NEW YORK: India’s renewable energy programme is not dictated by any external pressure but comes as an article of faith, Power Minister PiyushGoyal said today.
Speaking at the Roundtable on International Solar Alliance -the Trillion Dollar Opportunity, the Minister said the solar alliance is an oppourtunity to serve humanity and those who still have no access to power.
“Our effort for cleaner environment and greener environment comes as an article of faith. It is not something we are doing out of international pressure. It is not something where India is looking at as burden on the people of India, on the economy of India.
“But we are looking at this as an oppourtunity to set right what went wrong in the past, to correct the imbalance in the atmostphere, the way development has taken place over several years,” he said.
He said India has launched this initiative as an obligation towards the larger humanity as an article of faith and called upon stakeholders beyond governments to make this initiative a success.
The ISA which comprises 121 countries that lie partially or fully between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn is intended to create a platform for larger collaboration for technology, research and development and capacity building.
“This is about improving the quality of life of large number of people who are still grappling with problems of energy and accessibility at affordable prices,” the Minister said at the roundtable organised by CII and Terrawatt Initiative under the aegis of International Solar Alliance.
India has set an ambitious target of developing 175 GW renewable power capacities by 2022, including 100 GW of solar and 60 GW wind power projects.
The Global Solar Council also committed to creating 25 million jobs in the solar space among the ISA countries. Similar commitments of dedicating a part of their funding portfolio to renewables was given by GIIC, a federation of pension funds.
Under the Indian and French leadership, the International Solar Alliance was launched in Paris.
Terrawatt Initiative said that based on the success of the Indian practice, the ISA aims at scaling up solar energy and at better aggregating and harmonizing the demand across solar rich countries building a common ‘buyers’ market’ for solar rich countries.
In support of ISA plans for generating local employment and spurring economic activities, the Global Solar Council (GSC) said it has set a target of creating 10 million solar jobs by 2030.
GSC represents more than 40 national and regional solar associations from both established and emerging markets, and 2,000 companies across the solar chain.
Union Minister of State for Power, Coal and New and Renewable Energy PiyushGoyal said that Indian Government is taking necessary actions to sustain the current economic growth of India and that major initiatives were being taken to make the economy more business friendly
Talking at the launch of International Solar Alliance Friday, Goyal urged investors to take advantage of three Ds – democracy, demography and demand – which India has provided.
PiyushGoyal said this in the launch of programmes under International Solar Alliance today at the United Nations in New York, where he is accompanied by an official delegation which includes Secretary, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy and Joint Secretary, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.
Goyal met with Stephen Schwarzian the Chairman, CEO and Co-Founder of Blackstone Group over lunch and discussed about investment opportunities in India and the transparent policy regime that the Government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi has ushered in.
Goyal also held meetings with Jack Kutner, CEO Big Belly, Richard Kauffman, Chairman of Energy and Finance, Office of the Governor of New York, SaurabhAgarwal of Warburg Pincus and Alfred Griffin, President of the New York Green Bank.
He also addressed a meeting of large number of American investors and developers in the field of Renewable Energy which was jointly organized by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and US-India Business Council (USIBC) in the evening.
Earlier, Goyal had held interactions with print and electronic media at the Consulate General of India, New York.
Goyal highlighted the achievements of the Government and said that India is committed to implement the promises made by Prime Minister Modi in his discussions with the business dignitaries.
He briefed about various steps undertaken by the Government to improve energy access, rapid scale up of renewable energy, enhancing grid reliability, integration of renewable in the grid and the massive opportunity presented by the untapped demand in the Indian market.
Speaking on UjwalDiscom Assurance Yojana (UDAY), Goyal stressed upon the steps being taken to bring a drastic change in India’s power sector that can take India to double digit growth trajectory in the economy.
While addressing the meeting he said that India already has surplus power and demand stimulation through UDAY, coupled with the growth in the Indian economy will quadruple electricity consumption by 2030.
