Supply chain, land biggest challenge in energy transition: Experts at BT India@100

India has a target of 500 GW of non-fossil power by 2030 and renewable – solar and wind – will play a crucial role. The massive expansion requires huge land parcels but land availability, storage solutions to ensure round-the-clock renewable energy to the grid and dependence on China for the supply chain are the three biggest challenges,  experts at BT India @100 said.      

Rajeev Gupta, CEO, NTPC Green Energy Ltd (NGEL), highlighted that huge renewable capacity addition would need huge land parcels but land acquisition remains a bone of contention keeping in mind land remains a federal issue.  

“Land acquisition will be huge challenge and we need to address it collectively. We need to ramp up central and state transmission networks (efficient use of renewable power) and build a robust supply chain for capacity augmentation,” he said.

While speaking at the Business Today India@100 session on Navigating the Green Transition, Gupta said  NGEL, the green energy arm of NTPC, has set an ambitious target to scale renewable energy to 60GW by 2032 from the present 3.7 GW. NGEL has also ventured into battery storage and pump hydro solutions.  

The Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), established to facilitate the implementation of the National Solar Mission, is now also focusing on storage solutions keeping in mind the intermittent nature of renewable energy and need to ensure a round-the-clock supply to the grid.   

RP Gupta, CEO, SECI, said that the biggest challenge in energy transition for the world is to find solution for long term storage.

“Energy transition is not possible if renewable energy generated in surplus period is not transferred to lean season. Unfortunately, it is not on the horizon and the solution is ‘One Sun One grid’,” he says.

According to the SECI chief, the tariff difference between renewable and thermal is disappearing fast with new technology for storage.   

India’s dependence on China for its solar supply chain remains a big issue but Sumant Sinha, Chairman and CEO of ReNew, said with the production linked incentive (PLI) scheme, battery cell manufacturing will get indiginse.  

“Dependence on China for solar is the most vexing global clean energy problem as it is cheap and huge scale. If you want cheap renewable, you buy from China. There is a dichotomy of cheaper power and more secure supply chains and it is a slow process and world need to work together but that is not happening.  What India has done for modules, need to do for wafers, cells and polysilicon,” said Sinha speaking at the event.

There are various reports that the peg requirement is $10 trillion for green transition but climate finance availability has remained low.

Sinha said we have to look from the debt and equity side. “On debt side for renewable energy, domestic public sector banks, private sector banks, international bond markets and foreign bank lending are available. The problem lies in equity side and multi-lateral development banks need to work on blended finance to channelize private sector capital,” he highlights.