Barriers for Renewable Energy in India

I think that infrastructure will be the greatest barrier in the creation of renewable energy. Developing new renewable resources will require large initial investments to build infrastructure. These investments increase the cost of providing renewable electricity, especially during early years.

i think the biggest Barriers for Renewable Energy in India are the political babus who has the power to overcome the barriers for this, but they dont step ahead BCOZ...

1. they dont have the knowledge & RND on such project ....BCOZ

2. they dont care for the country.....BCOZ

3. they are not self motivated....BCOZ

4. they dont bother themselves to take an Initiative...BCOZ

5. anyway they are rich n happy with their own life

*** etc....***

its only few private companys who try or can try for this but these babus are the real barriers for them...

Instead their are few great PSU's who can make a great differece in this segment but again they controlled by this babus....

WHERE THERE'S NO WILL - THERE'S NO WAY

For producing renewable energy requires lot of Land and finance to install the plants. To some extent government can provide finance but it mainly depends on the people to take initiative and risk in going for producing renewable enrgy. Many people may have apprehension that the renewable energy will not give good returns.

Please go through all ideas and one may find one aspect is common.

India lacks neither the resource nor minds to overcome barriers yet there is almost no or little success and the main reason is:

Lack of Will:

to feel part of a vibrating strong nation.

to curb and control petty self interests.

to best perform in larger interest of national cause.

to respect need, logic and reason.  

to respect our innovators.

What I feel is the country is talking of Renewable Energy, the country has to Identify the right kind of people who have the same kind of intrest and be a source of encouraging factors in helping the ones who are truthfuly thinking of building awarness among the people of India.... Funding has become the major factor here ....I truthfuly beleve in the wind Turbines I am a proud owner of a 1Kw wind turbine installed in my house and now I would like to help people to Install for their homes and save power and the environment.....

I am doing my BE in mechanical engineering. I have come to johannesburg for solar world congress which deals with more of renewables and not just solar. Here i am getting to know the advancements and applications of renewables all across the world. There are few cities in europe that are completely dependent on solar energy and are 100% green. People have ideas but they loose their passion as time passes by due to many factor like funding, noncomercialization. There is an expo here wherein u see all green equipment which completely work on the basis of renewables. Though the initial cost is more but its pay back value is much more. Only problem in India is who will initiate.................I say everybody can initiate only when the government and the industries support the primary research on renwables.

I am planning take up a project which is completely green and no power loss but see the problem here is the funding which nobody wants to do. 

So its upto the big shots and the industrialists who have to understand the value of a particular concept and stop thinking of short term benefits saying that what is its use in our lifetime........probably their grand children will be able to reciprocate to that about half a century later.

Moreover there is no point in just speaking about it and sharing ideas when u do not implement it at all.

And you guys have you ever analysed how much energy you people waste per day. For instance: 1)you use your car just to go 1km way to some grocery shop instead of just walking down. 2) How many of u use solar water heaters. 3)how many of you rich people have green house and for those who dont know whta green house is then go google it.................there is a never anding list to it and for those who are seriously reading this answer to your self and then you will come to know how much energy and power you can actually save.

So dont blame it on to others. First look at your self and then look for various ways in which you can save energy. And for those who say that they cannot find a way to go green than that person is going to dogs for sure.

So you rich guys you go ahead to make your life green as you can afford and see every one will follow and ya who ever said that moser bair is doing the largest solar project ever makes absolutely no sense when nobody uses it and it will also go to dogs or junk yard and the result is ultimately zero.

I hope that enough for every one to wake up and go green now........

Truly India has an enormous potential in generation of renewable energies. But they do have certain disadvantages as well such as implementation problems, problem of losses etc. We have technologies to combat these problems but they are at a primitive state of development. For example with breakthrough in superconductivity technology the problem of low efficiency can be solved. India has some of the best brains in the world. Hence, i think the government should divert more funds towards the R&D of such technologies so that generation of renewable energies can be made feasible.  

Main Barriers to explore the RE from the sources is technology. We hv lot of mature technology to explore the RE such as solar cell, wind  energy, geothermal, energy from waste (biogas etc) but main hurdle is to rquire appropriate technology by which we can reduce the cost and increase the efficiency to capture more and more energy. There are lot of source of energy but how we can capture in an efficient way.  I want to give data that sun release so much energy in one day that will fulfill our requirement for whole year. We have generated so much waste (muncipal, plastic, e-waste, paper,food) but there is no such type of efficient technology to convert this into RE.   

