6 RE-INVEST NEWS 2018

On Day One, RE-INVEST Meet and Expo saw three state-specific sessions being organised where top officials and ministers

from respective states showcased their achievements and underscored their plans and vision to in different spheres of renewable energy to achieve India’s stated goals. In the session titled ‘Showcase of Policy Initiatives by Haryana’, Banwari Lal, Minister of State, Public Health Engineering & New Renewable, Haryana, showcased how the state government has adopted a slew of measures to bring into mainstream the use of new and renewable energy sources and to promote energy conservation activities in the state.

The steps taken by Government of Haryana include each year rewarding scientists who are working in solar technology sector. A global award has also been instituted in the memory of late

The states have taken a slew of measures to realise the vision of a sustainable and resilient future of India

MEASURING UP TO THE TASKthe state. A new initiative to walk an extra mile towards a sustainable future ensures installation of rooftop solar in all jails in Haryana at Rs 34/unit.

Haryana is ready to set up 200 bio energy plants which will enable all to purchase power at an affordable price for the next 3 years.

In the session ‘Showcase of Policy Initiatives by Maharashtra, the state unveiled its ambitious plan to provide electricity to all. Maharashtra Energy Development Agency has many initiatives for building an energy conservation code for the renewable energy ecosystem. Maharashtra has signed an MoU with state PWD to save Rs 175 cr annually in electricity bills.

The panelists in the session, ‘Showcase of Policy Initiatives by Karnataka’, informed that Karnataka has exceeded the RPOs of 2022 and sees a great potential in developing solar and wind energy resources. Karnataka has also set new benchmarks using path-breaking innovative technology & becoming the biggest producer of renewable Energy in India. The state has added 5GW renewable capacity in 2017-18 with a total contribution of 12.4GW so far. Introduction of re-powering and hybrid generation will further add to the remarkable contribution of Karnataka to India’s renewable energy capacity.

astronaut Kalpana Chawla of Indian origin. Haryana has allocated $1.6 mn through this award to promote research in solar. Haryana

foresees great potential in the biogas energy sector. With about 450 gaushalas, 50 cows each, aims to set up 1000 biogas plants in

The country session dedicated to the UK focused on technology and finance and also discussed policies, technical assistance and research and development

partnership in the field of renewable energy

Partners in Fight Against Climate Change

First Secretary of British High Commission in India Daniel Bradley has called India and the UK as “natural partners”, who

have been collaborating in various fields in their joint fight against climate change.

The UK, considered a leader in clean energy transition and a global centre for green finance, is closely working with the Indian government in helping

Indian people adopt a lifestyle based on Renewable Energy resources.

The UK country session titled ‘Accelerating Innovative Financing and Technologies for Renewables’ on Day Two highlighted India and the UK’s collaboration in various areas, including offshore wind, energy storage, grid balancing, low-cost finance.

The session, focused on technology and finance, also discussed policies,

technical assistance and research and development partnership in the field of renewable energy.

Nick Bridge, UK Government’s Climate Change Envoy, said he had spent most of his time in office looking and renewable energy sector and UK was looking forward to working with India after Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier in 2018 launched high level

partnership with the UK in the field of renewable energy.

According to Bridge, the UK was committed to expanding the UK-India government partnership in fighting climate change as it was a phenomenal time and it was high time the governments moved towards working in this field.

According to the climate change envoy, the UK and Indian government were

looking forward to working on issues such as integrated grid, energy storage as well as green finances.

Some of the projects that India and the UK are already collaborating on include $5 billion capital raised by Indian companies in green bonds, a Centre for Energy Regulation, 100,000 grid connected solar pumps in Delhi, electric mobility, solar and green finance.

Committed to fight the threat of climate change, India and USA are working on building new synergies to leverage

development finance for international and domestic purposes

Overcoming Barriers to Transformation

Emerging as a leading power in the field of renewable energy, India has been looking forward to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels and

has set an ambitious target to install 175GW of renewable energy capacity by 2022. In its quest to achieve the target, India has been collaborating with various governments and organisations as it needs approximately $25-30 billion investment in distributed renewable energy segment.

During Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the US in 2016, the then US President Barack Obama had committed $60 million, recognising the urgency of the threat of climate change.

In order to overcome barriers and drive uptake of Distributed Renewable Energy (DRE) across a wide spectrum of developers and off takers in India, the US and India are working on two blended finance structures which can mitigate the risks for private financiers and enable crowding-in of private resources for DRE.

