India may achieve about 76 percent of the target of having 175 gigawatts of renewable power generation capacity by the scheduled date of 2022 as it faces myriad challenges, Wood Mackenzie said Monday. India is targetting 100 GW of solar capacity and 75 GW of wind power by 2022. \u201cEven with significant cost declines, Wood Mackenzie expects about 76 percent of the target to be met by 2022 and this would still be a noteworthy achievement,\u201d the world\u2019s leading research and consultancy firm said in a report. Wood Mackenzie\u2019s solar analyst Rishab Shrestha said India faces a myriad of challenges in the renewables industry.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe recent cancellation of auctions risks jeopardising investor confidence. Various duties on equipment and the associated uncertainty has led to a short-term uptick in solar prices. This leads to the knock-on effect on already cash-strapped state distribution companies who are showing an unwillingness to green light high priced solar projects,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Nonetheless, the government\u2019s commitment and support towards renewables remain strong. The government has been swift and adaptable at responding to various industry hurdles and are helping reduce project risks. As a result, renewable prices continue to remain competitive. Wood Mackenzie said combined wind and solar capacity have almost doubled from 2014 levels to 61 GW this year. \u201cDriving this growth is the significant cost decline that auctions continue to deliver,\u201d Shrestha said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the next five years, capital costs are expected to decline by 23 percent for wind and 31 percent for solar. This trend will only continue as new generation technologies replace old ones.\u201d Wood Mackenzie expected non-hydro renewables to make up 13 for percent of power generation mix by 2023. Improving grid flexibility through storage and flexible power generation will be extremely crucial in achieving high levels of renewable penetration, it said, adding that economic competitiveness, technological maturity, and financially healthy off-takers will provide a solid base for renewable capacity growth to cater to electricity demand growth.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver the longer-term horizon of 2040, India is forecasted to increase its renewable capacity by around seven times to 384 GW. This share will be driven by diverse sub-segments which include offshore wind, hybrid projects, floating solar and distributed solar. The 384 GW of non-hydro renewables will ultimately contribute 20 percent of generation share by 2040,\u201d Shrestha said. Wood Mackenzie, however, said coal remains principal energy driver in near term. Its coal principal analyst Pralabh Bhargava said: \u201cWe have increased India\u2019s imports for thermal coal from 158 million tonnes to 164 million tonnes in 2018 with a further upside risk of 3-4 million tonnes as coal stocks at Indian power plants and Coal India Ltd are at historically low levels\u201d.<\/p>\n
India\u2019s spot market prices, for both coal and power, are expected to remain strong in the coming months as continuous industrial production growth is pushing demand, while supply remains tight. \u201cGrowth in domestic coal production and dispatches can only partially meet the growing demand for coal, which is resulting in increased reliance on imports. With a decade-low stockpile at Coal India\u2019s mines and more than half of the plants with a supercritical level of less than seven days\u2019 stock, the reliance on imported coal for several power plants will increase the flow of imports into India,\u201d Bhargava said.<\/p>\n
Until recently, the demand for imported thermal coal was driven by non-utilities, where a lack of domestic supply and the need for high-energy coal kept the segment active in the seaborne market. With the power sector increasingly relying on imports, Wood Mackenzie expected the rally in Indian imports to continue till early next year. It said industrial production in India has grown at an average of more than 7 percent this year, leading to an increase in power generation by 6 percent over January to August 2018. Cement production was up 16 percent and steel production 4 percent for the same period.<\/p>\n
\u201cPolicies to improve the power sector have started to have an impact. At the end of the financial year in March 2018, the performance of several states in reducing technical and commercial losses as well as increasing tariffs was improving. The government is looking to de-stress some power-generating units, which may result in improvements in load factors at several plants in the short-to-medium term,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
India\u2019s rupee depreciating against US dollar from an average of 63.65 to a US Dollar in January 2018 to 73.56 in the first week of October has increased the costs of imports and only the lack of domestic coal availability is forcing companies to import.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
India may achieve about 76 percent of the target of having 175 gigawatts of renewable power generation capacity by the scheduled date of 2022 as it faces myriad challenges, Wood Mackenzie said Monday. India is targetting 100 GW of solar capacity and 75 GW of wind power by 2022. \u201cEven with significant cost declines, Wood Mackenzie expects about 76 percent of the target to be met by 2022 and this would still be a noteworthy achievement,\u201d the world\u2019s leading research and consultancy firm said in a report. Wood Mackenzie\u2019s solar analyst Rishab Shrestha said India faces a myriad of challenges […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[132],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-185685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-power"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/39"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185685\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}