In India almost everyone is so used to the routine procedures that they lack a thought of change which helps us in preventing our environment  yet gives optimum energy.Our government should realize the advantages of renewable energy and help in every respect as soon as possible for a change in Our country

In my opinion, the govt should help citizens in installing the solar panels at their homes and make it mandatory, in urban areas first then move to rural areas.. To support them the govt must give subsidies so that a normal person can afford to install the infrastructures with govt(preferably local self govt at nagar nigam stage).

It will help spread awareness among general public and also motivate them to save money spent on energy consumption which shall ultimate lead to improve the general environment and will save earth from pollution.

After achieving at this level it will easier to build large infrastructures because you will have awareness and experience among the aam aadmi(general public)

Resources of conventional energy are fast depleting,it is need of the hour proper attentin should be given for renewable energy,main barrier for this renewable energy projects is huge initial invesment which making thes projects unviable,it is fact that govt is susidisng renewable energy projects, i think these susuidies and incentives should be increased,one must accept that there are lot of doubts abot the quality and continuty of the power produced thru R.E.Ps,technolgy has to clear these doubts,lot of R&D work is still going across the world,India also should take part in it

  I think govt should make it mandatory for every household in urbane ares to have a solar panel on roof top,power produced by these panels should be connected to power grids,while caliculating powerbill of a house power produce by these panels should be deducted from actual power they consumed,this system reduces the power bill of a household and works as a incentive and also reduces pressuere on conventional energy

In my opinion lack of economics of scale is an important barrier. Most renewable energy technologies are manufactured on assembly lines, where mass production can greatly reduce costs. Economies of scale are also likely to lead to cost reductions for wind, fuel cell, and biomass technologies. Unfortunately, as long as relatively few units are produced, prices will remain high. This leads to low demand, and therefore low production volumes.

It should be made mandatory for highly energy consuming and highly polluting industries to source a part of their energy needs from renewable sources of energy. It should also be made mandatory for all distribution companies to source a part of their energy needs from renewable sources.

The principal and the only crucial barrier is the barrier in our own MINDS, which if we can overstep and use it as a stepping stone with will, passion, courage and creativity ... we can surmount ALL barriers and create wonders and drill through mountain of stagnant inertia ... Where there is WILL there is WAY !

Alage based biofuel will provide the clean fuel and it will be cheap bcoz the raw materials is very cheap in this method but at intial lavel the mail problem is to modifaction of alage like cyanobacterial or some other bacteria which are able to produce biofuel with use of sun light. Technology is under development stage or we can say at lab scale research is going on but such type of technology will provide the clean and sustainabel environment for next generation people.

As we all know India is only country which has high renewable energy. It can be useful for us & can prevent us from natural calamities. But India has problem is technology, as it is big issue of renewable energy it involve the technology at each & every step. 

Place Solar power over the roof of houses,Factory Sheds,Railway Platform Sheds, even at remote places.

Most of the Indian Villages electrical load ranges in 1 MW to 1.5 MW [I have considered a slightly higher side] & most of all the villages are having land for "GOCHAR" which can be utilised [by taking on lease, it will add income of every village] as "wind Power Farm" [aerogenerators to be used which generate power at very low wind speed of 0.8 m/s to 3 m/s]. Generated power will be supplied to Village at low price. Investment should be done by "A Specialized Fund" made by Syndicate Of Abled People Like us & Government should make a policy to abolish taxes over Interest of such funds & all earnings from these sort of activities. Even we can make Power Co-Operative's like milk co-operatives to support this idea.  

For most of the renewal energy such as Solar, Wind, Fuel, Biogas etc, govt is already providing Loans with subsidy. Because of subsidy, the govt insists that the accessories should be procured from their approved list that is, obviously exorbitant than the other source. This is problem one.Second one is that they need to wait for a time frame for approval. These are the slags that makes the program nullified.

For generation of Solar for domestic purpose, does not require very large space. Your roof is enough. But, present cost goes in between Rs 250 -300 unit. which is quiet high. For wind generation the price may come down to half of Solar. But, wind prevails maximum for 6 months in a year.So you need to plan a hybrid.

