Saturday, June 22, 2013: According to Tata Power Systems there is more than $1 billion renewable energy installation opportunity in the country. It is expected that by 2013, the cost of electricity consumption from the grid stations will cost a lot more for both industrial and domestic consumers. Low cost renewable energy could thus be an option. Ajay Goel, CEO of Tata Powers said in an interview to Bloomberg that the demand for grid uptake is growing fast as they are working on it. Many corporate have already contacted the company to install solar panels on their rooftops or factory sides as it would be a cheaper alternative to the current scenario.
Tata Power was formerly involved in the manufacturing of solar panels in collaboration with BP, the oil company. However, it had to move beyond manufacturing due to the competition from the Chinese manufacturers. Among Tata Power’s customers, IBM and Dell have already installed panels and there are several others in the list. The payback period too is evenly placed being just a year and if any depreciation takes place, it would be a four year time. Goel added that considering the rising cost of diesel, the economics with solar panels look even better. Again use of generators for backups during power cuts could cost double than solar costs. Even Coal India has plans to install panels across its operations.
While electricity rates have risen by about 15% since 2010, cost of solar power has gone down by 39 per cent. Including government subsidies, solar power would be a lot much cheaper alternative by 2016.
