{"id":228366,"date":"2023-02-23T20:46:35","date_gmt":"2023-02-23T15:16:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=228366"},"modified":"2023-02-23T20:46:35","modified_gmt":"2023-02-23T15:16:35","slug":"the-difficulty-with-renewables","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/the-difficulty-with-renewables\/","title":{"rendered":"The difficulty with renewables"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source<\/strong>– The post is based on the article \u201cThe difficulty with renewables\u201d <\/strong>published in The Indian Express <\/strong>on 23rd February 2023<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Syllabus: <\/strong>GS3- Energy<\/p>\n

Relevance:<\/strong> Renewable energy and related issues<\/p>\n

News- <\/strong>The target of having 500 GW of non-fossil generating capacity by 2030 may look impressive. But, it may prove to be elusive unless we can enhance our storage capacity.<\/p>\n

Why is storage not a prominent challenge for the energy sector in current times?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

India has more than 200 GW of coal-based capacity<\/strong>. The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission recognises 55% as the technical minimum<\/strong>. It means that a 1,000 MW plant can run at 550 MW.<\/p>\n

The additional operating cost for running the plant at 55% capacity is allowed by the CERC as legitimate expenditure.<\/p>\n

Why is there a need for a focus on storage capacity in the future?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

When India\u2019s renewable capacity goes up further, some of the coal-based units would generate at the technical minimum<\/strong> and the extra renewable energy would be used to charge the batteries.<\/p>\n

This stored energy could be used to supply electricity during the non-solar hours<\/strong>, especially when the coal-based generating units would be phased out gradually.<\/p>\n

Some minimum coal-based generation<\/strong> would be required for meeting a part of the base load<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

What are storage options for India and hurdles faced by storage options?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

These options are hydrogen-based storage, lithium-ion batteries and pump storage plants. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Hydrogen storage is feasible for long-term storage<\/strong>. One can use this stored energy, for example, in situations when coal mining goes down or when hydro generation depletes due to low reservoir levels.<\/p>\n

For day-to-day storage, batteries are still the ideal source. Though the cost of batteries<\/strong> has declined by about 80% over the last decade, it is still quite expensive. Moreover, the pace of decline in the cost of batteries has reached a plateau.<\/p>\n

Pump storage plants, India has a total capacity of about 4.7 GW but only 3.3 GW is functional. A survey of the CEA estimated a pump storage potential of about 100 GW<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Pump storage plants have not really grown in India due to several factors, including high investment costs, long gestation periods, non-remunerative pricing models and lack of adequate sites<\/strong> having the topography that is required for operating a pump storage plant.<\/p>\n

What will be other challenges for the renewable energy sector in India?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The financial condition of our distribution companies<\/strong> will be another hindrance. The additional solar and wind capacity has to come from the private sector.<\/p>\n

No developer will invest unless there is some credible payment security mechanism. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Problems with land acquisition, and securing the right of way for laying down transmission lines <\/strong>will also continue to hinder progress.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source– The post is based on the article \u201cThe difficulty with renewables\u201d published in The Indian Express on 23rd February 2023. Syllabus: GS3- Energy Relevance: Renewable energy and related issues News- The target of having 500 GW of non-fossil generating capacity by 2030 may look impressive. But, it may prove to be elusive unless we… Continue reading The difficulty with renewables<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[216,10500],"class_list":["post-228366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-3","tag-indian-express","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228366\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}