Tentative Region-wise break-up of Renewable Power

target to be achieved by the year 2022.

Solar Power Wind (MW) SHP Biomass Pow

(MW) (MW) (MW)
Northern 31120 8600 2450 4149
Western 28410 22600 125 2875
Southern 26531 28200 1675 2612
Eastern 12237 135 244
North
Eastern 1205 615
Island 31 600 120
All India 99533 60000 5000 10000

Global Scenario: World energy consumption has

increased from 10919.6 MTOE in 2004 to 12928.4
MTOE in 2014(see Table 3 below). During the same
period renewable energy consumption has increased from
84.9 MTOE to 316.9 MTOE. The CAGR ( given in the
last column) of renewable energy consumption growth is
much higher during this period than the growth of world
primary energy consumption. Further, growth of
consumption of renewable energy was much higher than
world average during this period in the Asia Pacific region
and consumption in India is higher than Asia Pacific
region also. China has however surpassed India’s growth
in renewable consumption during the same period.

Table-3 : Consumption of Primary Energy and

Renewable Energy (MTOE)

1
 2004 2014 CAG
2004
World Primary Energy Consumption 10919.6 12928.4 1.70
World Renewable Energy Consumption 84.9 316.9 14.0
Asia Pacific 17.2 94.2 18.5
India 2.3 13.9 19.7
China 1.1 53.1 47.3
Japan 6.5 11.6 5.96

Issues in Technology: Given the strong focus of solar

enery in the country, educational and research institutions
are carrying on researches in the areas of solar
photovolataic and solar thermal to make it effective and
commercially viable. Indian institutions like BITS Pilani,
IITs, BESU of Kolkta, CSIR-IICT of Hyderabad, NPL-
CISR of New Delhi, Universities of Delhi, Cochin,
Gandhinagar are engaged in research and development
of solar photovoltaic. In the area of solar thermal WRST
of Mumbai, IITs of Mumbai and Jodhpur, CEPT of
Ahmedabad, RGVP of Bhopal and Sunborne Energy
Technologies Pvt Limited Gurgaon are engaged in
research and development activity.

Global research work are going on at Stanford University

and Massachusetts Institute of Technology on the area of
photovoltaic. Methylammonium lead oxide, a compound
of cannary–yellow liquid, throws up possibilities of
dramatic increase in the world’s use of power from the
sun, also termed as to the category of pervoskites.This
compound can be used in solar cells. As Economist (16
May 2015) reported ..” Solar cells, perovskite ones
included, all function broadly the same way. When lights

2
hit a crystal of the material they are made from, it frees
electrons (which are negatively charged) and leaves behind
what are, in effect, positively charged holes in the crystal
lattice. This formation of crystal-hole pairs is
characteristic of semiconductors exposed to light.
Neighbouring materials then capture the positive and
negative charges and transport them to electrode layers
on the cell’s outer faces, where they generate a current.
Last year Michael Gratzel of Swiss Federal Institute of
Technology, in Lusanne, devised a cell in which the
perovskites were infused in to the electron capturing
material rather than being a separate layer. It is being said
perovskite are cheap to turn into cells and can be a strong
rival of silicon solar cells. In 2009 the first perovskite
solar cells converted 3.8% of the light falling on them
into electricity which has gone up to 20% over a period.
Researcher expect it can go up even to 25% in the time to
come.
Conclusion: Given the current state of research and
development in the areas of renewable energy in general
and solar energy in particular, successful implementation
of renewable projects will not only change the energy mix
in the country but dependence on fossil fuel would come
down. Cost of electricity for all sectors of consumers
would come down, disposable income would increase for
all segments of customers. There are possibilities of
drawing foreign investment in this sector, since current
government policy to push renewable energy to top of the
country’s energy security agenda - would assure better
return on investment for the investors.