US-India Clean Energy Finance facility, a portfolio preparatory facility funded by US foundations and the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy to support early stage developers in accessing debt financing by addressing the barriers of information asymmetry and high transaction costs, and Credit Guarantee Mechanism under US-India catalytic Solar Finance Program, a guarantee structure, are the two blended finance structures.According to Jiwan Acharya, Asian Development Bank, Senior Climate Change Specialist for Clean Energy, DRE is a high priority area and the ADB is closely working with IREDA and Punjab National Bank in the field of solar energy.

Similarly the World Bank Group is working with State Bank of India in the field of solar energy.

Drubs Purkayastha, Director at US India Clean Energy Finance, said that in the Climate Policy India has suggested to leverage development finance for international and domestic purposes.

RE-INVEST NEWS 2018 7

ROOFTOP SOLAR EMPOWERING CONSUMERS

EXPERTS COME TOGETHER AT RE-INVEST 2018 TO DISCUSS GLOBAL MARKET TRENDS, SMART BUSINESS

TA session on ‘Rooftop Solar PV Market Trends’ was held on Day Two of the 2nd Re-INVEST Meet & Expo. The session brought together

experts who discussed global market trends, smart business models, and best practices in rooftop solar PV domain in India and Europe.

“Solar is emerging as a preferred technology given the cost reduction in the last few years. A lot of companies are looking at renewables as the way forward to reduce overall cost. Incentives and subsidies by MNRE have also given the segment a huge push. Also, unlike other renewable energy projects, rooftop solar gives consumers ways to easily adapt it to their needs. India has an ambitious rooftop solar target of 40 GW in

installed capacity by 2022 and we have a long way to go,” said Rajneesh Sharma, Director, Consulting-Energy & Resources, Deloitte. He further explained, “We have still not seen a successful model to aggregate under the OPEX model. There is a lack of consumer awareness as well. We need tariff rationalization; we need to avoid frequent changes to net-metering framework; discoms and SNAs too need to be supported to facilitate implementation of roof top solar; and a rating mechanism should be created for developers.”

Bruce Douglas, Deputy CEO and COO, Solar Power Europe also emphasised on awareness and education of consumers as

well as the commercial sectors. Terming India’s 40GW rooftop solar target as ambitious but also realistic, he added: “Small scale renewable projects are key drivers of the European energy transition. Small solar systems & storage are the backbone of a digitised, decarbonised, distributed and democratised energy system which empowers consumers, businesses and territories. We are looking at immense potential as well as socio-economic benefits. We need to look especially at the cities as they are responsible for 75% of energy demand and are therefore crucial to energy transition.”

Jens Martin, CEO, Vidja and Vice Chair,

Solar Power Europe drew the audiences’ attention towards utilities. “Utilities have the potential to create disruption. The future lies in solutions such as Google’s ‘Sunroof ’ that helps you map your roof ’s solar savings potential; ‘SolarCloud’ which is akin to virtual storage that can be used later for a different purpose. At E.ON we are developing solutions such as Smart Check that can even detect energy consumption at an appliance

level.” He further added, “We

need to take into account customers’ needs. Every market has a different

need. European member countries are active in

India and we are connecting with stakeholders like Indian

industries’ associations and Indian solar players. We are identifying areas of collaboration between EU Businesses and India.” Somanth Yogi, Technical Head, Renewable Energy Cooperation, focused on the recycling aspect.

MODELS, AND BEST PRACTICES IN ROOFTOP SOLAR PV MARKET

A dedicated country session titled ‘Australia: An Innovation Partner

in Renewable Energy’ was held on Day Two of the 2nd Global Re-Invest India-ISA Partnership Renewable Energy Investors Meet & Expo. The session gave a glimpse into solutions such as block chain, remote electrification, storage, Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) and pumped hydro storage. The session was co-ordinated by Munish Sharma, Trade Commissioner, Australian Trade & Investment Commission, Australian Government.

David Martin, Co-Founder & MD, Power Ledger, said, “Traditional centralised energy systems are expensive, inefficient and carbon intensive. Australia’s new energy system is resilient and offers value creation opportunities for all players including consumers and investors. Blockchain works best in highly complex, transactive environment – the platform is

huge – Power Ledger Blockchain solutions allow peer-to-peer electricity trading, microgrid management, virtual power plants, carbon product trading and a host of other apps.” Wayne Liubinskas, Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer, Village Energy, focused on India’s rural milieu while drawing attention to the fact

that Indian distributors lose a large amount for every unit of energy delivered to rural consumers.

