The Electric Vehicle industry is expected to boom in the next 5 years in India with a lot of companies coming up with EV vehicles both 2 wheelers and 4 wheelers. Even the global EV giant Tesla has entered into the country. Recently Tata Motors and Tata power have jointly set up a solar carport and are making a mark in the EV infrastructure. Let’s look at how the solar carport is going to benefit the EV industry.
Tata Motors and Tata Power have joined together in order to set up one of the largest grid synchronized, behind the meter solar carport of the county. The carport is located in Pune at the car plant of Tata motors.
The company has said that the 6.2-megawatt carport is the largest solar carport in the country. The project that is developed in the plant of Tata motors will be able to generate around 8.6 million kilowatts of electricity and would reduce an estimated amount of 7,000 tonnes of Carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and around 1.6 lakh tonnes over its lifestyle.
The project is spread across 30,000 square meters and can also be used as the parking space for the cars that are manufactured by Tata motors. Even after the crisis faced by the country due to the Coronavirus Pandemic both the companies were able to develop the carport with a record period of 9.5 months.
This carport is expected to be a part of the company’s net zero carbon goals by the year 2039 and Tata motors had entered into a Power Purchase agreement with Tata power in regards to the goals.
Tata Solar Car port
Tata motors on Solar Carport project
Shailesh Chandra who is the President of the Passenger Vehicle Business Unit of Tata Motors had conveyed that, the company has always advocated sustainability in every aspect of our business by checking more meaningful ways to reduce the impact we create on our planet by providing existing products and sustainability solutions to the customers.
He added that the company has always been conscious of the need for energy consumption and is also working towards achieving a 100% renewable source of energy for all the operations.
How Tata Solar Carport project will benefit the EV Industry
The Electric Vehicle industry of the country will be the most benefitted sector from this project. One of the disadvantages of the EVs in the country is the lack of infrastructure and the adaptability and this project is considered to be the first step towards the infrastructure facilities provided for the Electric Vehicle industry.
Tata Motors already have their set of EVs and this will add as an added advantage for their cars. Some of the other advantages are that the Solar carport will reduce the expenses of the company as they will not have to buy the energy from the power supply companies and can generate their own electricity.
Tata Power on its Solar Carport project
Praveer Sinha who is the MD and CEO of Tata Power has conveyed that as one Tata initiative and added that they are proud to partner with Tata motors. He added that the partnership is a proof of our collective efforts in order to reduce the carbon footprint in the society and to provide solutions for the future that are concentrated into the green energy solutions.
He added that the company would focus and continue to explore new ways to generate energy through clean resources and provide them to the customers and their partners.
Tata Power also has a solar powered carport which is the first ever carport in the country that was established in the year 2017 in Delhi. Tata Motors has also committed to shifting to 100 % renewable energy consumption by joining the RE100 initiative. Tata Power also has a solar carport established in the Kochi airport in the year 2018.
FAQ
What is size of Tata solar carport?
The Tata solar car port spans across 30,000 square meters and is located in Chikhali, Pune.
How much electricity will the Tata solar carport project generate?
The project that is developed in the plant of Tata motors will be able to generate around 8.6 million kilowatts of electricity and would reduce an estimated amount of 7,000 tonnes of Carbon dioxide.
Where is the Tata solar carport located?
The carport is located in Chikhali, Pune at the car plant of Tata motors.
Tesla which is known for the sales of electric vehicles also deals with the sale of clean energy products. Recently Elon Musk who is the CEO of Tesla has said that he wants to make a distributed power plant in every home. Let’s look at how Tesla is planning to make it possible.
New Company Policy of Tesla
The CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk wants to make a distributed power plant in each and every home. The distributed power plant will generate, store and even deliver the energy back into the electricity grid. All these will be possible by just using the products of Tesla.
The company has been involved in the sale of solar and energy related products for quite a few years. Elon Musk on 26 April 2021 commented a new company policy which states that Tesla will only sell solar products coupled with energy storage products.
The new company policy is a strategy that is aimed to scale the energy product business of Tesla by showing it in the form of essential utilities. During an investor call, Elon Musk said that the new strategy has a successful future for utilities as well as Tesla.
