New Delhi:  Lalit Bohra, Joint Secretary, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Government of India said the PLI scheme of Rs 24,000 crores would ensure upward integration from polysilicon to modules and will help India in becoming a net exporter of modules.   

He said that this Rs 24,000 crore PLI scheme is going to be a game changer, and will boost solar module capacity in India, while addressing FICCI's seminar on 'Renewable Energy (RE) Transition for Commercial and Industrial Consumers' here recently.

Bohra also elucidated several demand-side and supply-side interventions by the government. These include renewable power obligations on the discoms to ensure that discoms have a certain percentage of their electricity from the renewable source. 

Besides, he underlined the waiver of the interstate transmission service charges to allow developers to establish plants in any part of the country and financial support for the residential rooftop scheme for the decentralized RE generation. On the supply side interventions by the government, he pointed to mega solar parks set up in the country, the 'Must Run' status of the RE projects, and the PLI scheme.  

Mr Venu Gopal Mothkoor, Senior Specialist, NITI Aayog, noted that the decadal growth rate in primary energy consumption in India has been at 4 per cent as opposed to 1.3 per cent globally. He alluded to the Prime Minister’s target of India becoming a developed country by 2047, which requires increasing living standards, per capita income, manufacturing capacity and infrastructure, leading to enhanced energy demand.

Somesh Kumar, Partner & Leader, E&Y, said that policy and enabling environment are helping consumers with various choices and move towards procuring RE power in a more competitive and more accessible manner. However, Mr Kumar also pointed to several barriers to the accelerated adoption of RE. These include energy banking rules, which in some cases have a banking period of less than six months, charges in the form of cross-subsidy surcharges, additional charges,  among others. 

Mr Pinaki Bhattacharyya, Senior Member, FICCI Renewable Energy CEOs Council and MD and CEO, Amp Energy India, noted that the RE business is "very capital intensive", requiring "four crores of capital for every megawatt of solar." As a result, both debt and equity providers are essential. He added that the vital thing is to be technology agnostic. As we move forward, we also see a transition from solar to wind to hybrid and hybrid storage, he said. /BI/