Shri Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal, and New and Renewable Energy said that by 2017, India should not need to import thermal coal except for the coastal power plants. He said that era of shortages is over in coal sector. Shri Piyush Goyal said this after releasing the India’s report titled ‘The Rising Sun – Disruption on the horizon’ at ENRich 2015, KPMG in India’s annual energy conclave here recently. The report was released here recently by Shri Piyush Goyal, Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal, and New and Renewable Energy and Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of State (IC) – Petroleum and Natural Gas at the conclave.
Shri Piyush Goyal said that given the kind of structural changes, massive thrusts in bringing highest level of probity in the system, the economies of scale, the country stands to benefit from and the large scale roll out of programmes and plans to bring benefits to the people, that the nation has witnessed in last 18 months, I am very much convinced that the Indian Economy is picking up at a great speed. Shri Goyal said that in near future people will witness an unparalleled upswing in the nation’s economy which will take India to a new level of development. Shri Piyush Goyal assured that his ministry will contribute in the country’s holistic development by ensuring speed to the wheels of progress through energy security. He hoped that the last man in the bottom of the pyramid will receive fruits of this development very soon.
While speaking at the conclave, the Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas (IC), Shri Dharmendra Pradhan said “Energy security and accessibility is important for the overall well-being of the nation. It is important that we identify the energy requirements and accordingly come up with a vision plan, making it our focus for the coming years. A comprehensive energy policy is the need of the hour.”
The report highlights that solar could scale up substantially to be a significant energy source by 2025, with the market penetration of solar power expected to be 5.7 per cent (54 GW) by 2020 and 12.5 per cent (166GW) by 2025. India aims to reduce emission intensity of its GDP by 33 to 35 per cent by 2030 from 2005 levels, and solar power is likely to contribute 4 per cent towards this target, the report states. The report talks about how the scale up and competitiveness of solar power could disrupt the traditional generators. The disruptive force is expected to start being felt from 2017 and may accelerate post 2020. In some states which are promoting solar (and also wind power) aggressively, conventional coal generators could see their Plant Load Factors (PLFs) fall by as much as 10-15 per cent by 2020, as solar replaces coal-fired generation in the daytime hours. This effect may speed up post 2020 with the annual addition of large amounts of solar (estimated to exceed by 20GW per year by 2022-23).
The report highlights that the price for solar power has seen a decline; today, in India, solar prices are within 15 per cent of the coal power prices on a levelised basis and, it is expected that that by 2020, solar power prices would be approximately 10 per cent lower than coal power prices. The solar rooftop power, today, is already competitive compared to grid power for many consumers and, as per the report, if combined with storage, it could be cheaper than grid power after 2022 for a large section of the consumers and drive a considerable shift to rooftop power. A ‘Solar House’ that is self-sufficient in energy terms could be a reality within the coming decade.
Mr Richard Rekhy, CEO, KPMG in India, Mr Arvind Mahajan, Partner and Head of Infrastructure, Government & Energy, KPMG in India, Mr Nitin Atroley, Partner and Head, Sales and Markets, KPMG in India, Mr Manish Aggarwal, Partner and Head of Energy and Natural Resources, KPMG in India and other dignitaries were also present on the occasion.
