Chanderpur Group

Earlier this month, the Ministry of Finance released the second volume of the economic survey. It has since raised the issue of investment in renewable energy which has attributed to a social cost of Rs. 11 per unit in electricity, which is thrice the social cost of coal. This statistic has raised the question as to why renewable energy is being pushed so hard and is giving a wrong idea to the investors. While people were hoping for a low cost of renewable energy, the current price of Rs. 11 per unit has put a lot of critics under confusion as to how the number was derived. It says that an added investment in wind and solar would reduce the operation of coal power plants which will lead the investors to turn to renewable energy. The survey also suggests that the shift to renewable energy would leave the traditional power plants under-utilised below their maximum feasibility level technically. The investments made in these facilities would eventually sink and would result in loss

In its latest report, Renewables 2017, the IEA has predicted that renewable energy would increasingly claim market shares from natural gas and coal. It had cited 2016 as a defining moment, a year in which about 164 gigawatts of new renewable energy capacity was added globally. This figure represents more than three times the amount of new gas-powered plants, and more than twice the amount of new coal-fired plants. The phenomenal growth is attributed to the fact that PV became the major source of electricity supply, accounting for 74 GW of additional energy in 2016, a whopping 50% increase from the previous year. China alone accounted for half of these additions. The current decline in solar prices has facilitated this fast-paced growth. Shocking low price auctions for solar is a global trend and India is not left out. In some countries, solar was auctioning at $0.30 per kilowatt hour, a price that is far more competitive than any other source, including cheap natural sources like c

  India may soon become a victim of the enviable success achieved so far in its renewable energy auctions by forcing down prices to a point it is no longer profitable, according to inside sources. According to Sumant Sinha, founder and CEO of ReNew Power, in GTM's Energy Gang podcast “Developers have been willing to cut their margins, and that is not healthy in the long run. Some of the bidders who bid aggressive numbers are going to end up having a problem eventually.” In a fierce bidding war, solar developers are willing to tender increasingly lower bids in government auctions as they anticipate a further drop in prices of solar panels. This is according to Sinha, whose company has already two projects - a 2 GW wind and solar project. The company is also planning a 10 GW in the future. Module prices in India fell below $0.30 per watt about four months ago. Sinha said consumers had expected the prices to go down to mid-twenties within the next three months. Instead, it had