Renewable Energy – UPSC GS3

Facts:

Total installed capacity of wind power stood at 33 GW
Solar was the second major segment with cumulative capacity of 17 GW.
Bio-power occupied the third position with a total installed capacity of 4,551 MW

Targets set by Government:

Challenges with renewable energy:

Weather depend: both solar and wind sources are weather dependent; many times weather does not cooperate such as overcast sky, storms etc.; ensuring steady power supplies in such cases is difficult.
Grid harmony: keeping power from different renewable sources in harmony over the grid is also difficult; especially in context of intermittent power flows from such sources.
Land acquisition: sources such as wind & solar both require large land area to ensure large scale generation; difficult to obtain in agrarian countries like India.
Poor battery efficiency: proposal to utilize batteries to meet peaks loads during evening & mornings is marred by poor battery efficiencies.
High capital cost: high initial cost of investment & technology expertise in harnessing sources such as wind, tidal, geo-thermal etc. is unavailable with most of the countries.

What does Economic Survey say?

Economic Survey of 2017 indicated that the social cost of renewables to be three times that of coal, at around Rs11 per kilowatt-hour
One MW of solar plant requires 5 acres of land, whose cost is loaded on to the power cost.
Secondly, Indian industry is already suffering the disadvantage of higher energy cost due to levies like the coal cess, that has gone up by 800% in the last few years; from Rs 50 per tonne of coal in 2010 to Rs 400 in 2016
Thus, Solar and wind energy can never completely become the energy source for industries (in the near future) that need uninterrupted, reliable, steady and high wattage electricity.