He added on saying that, if this is not done then the utilities will fail to serve the customers and said that the utilities will not be able to do it. He came up with this strategy noticing the blackouts last summer in California and the most recent failures in the grid in Texas. These incidents have become a big concern on the reliability of the grid.
Last week, Tesla had bough some changes to its website. The company had changed the options on the website to prevent customers from only buying solar or its Powerwall energy storage products. The customer had the option to only purchase the entire system.
Elon Musk later posted a tweet that stated that the solar power will feed the energy completely to the Powerwall and the Powerwall will use it only between the utility meter and the main breaker panel of the house. He said that these features will enable a super simple install and will provide a house backup seamlessly during utility dropouts.
Tesla Website
Elon Musk’s view
Elon Musk’s statement says that, the grid will need more power lines, larger substations and more power plants in order to use renewable resources and storage to decarbonize fully. In Elon Musk’s view distributed residential systems using the products of Tesla will provide a better path.
A recent study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has backed up the claim of Elon Musk by finding that the United States can decarbonize fully by more than doubling the transmission capacity of the grid.
Another study from Princeton University has shown that the country will have to triple its transmission capacity of the grid to reach net zero emissions by 2050.
According to the imagination of Elon Musk, the electric grid system is completely different from the one we have today. He wants a grid system that is centrally controlled and run by the grid operators or the independent organizations such as the Electricity Reliability Council of Texas or the California Independent System operator. The vision is to solve the logistic and the bureaucratic challenges.
He said that there should be a policy on the Utility and the Regulatory to solve the problem on the ways to handle the large entry of people on the distributed energy resources such as installation of solar panel on residencies which may run opposite to the utilities that are long established on the business models.
Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning started the original Tesla Motors in 2003.
Who was the first CEO of Tesla?
Martin Forest Eberhard was the first CEO of Tesla.
Who is the CEO of SpaceX?
Elon Musk is the CEO of SpaceX.
Conclusion
However, the important point to be noted is whether just renewable energy storage is sufficient to achieve net-zero carbon emissions through the grid system. Elon Musk had always been positive towards the model of renewables plus storage. In July 2020 he had tweeted that physics favors electric transport, solar or wind for energy generation and batteries for stationary storage.
CleanMax and Facebook had recently announced that both the companies have got into a partnership to move into 100 % renewable energy in India. Let’s look at how Facebook is bringing renewable energy into India with the association with CleanMax.
CleanMax Solar is a clean energy company. The company develops rooftop solar power. It was formed in the year 2011 and has its headquarters in Mumbai, India. The company has its presence in the major parts of India.
CleanMax is said to be one of the leading renewable energy company which is pioneering in roof top solar development across India. The company has successfully installed more than 550 rooftop solar projects for more than 170 corporates.
It has a total rooftop solar operating capacity of more than 250 MW. It also operates large scale solar and wind farms for supplying clean energy to its corporate customers which is more than 450 MW.
CleanMax Website
About Facebook
Facebook is an American based social media and social networking company. The company was founded in the year 2004 and is located in California. As of 31 December 2020, the company has around 2.8 billion monthly active users.
The company’s services are available in around 111 languages and is present in almost all the countries worldwide. The company was founded by Mark Zuckerberg with his roommates and his college mates from Harvard College. Some of the important people are Chris Hughes, Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, etc.
Facebook and CleanMax partnership
On 15 April 2021, Facebook and CleanMax had announced that they had got into a partnership to support the development of renewable energy in India through solar and wind energy.
Urvi Parekh who is the head of the renewable energy at Facebook said in a statement that they are excited to announce this important step which is helping them support their operations in the region, which includes their office in India, with 100% renewable energy.
Under the agreement of the partnership, both the companies CleanMax and Facebook will assemble a portfolio of solar projects and wind which will be used to supply renewable energy into the electrical grid in India.
First Project of CleanMax and Facebook in India
The first project according to the agreement between both the companies will be a 32 MW wind project. The project is expected to be located in Karnataka, India. This project will be followed by similar other projects in states where the tech giant has its operations.
It is estimated that approximately half of the project capacity has been commissioned recently and is generating power already. Urvi Parekh who is the head of the renewable energy at Facebook said that their partnership with CleanMax will enable the generation of solar energy and wind power in the near future. This will be a huge contribution to the decarbonization of the Indian electrical grid.
