As India strides towards a sustainable future, the green energy industry is brimming with expansion plans. While solar energy has been the primary focus, other alternative energy solutions, including wind, compressed biogas (CBG), and green hydrogen, are facing uncertainties that could impact their growth trajectory.
R. Narayan Kumar, chief business officer of Inox Wind, highlighted the importance of wind energy in the decarbonization process at the Mint Sustainability Summit 2024. He acknowledged the resurgence of wind energy but expressed concerns about the reliance on 3MW turbines due to slower technology adoption and infrastructure challenges. This contrasts with countries like South Africa, which have transitioned to 4MW turbines. The 5MW product, suited for specific geographies, faces policy hurdles, particularly in repowering, leading to a focus on onshore development with 3MW turbines as the workhorse for the Indian market.
Mahesh Girdhar, CEO of EverEnviro Resource Management Pvt. Ltd., a leading compressed biogas developer, outlined their ambitious plans to invest over ₹5,000 crore by 2028 to establish a production capacity of 600-700 tonnes per day. The growing interest in CBG is fueled by its potential to address the need for clean energy and the availability of raw materials. However, Girdhar emphasized the early stage of the industry, highlighting the need to prove the business model on a commercial scale. A key challenge lies in securing agricultural raw materials, which constitute 70% of the raw material requirement for CBG projects. The pricing of these materials, currently considered waste and burnt, needs to be determined to ensure commercial viability.
Debi Prasad Dash, Executive Director of the India Energy Storage Alliance, a group dedicated to developing advanced energy storage solutions, expressed optimism about the progress made in the green energy and e-mobility sector. He noted that the sector is expecting another 0.5 gigawatts of installations this year, following the announcement or issuance of over 11GW of tenders in the past seven months, of which 3GW have already been awarded. While the project pipeline is robust, Dash acknowledged the long road ahead in achieving the necessary grid-scale storage infrastructure. He highlighted the need to fully utilize transmission lines and develop new application areas for energy storage to address the challenges of grid congestion and ensure energy security.
Dash also analyzed the current pricing trends for energy storage tenders, emphasizing that the low bids are not solely driven by the decline in global battery prices but also by other factors, including the desire of early bidders to showcase their projects and the stabilization of raw material prices after the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, the lower cost of manpower in India has contributed to the competitiveness of storage projects compared to global installations.
