India should enjoy the Sunshine: Ratul Puri on Solar Power

 Ratul Puri felt the need to bring the issue of renewable energy consumption in wide light after the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi pledged at Paris COP 21 climate change summit that India will utilise the renewable energy production methods to cater almost half of its electricity needs by the end of 2030. Ratul Puri is the Chairman of Hindustan Powerprojects Pvt Ltd (HPPPL), which was formerly known as Moser Baer Projects Pvt. Ltd.

Ratul Puri mentions that ‘Solarizing India’ is attracting a lot of investors’ interest, reasons being innumerable but most importantly Centre and State Government’s coordination with the determined will to bring some difference in the country, is something to look forward to.

The Union Government wants to provide 24/7 electricity across the Nation, and that is why it revised its targets from 20 GW power generation to 100 GW, which triggered the curiosity in many.

The HPPPL Chairman also mentions the names of those states, where solar power generation and consumption have been initiated and adopted as an alternative source of energy, which include Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan and Telangana. On the other hand, Jammu & Kashmir Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal are working on developing certain policies to attract investors with the aim to build solar capacity.

By analyzing the recent thermal and solar bids in India, it is safe to conclude that grid parity has been achieved which was the ‘holy grail’ and a key milestone towards large scale adoption of solar in India. The country, where the average solar tariffs were between Rs. 10.95/kWh and Rs.12.76/kWh in December 2006 has dropped to Rs 5.00 – Rs 5.50 in 2015 whereas the thermal bids during the last 6 months has landed in the range of Rs 4.00 to Rs 5.00. Thereby, safe to say India has indeed achieved grid parity and this could result in higher investor stickiness to the sector. On the same note, the Rs 4.63 tariff bid should be seen as placeholder and not debated too much till the time there are sustained ROI from the project.

The core of the debate whether the recent tariff fall, grid parity, the policy changes etc enthuse the investors enough to help India build out its infrastructure has been answered without any doubt. It is now just matter of time before India reaches its objective, but at this moment, the country should enjoy the ‘sunshine’!