Showing posts with label solar power. Show all posts
Showing posts with label solar power. Show all posts

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Publication: IISD Publications Centre (29 Feb 2014)

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Stable Policies, Turbulent Markets Germany’s Green Industrial Policy: The costs and benefits of promoting solar PV and wind energy

» Wilfried Lütkenhorst, Anna Pegels, IISD, 2014.Paper, 89 pages, copyright: IISD
Green industrial policy (GIP) is the pursuit by governments of national economic excellence in key green economy sectors, with a view to creating globally competitive domestic firms. It differs in only a few respects from traditional industrial policy, most significantly with respect to the potential global environmental benefit that comes from private sector innovation and competition in these sectors.
GIP is increasingly used by governments in the developed and developing countries, a trend that is likely to be reinforced in coming years by the desire to capture the environmental and economic benefits of green economy sectors. However, as with traditional industrial policy, it is easy to implement policies that undermine rather than support the intended goals.
This report is one in a series that considers the lessons for GIP that can be learnt from policies in the renewable energy sector. The aim of the series is to provide policy makers with research to support the development of cost effective, well targeted policies for the development of green industries. The reports highlight how policies have worked, the outcomes of the policies and the lessons that have been learnt.

This report focuses on the wind and solar sectors in Germany. It reviews the German policy in support of raising the share of renewables in the energy mix within the context of multiple social, economic and technological objectives. Based on this analysis, the report concludes that the extent to which policies have achieved their green industrial goals at reasonable cost is mixed. Wind energy seems to perform better against all policy objectives, while the solar PV sector has come under intense pressure from international competition.

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Sunday, September 22, 2013

Indian Updates: Tamil Nadu takes India's solar power capacity up 30% (17 Sep 2013)

Tamil Nadu takes India's solar power capacity up 30%
Tamil Nadu takes India's solar power capacity up 30%, TNN | Sep 17, 2013, 05.50 AM IST
CHENNAI: India's installed solar power capacity is poised to jump 30% with the Tamil Nadu government close to signing power purchase agreements for 700 megawatts (MW) by the end of October.

Once the plants are up and running, Tamil Nadu will have the second largest solar power capacity in India after Gujarat, the pioneer in such projects in the country.

India has 1,759.43MW of grid-connected solar power, with close to 800MW coming fromGujarat. The projects are expected to be ready for commissioning next year.

As part of TN's solar power policy, which aims at installing 3,000MW of capacity by 2015, a total of 52 companies will sign agreements with the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (Tangedco) for capacity totalling 698MW at a tariff of 6.48 per unit (with a 5% increase annually for 10 years).

This comes at a time when the country's national solar policy is tottering. The second phase of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM) has been delayed by over five months with no sign of the programme being kick-started any time soon.

Solar power is the most expensive form of renewable energy and rupee depreciation has added to the woes of companies importing high-end photo voltaic panels.

"There has been a lot of uncertainty over solar power companies and negativity had set in. But now there are projects in the pipeline and activity for players across the board will go up," said Madhavan Nampoothiri, founder and director of RESolve Energy Consultants, an energy consultancy firm.

Last week, Tangedco held individual meetings with solar power developers asking them to submit documents for proof of land ownership and bank guarantees for financing. "Thirty companies are yet to submit the documents and we have given time till October 30. Once this is in place, power purchase agreements will be signed," a senior official from Tangedco said.

Companies that have the documents in place have started working on the project. "The meeting with the Tangedco chairman and other members was a manner of assurance of support and we have started progress on our project. The team is on the site and we are in talks with banks for financing," said T R Kishor Nair, President, Welspun Energy, which is setting up a 60 MW plantin Trichy district. Solar policies in other states haven't made as much progress and capacities also aren't as large as in Tamil Nadu. While Andhra Pradesh has a target of 1,000 MW, tariff is a deterrent for investors as it is fixed at Rs 6.49 with no annual hike. The programmes in states like Punjab (300 MW) and Karnataka (130 MW) are on a smaller scale and are in the nascent stage. What adds to Tamil Nadu's attractiveness is that the state has high solar radiation of 5.6 - 6.0 kWh per square meter with around 300 clear sunny days in a year, the third highest in India.

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