He added: “A range of technical and commercial issues cause these losses - energy theft, load shedding, non-payment of bills, etc. Advanced

technologies such as Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, big data, Edge Computing can help solve these issues. Coupled with distributed energy, it offers governments lower cost alternatives and puts power in the hands of consumers. We are already doing a project in Andhra Pradesh and looking for more states to partner with.”

Ajay Sharma, International Director & MD (India) for

Entura, shared the future of the energy sector

relies on dispatchable renewables where renewable generation combines with long-term energy storage. He elaborated on

how pumped hydro energy storage is gaining

popularity. “We have tuned our capabilities accordingly, combining significant expertise in utility-scale hydropower, solar and wind farms and hybrid projects with power systems analysis and grid connection,” he said.

Australia Eyes Indian MarketArmed with latest technological innovations like Power Ledger Blockchain, Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, Big Data and Edge Computing for renewables, Australian companies express interest to provide need-based solutions

UTILITIES HAVE THE

POTENTIAL TO CREATE DISRUPTION. THE FUTURE LIES IN SOLUTIONS SUCH AS GOOGLE’S ‘SUNROOF’

THAT HELPS YOU MAP YOUR ROOF’S

SOLAR SAVINGS POTENTIAL

TRADITIONAL CENTRALISED

ENERGY SYSTEMS ARE EXPENSIVE,

INEFFICIENT AND CARBON

INTENSIVE

“WE HAVE STILL NOT SEEN A SUCCESSFUL MODEL TO AGGREGATE UNDER THE OPEX MODEL. THERE IS A LACK OF CONSUMER AWARENESS AS WELL”

WAYNE LIUBINSKAS, CO-FOUNDER AND CHIEF GROWTH OFFICER, VILLAGE ENERGY, SAYS THAT INDIAN DISTRIBUTORS LOSE A LARGE AMOUNT FOR EVERY UNIT OF ENERGY DELIVERED TO RURAL CONSUMERS

8 RE-INVEST NEWS 2018

A Walk Through Re-Invest

POINT OF VIEW

ANAND KUMAR HON’BLE SECRETARY, MNRE GOVT OF INDIA

Effective transmission and distribution require huge quantities of smart technologies. We are confident we will exceed our target of generating 175 GW of renewable energy by 2022.

BANWARI LALMINISTER OF STATE, PUBLIC HEALTH ENGINEERING & NEW RENEWABLE, HARYANA

“We envision Haryana as the largest green energy market with an aim to place India on the global green energy map.”

P RAVIKUMARENERGY DEPT, GOVT OF KARNATAKA

“We’ll look to push for repowering old wind farms and hybrid projects in the near future.”

BRUCE DOUGLASDEPUTY CHIEF EXECUTIVE GROUP AND COO, SOLAR POWER EUROPE.

“Small-scale renewable installations at homes, schools and hospitals are the key drivers of the European energy transition, and job creation in small-scale solar projects is almost three times more than utility-scale solar.”

NILESH ROHANKARDIVISIONAL GENERAL MANAGER AT MEDA

“Having achieved the target of 2867.82MW in renewable energy so far, Maharashtra is also a leader in the installation of rooftop solar power plant and possesses the highest potential to harness it.”

MANOJ KOHLIEXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN, SOFTBANK ENERGY.

“Government policies are evolving across the world, and India is taking giant steps. We will surpass the target of achieving 500GW by 2030 and ensure a smooth transition from conventional resources to clean energy resources.”

CAROLIN GASSNERDIRECTOR- SOUTH ASIA, KFW DEVELOPMENT BANK

“Germany’s 100 GW renewable transition was achieved by a good regulatory environment, incentives structure, and compulsory purchase agreements. We don’t have prices as competitive as India.”

JIWAN ACHARYASENIOR CLIMATE CHANGE SPECIALIST CLEAN ENERGY, ASIAN DEVELOPMENT BANK

“Asian Development Bank is working closely with Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) and the Punjab National Bank (PNB) in the field of solar energy.”

MANU SRIVASTAVAPRINCIPAL SECRETARY, GOVERNMENT OF MADHYA PRADESH

“Giving structure to tenders & aligning the best implementing practices will help in streamlining processes.”

TOMAS KÅBERGEREXECUTIVE BOARD CHAIRMAN, RENEWABLE ENERGY FOUNDATION

“There are many technical opportunities in renewable but to make them economical, you need a good institutional setting”