Aiming to secure gas from 24,000 MW of stranded power plants, India is open to signing long-term contracts for the fuel at USD 5 per MMBtu, Power Minister PiyushGoyal said.
Striking an optimistic note, Goyal also projected that the country’s growth rate will be in double digits by next year if not in this fiscal (2016-17), the caveat being that India needs a strong monsoon.
Speaking at the renewable energy investors round-table, co-hosted by industry bodies CII and USIBC here yesterday, the minister called upon gas producers to explore investment opportunities in the Indian market.
“India is willing to take gas for its gas-based power projects and sign long-term contracts of 10-15 years but this can be done at a fixed price of USD 5 per MMBtu as the power sector is a price-sensitive sector in the country,” he added.
With about 24,000 MW of stranded gas assets in the country, this is a huge and promising market as long as the prices are right and given the current Baltic index, he said adding: “I believe this is a viable proposition”. The minister, who also holds the portfolio for Renewable Energy and Coal, added India is currently exploring all means of gasification including coal bed methane.
Responding to investors’ queries on exchange rate volatility and the need to address the hedging issue, Goyal said: “I am open to an earlier proposal of linking the debt to a basket of currencies including the USD, the JPY or even options like inflation-linked tariffs to cover hedging risk.”
He, however, pointed out that the Indian Rupee has been relatively strong over a long term and will be one of the stronger currencies, given India’s growth potential.
Some important issues that were discussed during the course of his visit to the UK and US included need to address hedging currency volatility in tariffs, need for a stable and simplified policy and regulatory regime and standardised PPAs and equipment standardisation.
Talking about investment opportunities under the ‘Make in India’ initiative, Goyal said to incentivise manufacturing in solar sector, the government is exploring options of long-term power contracts and long-term land lease contract for manufacturers.
Goyal highlighted the opportunities for investment in India’s energy sector. He told them that India offers USD 1 trillion investment in different segments of energy sector. He said all sort of government help to investors is available “on phone call today”. State-run Energy Efficiency Services ltd (EESL) is now gearing up to set up overseas office in New York in the near future.
Aiming to secure gas from 24,000 MW of stranded power plants, India is open to signing long-term contracts for the fuel at USD 5 per MMBtu, Power Minister Piyush Goyal said.
Striking an optimistic note, Goyal also projected that the country’s growth rate will be in double digits by next year if not in this fiscal (2016-17), the caveat being that India needs a strong monsoon.
Speaking at the renewable energy investors round-table, co-hosted by industry bodies CII and USIBC here yesterday, the minister called upon gas producers to explore investment opportunities in the Indian market.
“India is willing to take gas for its gas-based power projects and sign long-term contracts of 10-15 years but this can be done at a fixed price of USD 5 per MMBtu as the power sector is a price-sensitive sector in the country,” he added.
With about 24,000 MW of stranded gas assets in the country, this is a huge and promising market as long as the prices are right and given the current Baltic index, he said adding: “I believe this is a viable proposition”. The minister, who also holds the portfolio for Renewable Energy and Coal, added India is currently exploring all means of gasification including coal bed methane.
Responding to investors’ queries on exchange rate volatility and the need to address the hedging issue, Goyal said: “I am open to an earlier proposal of linking the debt to a basket of currencies including the USD, the JPY or even options like inflation-linked tariffs to cover hedging risk.”
He, however, pointed out that the Indian Rupee has been relatively strong over a long term and will be one of the stronger currencies, given India’s growth potential.
Some important issues that were discussed during the course of his visit to the UK and US included need to address hedging currency volatility in tariffs, need for a stable and simplified policy and regulatory regime and standardised PPAs and equipment standardisation.
Talking about investment opportunities under the ‘Make in India’ initiative, Goyal said to incentivise manufacturing in solar sector, the government is exploring options of long-term power contracts and long-term land lease contract for manufacturers.
Goyal highlighted the opportunities for investment in India’s energy sector. He told them that India offers USD 1 trillion investment in different segments of energy sector. He said all sort of government help to investors is available “on phone call today”. State-run Energy Efficiency Services ltd (EESL) is now gearing up to set up overseas office in New York in the near future.