CleanMax is said to own and operate the projects meanwhile Facebook is said to provide long-term support by committing to purchase the complete environmental attribute certificates from the projects. These are for the near future.
The social media giant, Facebook had announced that the company has reached 100 % renewable energy. The company also added on saying that it has achieved net zero emissions for its global operations.
Andrew Hines who is the co-founder and the chief commercial officer at CleanMax has said that they have always strived to develop innovative solutions which will help their clients to achieve their 100 per cent renewable ambitions.
He also added on saying that given the constraints in sourcing power to many facilities, CleanMax is working with certain forward thinking corporations such as Facebook which will help them find creative solutions to these problems.
Urvi Parekh also added on saying that Facebook is committed towards upholding the highest standards in the environment. This is to ensure environmental sustainability across all aspects of their operations.
FAQ
What is renewable energy and examples?
Renewable energy, often referred to as clean energy, comes from natural sources or processes that are constantly replenished. For example, sunlight or wind keep shining and blowing, even if their availability depends on time and weather.
Is renewable energy the future?
Renewable energy is expected to make up 30 percent of the world’s energy by 2024, according to the International Energy Agency, and most of this is driven by solar and wind projects.
What is the best source of renewable energy?
Wind Energy, Hydropower, Solar, and Geothermal are some of the best source of renewable energy.
Conclusion
We will be able to see a lot more projects coming up in the future with the partnership of Facebook and CleanMax regarding the development of renewable energy in India and across the world.
India is furnished with vast solar energy potential. Solar is the most secure source of energy because it is abundantly available in nature. Solar power is the fastest developing industry in India. Solar power is a renewable source of energy. It is the power produced by the sun’s light. The solar energy invested reach of our nation was about 35,739 as of August 2020. There has been an eminent impact of solar power in the Indian energy scenario in the past few years.
India has built 42 solar potential parks to make the area available to promoters of solar plants. The solar energy installed capacity of our nation was about 35,739 as of August 2020. There has been an eminent impact of solar power in the Indian energy scenario in the past few years. India has built forty-two solar energy parks to create a realm accessible to promoters of solar plants. Rooftop solar energy is 2.1 GW, of that 70 % is industrial. By the year-end of 2015, a million solar lanterns were traded that reduced the utilization of lamp oil. 118,700 solar home lighting systems were put in, and 1.4 million solar cookers were administered in India.
India achieved the 5th global position in solar power arrangement by surpassing Italy.
Annual Solar Power Generation(TWh)
Future of Solar Power Market
The changing lifestyle of people with the increasing industrialization has made electricity a vital commodity. To decrease the concern of high electricity demand with decreasing fossil fuels, policy makers have been looking for a sustainable source of electricity generation. Solar energy is the readiest and green option available.
The report published by IMD (Indian Meteorological Department) states that The solar energy received is more than 15000 times the commercial energy consumption, and this energy is available during the day without any constraint.
According to GOGLA (Global Association For the Off-Grid Solar Energy Industry), the market for distributed solar power merchandise is expected to grow more than two-and-a-half times to Rs 10,117 crore by the year 2023. Including solar lamps, solar pump kits, and other home devices. It is estimated that the current market size for distributed solar in our country is at Rs 3,878 crore, including Rs 3,170 owned by the government and the rest by private owned entities. The sales are estimated to grow to Rs 2,617 crore in the private sector and Rs 7,500 crore in the government sector. Most of the future sales are estimated to come from lanterns with some additional services like mobile charging, radio, etc. and solar home systems. Increasing income and energy demand are the key market drivers.
Sustainable Development through Solar Energy
Investing in domestic manufacturing may help in building the supply chain, control prices, and earn foreign exchange through exports. This will help in creating job opportunities, increasing the GDP(Gross Domestic Product) for the nation.
The imposition of a nationwide lockdown by the government to control the coronavirus outbreak harmed the whole economy. The solar industry will have immediate challenges due to the COVID-19 outbreak, such as the shortage of labor force compliance with social distancing, shortage of equipment and parts, and discrete expenditure by users. India’s solar power sector is struggling in the pandemic. There has been a decline in electricity consumption of 30% due to the lockdown of industries and markets. China is the largest supplier of solar raw materials such as cells, glass, back sheets, frames, junction boxes, etc. Due to the coronavirus crisis, there was a long hold on the import of such items from china, the module assembling capacity of manufacturers is being affected. There may be a rise in solar module prices shortly as the manufacturers have begun experiencing raw material shortages. The prices of various components will rise because of the decrease in supply from China. Engineering, procurement, and production companies now have to bear all the variable factors from procurement of bills of material of the panel to the manufacturing and supply chain.
