclave, Mr Shubranshu Patnaik, Executive Director, PwC, said that grid interactive solar plants are viable, but of low internal rate of return (IRR).

The conclave saw speakers describing how solar modules costs have been coming down exponentially over the years, giving rise to hope that in a short time, solar power would cost no more than the grid power. Speakers also noted that world over crystalline silicon technology dominated the scene, but thin film technology is catching up fast.

More Stories on : Non-conventional Energy

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