LONDON: Expressing confidence that India is set to become the biggest energy market, Power Minister PiyushGoyal has said that affordability, access and inclusiveness are driving India’s energy policies.
“India, which is projected to see demand quadruple in the coming years will also lead the way in scaling up energy efficiency in line with commitments towards combating the challenges of climate change,” Goyal, said at an investors roundtable on renewable energy here late yesterday.
Speaking at the roundtable, organised by industry body CII, the Minister for Coal and New and Renewable Energy said India’s growth story in India has just begun with the “country set to become the largest energy market” representing aspirations of a billion plus people in the coming years.
This is even more significant in view of global scenario when most developed economies are witnessing a declining trend in their energy demand, he added.
“The idea is to make power available to all at affordable prices. Our policies have to make a difference to the last man at the bottom of the pyramid and change his life for the better,” he said.
Citing examples of how solar tariffs have dipped to Rs 4.34 per unit through competitive transparent systems he emphasised that scale will have a large role to play in bringing down costs.
The minister said India and the UK are natural partners and a deeper engagement can lead to a win win for both nations and economies.
While India will gain from new technologies, UK can make the same technologies more accessible by manufacturing in India, capitalising on Indian skills and the scale to bring down costs, he added.
Elaborating on how India is leading from the front on issues relating to climate change, Goyal said India is among the few nations that has imposed a carbon tax even as measures are being taken to scale up energy efficiency and de carbonise the transport industry.
He also informed the gathering of investors on detailed plans of how electric vehicles were being promoted as an alternative to ones being run on petroleum fuels.
“For a country like India, replacing petroleum fuel is even more important as this would reduce import dependence and ensure energy security,” Goyal added.
Brushing aside worries over any spillover effect of SunEdiso’s debt woes on India’s solar power plans, Renewable Energy Minister PiyushGoyal today set the record straight, saying some firms not doing well will not impact the programme’s success.
“There are always certain cases of firms failing all over the world in every industry. There was a point of time where very large airline companies failed in different parts of the world. You have a failed steel sector in the UK. It does’t mean that the whole sector collapses,” he said when asked about the debt problems being faced by SunEdison.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an event organised by industry body CII here late yesterday, Goyal said there are one or two instances of companies which do’t do well or may have some problems.
“But it’s not as if only these one or two firms brought the tariffs down. We have 50 companies who brought tariffs down even below what Sun Edison or Sky Power quoted. So, I do’t think it deters us or deflects the success of the solar programme at all,” the minister said.
India has very large corporations, both domestic and international, which have won contacts in the solar energy field at even more competitive prices than (Sun Edison and Sky Power), added Goyal, who also holds the portfolio of power and coal.
“And should there be a problem with one or two companies, others will take over those projects… Investors need not be worried about it, bankers are not worried about it. There is enough interest in the market for much larger volumes than what they have taken up in India,” he added.
Earlier this month, reports had surfaced that the Adani group is in talks with the US-based renewable energy major SunEdison to acquire the latter’s Indian assets.
The group led by billionaire GautamAdani has asked bankers to sound it out on whether SunEdison is also putting on the block its solar power projects in India.
On the use of coal to generate electricity, Goyal said the dry fuel will continue to be important.
“It’s the base load of power in India. We will continue to have coal and newer coal plants coming in. But India is a very responsible global citizen and we working on clean coal technologies,” he added.
“We have research going on with Australia on clean coal. I will shortly be tying up with MIT in Cambridge for developing clean coal technologies… Coal will remain mainstay of our energy, but we are open to looking at cleaner coal technologies so that we do’t do what the West has done to the environment over the last 150 years,” he daid.
NEW DELHI: The government will ensure that coal demand of states, PSUs and small players is fully met before opening the sector for commercial mining by private companies, Union Minister Piyush Goyal said today.
In the first stage, the coal blocks under commercial mining will be given to states and PSUs “then gradually (the government would) go down to the next level.”