The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy(MNRE) installed 51 solar radiation resource assessment stations across India to create a database. India started a Rs 40 crore project to measure solar radiation. The government allocated Rs 1000 crore for the national solar mission and clean-energy fuel fund for the year 2010-2011. The government reduced import duties on solar panels by 5% which encouraged private sector companies. The Indian government also reduced the price of PV power from rs 4.43/KWh to Rs 4.00/KWh. During January 2019, the term for authorizing the production of the solar power plants was lessened to 18 months for units located outside the solar parks and 15 months for separate units from the date of the contract. In May 2020, the tariff was reduced to rs 2.90/KWh.
Top Solar Power Companies In India
Incentives By the Government
Viability Gap Funding: The funding was Rs 1 crore/MW for open projects on average in the year 2016.
Depreciation: 40% of the total investment in rooftop solar systems could be claimed as depreciation in the first year.
25% safeguard duty is imposed for 2 years from 2018 on the imports to safeguard the local manufacturers.
Capital subsidies to rooftop solar plants up to 500 KWh.
Renewable Energy Certificates(REC): Financial incentives for every unit of green energy generated.
Power Purchase Agreement(PPA): Offering fair market-determined tariff for solar power.
ISTS(Interstate Transmission Systems): Charges and losses are not taxable during the period of PPA.
Subsidy of 70% and 30% is granted by the Union Government for hilly regions.
As a developing country with the world’s second largest population, renewable energy plays a vital role in the economic development of our country. With the fossil fuel depleting and creating more pollution causing global warming and demand for energy increasing by the day creating electricity out of renewable sources has become extremely important as it is not exhaustible, clean and gives out green energy. These renewable energy sources and technologies have the power to provide solutions to the long standing energy problems that are faced by countries like India.
In order to meet the demand and ensure a sustainable future our country has been on a vigorous pursuit to research, develop and produce electricity by various applications such as wind, solar, geothermal and biomass energy. Making India one of the largest producer of electricity from renewable sources. This relentless journey in adopting responsible renewable energy techniques and taking a positive step towards carbon emissions has led India to become the fourth largest consumer of renewable energy.
India now has a strong manufacturing base in wind power with the total of 20 manufactures producing 53 different wind turbine models of international quality, exporting to the US and other European countries. As of March 2020, 35.86% of India’s installed electricity generation capacity is the result of renewable sources generating 21.225 of total utility electricity in the country.
India is the world’s biggest market for renewable energy auctions with the help of wind and solar project developers compete to offer the cheapest prices for zero carbon emissions.
It ranks the fifth in in solar power generation, fourth in wind energy and is also fifth in the overall capacity of renewal energy installed as of 2018.
In 2019, India installed 7.3 GW of solar power across the country while also establishing its rightful position as the third largest solar market in world.
The country also secures the second place in the global ranking by its policy thrust towards renewable and ever increasing investments in the clean energy sector.
As per April 2020, the renewable energy capacity stood at 87.26 GW (Gigawatts) out of which the wind and solar constituted 37.74GW and 34.81%, respectively.
With a potential capacity of 363GW and with policies focused on the renewable energy sector, Northern India is expected to become a hub for renewable energy in India.
Three of the top 5 largest solar parks worldwide are located in India, which includes the second largest solar park of the world at Kurnool. While the other known solar parks are Andhra Pradesh with the capacity of 1000 Megawatts (MW) and Bhadla Solar Park of Rajasthan which has the largest solar plant in the world producing 2255 MW.
The process of creating electricity through wind turbines.
According to the world wind report, India has the 4th largest installed wind power capacity in the world following China, USA and Germany. And is the second largest wind energy market in Asia with the capacity of 35 GW. Although a new comer compared to US and China, India has become a global player in wind energy with a strong domestic market. The performance and reliability of wind energy has achieved a tremendous growth from 1990 when the wind power first developed in India.