Already BIOGAS generation unit for smaller house is made available. It is around Rs 2500-3000 . Waste food, vegetables, fruits etc can be used to produce biogas for house.

What we need is the required accessories available freely in the vicinity. Many of the ITI guys are making small  wind turbine sufficient enough to produce energy for home. Similarly, for Solar panels are assembled by ITI/DIPLOMA holders at home. But , to get accessories they need to run up and down. This is what escalating the prices.

Awareness is there, Skills available in abundance, Financial aid through Govt is there. But, the availability of materials required is not there. It is available in big cities and that too, at selected shops.

Renewable energy(solar)  sourse are more costly (instalation and maintenance)  in compair to conventional energy sourses.

This is very important to add in the list of reasons. After my retirement I wanted to contribute/avail the facility because I had seen a no. of ads and addresses of the officers of this dept. Even the senior most officers do not want to respond on this subject. In UP(you pay) the officers generally spend the funds for their relations and show the achievements. In my opinion this big dept should be scrapped and the job should be assigned to private corporations, off course with hefty concessions in taxes, otherwise it will never happen in India like Ganga, Yamuna cleaning projects

Regards

i think the govt is not successful in in creating awareness, and not reaching out to millions of people across the country... natural resources are depleting . so it is very much necessary that the centre understands the need for the hour. it can promote such ideas by tv ads, small scale, grassroot organisations which operates in villages. the core problem is that the people are unaware of such conventional energy resources such as the bio fuels. govt should initiate such programmes, create awareness, give funds, stress the need for environmental sustainablity and development....

This is not a totally untried idea. In California where a Solar Energy Harvesting farm with parabolic sun tracking reflector-concentrators were made there was public hue and cry on the environmental consequences viz rising of ambient temperature, and the presence of too bright light were brought up.

The surprising thing was to find such a free area in India would be difficult if one compares California. Yet this is not a unfeasible idea. Once steam is SH-Steam is generated, the rest of the energy conversion cycle is well known. Compared to direct solar energy conversion that would require extensive research for increasing of conversion efficiencies in Phitovoltaics and decreasing the cost of production that is only possible by ecomnomies of scale, this idea is more straight forward.  

Every thing should be followed as an experiment with out wasting time. Things will be in reversible and irreversible process, usage should be given importance. I hope you get my idea in your view as u were talking of renewable energy soueces

Its good & nice to have energy from Open- mean solar & wind energy. When any new invention or use of technology come into practice its expensive. Due course, its price is coming down. For example, the solar garden lamp I installed for Rs 25000/unit in 2008. The same costed me Rs 18000/unit in 2009. Where as the solar energy plant cost is still high. From the market rate, I came to know that Rs3 Lacs/KW. ITS A QUIET GOOD & HUGE MONEY FOR AN INDIVIDUAL TO INVEST INITIALLY. May be a money required to build a small house in a village. In that case, how it can be generated.Just imagine. Although government introduced subsidy for this item yet, its unreachable.

Government can develop a plan to install Solar energy plant at every village & produce part of energy consumption . It can be supplied to villagers at nominal cost. This kind of measure can create/introduce environmental awareness & reduce ever-widening energy consumption in electricity. Remember people spent crore for erection of statues.

ONLY IF ALL STATE GOVERMENT WILL FELLOW TRNSPERANCE IN THIER POLICY TOWARDS ENEGERY SAVING GOAL  NOT ONLY IN WORDS BUT ACTION AND ALLOWING INVERSTOR TO MOVE FREE BY ALL MEANS,THEN WE CAN ENJOY RENEWABLE POWER.TODAY I FELL FUNDING, INFARSTSURE,R&D,MANPOWER RESOURCES,CAPITAL INVESTORS,ARE NO PROBLEM.

Cost of Renewable Energy being high it is difficult to use by a small community, though using renewable energy usage by a community will reduce the T&C losses(big brother of T&D losses). 

Who is the renewable energy customer?What is the market for that.Untill&Unless it becomes economically viable, no rational consumer will purchase it (Thinking about Global warming!!!)

