India’s Move into Renewables

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RENEWABLES…EMPOWERING INDIA!

The 2^nd edition of REI 2008 Expo, the largest event in Asia on renewable energy, received an overwhelming response from the industry. The event, organized in New Delhi in an area of 6700 sq mi gross, had attracted nearly 10,000 trade visitors with 1500 conference delegates.

Shri Vilas Muttemwar, Minister of New & Renewable Energy, Government of India, while inaugurating the event, made a passionate appeal to not just consider renewables as an attractive business proposition but as a duty and responsibility of every Indian to create and adopt environment friendly technologies.

The expo was a unique opportunity for 196 exhibitors from 20 countries to engage personally with the industry leaders, government officials, technocrats, and investors to showcase the potential of power generation using renewable resources. The event enabled the participants to conclude new business deals and establish useful contacts for technology transfer, joint ventures and future investments, to meet India’s growing energy needs using clean technologies.

The high caliber conference sessions on wind, solar, hydro and bio energy sectors brought together 64 industry speakers, policy makers and technocrats from the industry to discuss factors inhibiting adoption of clean technologies for energy generation.

Amongst the various themes, the conference sessions deliberated upon capital investments, gestation period, challenges in achieving grid parity and status of governmental support.

The main focus of the wind session was decentralization of wind farms in India. The technological innovations such as Magenn’s helium balloons was proposed to overcome the challenges faced in harnessing energy in lower wind velocity areas such as Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.

Another trend highlighted by the forum was a shift from energy intensive captive users to large-scale grid connected power generation projects.

The solar energy sessions focused on energy independence and manufacturing efficiency through 3 fabs: Crystalline Silicon PV, Thin films and Concentration .The grid –parity for renewables

would be mainly driven by reduction in the cost of wafer –fabrication. Deliberations around commercial viability of solar thermal applications largely hovered around the benefits of concentrated solar power (CSP), which is the cheapest method to convert solar energy into electricity.

For the second year running, the Federal Republic of Germany’s official presence resulted in a German Renewable Energy Day and German Energy Efficiency Day on August 22 and 23, 2008. The presentations at the German pavilion had industry experts sharing information on off grid electrification for the Indian market; solar thermal and photovoltaic market and geo thermal: the new power generation.

The presence of Indian youth at the Youth Summit was a symbol of growing interest in innovating technologies for future energy security. Students of various engineering institutes participated in the interactive session. The two-hour summit attracted speakers from the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy, climate change scholars and renewable energy entrepreneurs.

The 2008 Expo provided an excellent opportunity for internationally oriented environmental engineering companies to secure a foothold in India‘s burgeoning market

Judging by the diversity of exhibitors, delegates and conference topics, Renewable Energy India 2008 Expo has successfully positioned India as a leader on the global renewable map and has raised the bar for renewable related events in the continent.

Looking ahead at the 3^rd Renewable Energy India 2009 Expo, the organizers aim at leading renewable energy technologies to the enormous potential that the country holds. Scheduled to be held from 10- 12 August 2009 at New Delhi, the Expo will have 3 new sectors: cogeneration, geothermal and energy efficiency products. The Ministry of New & Renewable Energy, Government of India has once again extended its support for the 3^rd Renewable Energy India 2008 Expo.