With the installation of wind turbines across the Indian subcontinent has led to some states such as Tamil nadu (7,269.50 MW), Maharashtra (4,100 MW), Gujarat (3,454.30 MW), Karnataka (2,318.20 MW), Rajasthan (2,784.90 MW), among others to have the highest potential of wind energy utilization. Tamil Nadu also has Muppandal wind farm which is the largest in India.The concept of wind farm became very popular with higher availabilities due to the development of wind turbine technology over the last decade.
In India the turbine technology is improving, and the highly efficient modern turbines produced with the help of foreign collaboration has more capacities more than 1MW. Recent studies also show that wind energy and be combined with the solar for the generation of self-sustainable renewable energy projects. While the peninsular country also has the advantage of installing offshore wind plants as it has 7,600 km of coast.
Solar Power
India has been blessed with rich solar energy due to its geographical location. It can generate enormous amounts electricity from this resource, making India rank no. 1 along with USA in terms of installed solar power generation capacity. The applications of solar energy is far more important than just producing Electricity as it also helps in the fields of telecommunications, battery charging, lighting, cooking and water heating.
Working model of solar energy
Today the installed capacity of 33 by 35 grid interactive solar photovoltaic power plant with an aggregate capacity of 2.5 MW generate around 2.5 million units of electricity per annually. Solar energy is the perfect alternative for conventional forms of energy especially in the case of domestic and industrial applications. The Thar Desert in state of Rajasthan has been known for their successful solar power projects which is sufficient to generate 700 to 2,100 GW making it the next generation powerhouse of India.
While the government also plays a major role in getting India to that platform by promoting the installation of new solar energy projects by giving tax incentives. In 2017, India unveiled its $19 billion plan to produce solar power by 2020 which was a part of the National Solar Mission. According to the plan, mandatory use of solar powered equipment and applications to be made by all Government buildings including Hotels and Hospital.
The country does not have an electrical grid, so one of the first applications of solar power was to pump water and replace the countries four to five million diesel powered water pumps, which consumed 3.5 KW each. Solar power in India has been growing at the rate of 113% at the price of 4.34 rupees per kWh, which is around 18% lower than the average price for electricity generated by coal fired plants.
India is famously known to be the pioneer in the establishment of hydroelectric power plants. It currently stands at the rank of 5th worldwide in terms of hydro potential as only 20% has been utilized so far. It is the most widely used renewable energy in India as electricity is generated in hydro power plants through the use of gravitational force of falling water.
The hydroelectricity is considered to be clean and renewable source of energy but it also known to have some bad effects in environment clearance in large pond areas. Over 21% of electric power consumed in India is generated by hydroelectric plants. While the public sector has 97% in this sector, India is blessed with abundant electricity because of its hydro potential of about 2,50,000 MW.
As of march 31st 2020, India installed utility scale hydroelectric capacity was 45,699MW or 125 of its total utility power generation capacity. The Hydro power project in Darjeeling and Shivanasamudra was established as early as 1898 making them one of a kind in Asia. The Nathpa Jhakri Hydro Power Station (NJHPS) of Himachal Pradesh is the largest power plant in India with the capacity of 1,530 MW.
Biomass
The process of Biomass
Biomass also defined as a renewable energy resource derived from the carbonaceous waste of various human and natural activities. This waste can be derived from a number of sources such as agricultural crops, raw material from forest, household waste, etc. Our country is known for its ideal environment for biomass production giving India a huge availability of resources because of its tropical location and abundant sunshine and rains.
The countries vast agricultural potential provides huge agro- residue which can be used to meet energy needs for heat and power applications. The Biomass material that can be used for power generation include rice, husk, straw, cotton stalk, coconut husks, saw dust, etc. There is also a high potential of biomass availability in the country at about 540 million tonnes per year which includes agro residue, firewood and other organic waste.
These kind of resources are mainly utilized by the villagers and rural areas of our country. India ranks the 2nd in utilization of Biomass and has the capacity to produce bagasse power of 2313.33 MW. Today the biomass sector has become essential and attracts an investment of $ 120 million while also providing vast number of employment opportunities in rural areas and generating an amount of 5000 million units of electricity every year.
Alan Joseph
Varad Kitey