For producers also pay back period is so high that even with CDM ,most of the renewable energy project will have pay back period of 10 hour..Most importantly renewable projects like wind power do not have sustainable supply of power(due to wind variation),so they cann't have PPA(Power Purchase Agreement)

Barriers could be many in the current senario for the renewable energy sector, like infrastructure, new techonolgies, funds, but i think the govt. needs to come out with some favorable policy for the renewable sector, like for solar there is a cap for 50MW for every state, so where is the scope for further development if one wants to...??? The govt. should open the caps in the renewable energy sector and make policies which support funds and the organizations willing to invest into renewable energy.

Barriers could be many in the current senario for the renewable energy sector, like infrastructure, new techonolgies, funds, but i think the govt. needs to come out with some favorable policy for the renewable sector, like for solar there is a cap for 50MW for every state, so where is the scope for further development if one wants to...??? The govt. should open the caps in the renewable energy sector and make policies which support funds and the organizations willing to invest into renewable energy.

Every initiative in developing trend is to be started by the government. But as far as the Indian government is meant for the interests of corporate giants and not for the interests of common people..

The main problem India facing is the policy changes towards the interests of corporate firms..

This affects all such new technology developments as we can see in atomic energy developments, military weapon developments etc..

this is also right in the case of renewable energy initiative..

To start anew type of energy source is always costly proposition.But there are many industries exhausting hot flue gases through Chimney which if utilised rightly for extraction of waste heat and then genrating of power is not that costly proposition.Only proper study and design of right size waste heat boiler and then generation of steam and generation of power through correct capacity of Turbo Generator.

Many people are doing it but still many are left out in this process.Government should help them to extraction of power from left out hot gases and also arrange penalty for them who are abstaining from such activities.

R & D is going to be the core concern for newer material to make RE cheaper and affordable. Better concentrators both in PV and thermal would effective reduce size thereby requiring lesser area per kw generation. Though efforts are on the same is just not enough. The current power scenario would be the driving point to speed the process of better RE technology

Up to an extent I am agree with Shikha, but this is not the only hindrance in the path of renewable energy production. Since, I am working on biofuels I can surely tell u that the largest problem in our country is the availability of biomass. The Biofuel may be biodiesel, bioethanol, biobutanol or the biogasses, for each of them we need the initial raw material but in India no a single feedstock is available. in other countries such as Brazil, America they people are using sugarcane molasses (Brazil) and corn (USA), but in our country use of these feedstocks will create the food vs fuel competition. So we have to search some new alternative biomass feedstocks and have to develop appropriate technology so that the biofuel can be cost competitive. I think among several hindrances the main are as follows:

1. We need to search for the initial raw material for the production of biofuels

2. We need to develop proper technology for biofuel production from the appropriate biomass.

3. We need to make it competitive to the present liquid fuels

4. We have to make a life cycle analysis of them

5. And at last these have to be cost and environmental effective.

I think acceptance at the user level is one of the factors. Currently solar water heater are probably the most widely accepted form of renewable energy used. If awareness of renewable energy and its long-term impact on our future is heightened there will be a move, albeit slow, towards greater adoption.

Most people, even some educated also are not aware of renewable energy & how it could change our lives. Without awareness there's not much interest among people. So companies are not interested in spending money on technology that people dont want.

I THINK THE ONLY THING BACK IS THE COST FACTOR.It costs 3-4 times a per Megawatt more than conventional sources.Which means that the initial investment to create the same capacity is 5-8 times.With 500 million people in our country living without an electricity connection and even the industrial demand being met with great difficulty, IT IS NOW CLEARLY MEETING THE GROWTH TARGET THAT MATTERS.INDIA SIMPLY CANNOT AFFORD TO  CREATE ONLY 10,000 MW OF CAPACITY IN RENEWABLE ENERGY IN 5YEARS WHEN THE SAME INVESTMENT IN CONVENTIONAL ENERGY WILL CREATE 50,000MW OF ADDITIONAL CAPACITY.

Lack of capital fund is one of the major problem in India for barrier in renewable energy development. Renewable energies like solar power, wind energy required huge initial amount of capital fund for installation. But because of shortage of capital, India lags behind in renewable energy than other developed countries. In order to improve this sector India has to encourage FIIs (foreign Instituitional Investors) & FDI (Foreign Direct Investments). So that we can develop renewable energy resources very soon.