Build green corridors to meet clean energy target of 175 GW, says CII

Major Renewable Energy (RE) players have called for state-level RE policies and green corridors to achieve the national target of 175 GW by 2022 at the 4th CII Renewable Energy Summit held in New Delhi. 

KS Popli, Chairman & Managing Director, India Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA), said that with defined cash flows in projects, new instruments like sub-debts up to 10 per cent, hard and soft underwriting etc., are being used. He expressed confidence that Power Purchasing Agreements will be honoured in the future, irrespective of falling tariff rates. The cost of financing RE projects would decrease significantly with deepening of the bond market. Further, the green bond market has grown significantly in the past five years, he added.

Sumant Sinha, Chairman, CII Northern Region, and Founder Chairman of ReNew Power Ventures Ltd, said that falling cost of renewable energy, especially on the solar front, is giving tough competition to other sources of energy. However, availability of grid infrastructure remains a challenge. There is also a need to build a competitive domestic solar manufacturing capacity within the country.

The Government of India, over the last two and half years, has taken several policy measures to ensure rapid capacity addition from a mere 32 GW in 2014, to 175 GW by 2022 from new and renewable energy resources, added Ratul Puri, Chairman, CII NR Committee on Power & Chairman, Hindustan Power Projects Pvt Ltd. He called for well-defined renewable energy policies in the states to realise the full potential of the sector. 

He also mentioned challenges such as financial health of distribution companies, inadequate and outdated grid infrastructure and operations, fragmented solar component manufacturing with many small players and high AT&C losses.  He added that exemption from wheeling charges, electricity duty and incentives may help in attracting fresh investments.

Sharing the investors’ perspective, Suresh Goyal, India Country Head & Executive Director, Macquarie Infrastructure & Real Assets, stated that India has attracted 50 per cent of global investments in the RE sector in recent times. He felt that barring equipment performance criteria, the government should ensure that other factors are taken care of to make an impact on doing business.

Inderpreet Wadhwa, Founder, Director and CEO, Azure Power, called on the states to come up with a policy mechanism which clearly defines the right mix of power requirements and power consumption in the states, so that new projects can only be auctioned after the demand for power is determined.

CII released a report on ‘State Renewable Energy Policies: A Comparative Study’ on the policy initiatives of state governments in the renewable energy sector, on the occasion.