“Today I want to make sure that all requirements of the states are fully met first and the small people so that it may not happen that the private miners come and the price of coal gets disturbed,” the Power Minister said.
He said the next round of mines auction would take some more time as the government is still watching the international market pricing.
Last month, the government had said the coal ministry is likely to come out with an approach paper for formulating a detailed policy on commercial coal mining by March.
“Earlier, we were thinking to open up the coal sector for commercial mining for the private sector in the current fiscal. But it is likely that there would be some delays,” Coal Secretary Anil Swarup had said.
He had said the government did not get “too many” responses in the last auction and Coal India has also increased its production to meet the demand.
“So, we will take a look at the market situation before we put up the blocks for commercial mining for private companies,” Swarup had said.
The government plans to put up coal blocks for auction to private players for opening up the coal sector for commercial mining.
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NEW DELHI: The government will unveil a raft of new policies to boost hydropower and electricity from biomass, biofuels and cogeneration as well as significant increase in the use of electric cars, Power, Coal and Renewable Energy Minister Piyush Goyal said.
The government will also correct transmission bottlenecks, improve last-mile grid connectivity and take steps to increase demand for electricity as many power plants are running at a low capacity, the minister said at conference organised at the launch of energy portal ETEnergyworld. com on Thursday.
He said the country can also expect initiatives to correct transmission bottlenecks and replacement of diesel generators with reliable supply, which would generate demand for electricity from underutilised power stations and reduce the use of standby generation that is often very polluting.
The ministry is banking on large scale rural electrification, correcting transmission bottlenecks, improvement in last mile connectivity, and replacement of diesel generators to increase the demand, Goyal said.
“Having achieved around 9% rise in coal production and more than targeted thermal power capacity addition in 2015-16, we now need to focus on demand generation. Increased rural electrification followed by power to all homes will lead to greater demand for power,” he said.
Goyal said lack of adequate transmission capacity in many states results in reduced power supply despite substantial demand. He said improved last mile connectivity would lead to reduced usage of diesel generator sets.
“If we can replace diesel generator sets with power from the grid we could see substantial increase in demand,” he said. New power generating capacity totaling 23,000 Mw was commissioned in the last financial year that ended on Thursday against a target of 20,000 Mw.
Share of hydropower generation in India has shrunk to just 15%, though the country ranks fifth in the world in hydroelectric potential.
Long construction period, lack of transport infrastructure, geological risks, land acquisition and environmental and religious concerns have slowed hydropower projects including 50,000 Mw being allocated to private companies in north and northeast India.
The power ministry is working on a plan to shift to electric vehicles by 2030, and has significantly stepped up the use of energy-efficient LED lighting.
NEW DELHI: Government today expressed hope that it may auction four ultra mega power projects (UMPPs) in the next fiscal.
“Hopefully in next fiscal (FY17) we may auction three to four UMPPs,” Power and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal told reporters here.
He was speaking on the sidelines of 8th Global CSR Summit- cum-Responsible Organisation Excellence Awards organised by Assocham.
“Over the year, I have been calibrating the requirement of power and can forsee that we will need these UMPPs into place. So even though we made announcements last year, it did not make prudent business sense to rush it, so we sat. We made the documents, which are very robust… that should be going to the Cabinet soon and once it approves the new document we will start bidding,” Goyal said.
The minister in January had said the government will auction three ultra mega power projects (UMPPs) by March, including Tilaiya and Cheyyur entailing investments of Rs 80,000 crore.
The investment for an UMPP of 4,000 MW has been revised from Rs 20,000 crore to about Rs 27,000 crore each recently on basis of rise in the price of coal and land.
Power Secretary P K Pujari in March had said the government may not be able to float tenders for three ultra mega power projects (UMPPs) entailing an investment of Rs 90,000 crore by March-end due to some legal glitch.
In last year’s budget speech, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had proposed to set up five new UMPPs of 4,000 MW each in the plug-and-play mode.
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