Tap renewable energy to cut oil import bill

THE Indian government does not seem to have thought out the full implications of its recent decision to advance by five years, to 2025, the target date for 20 per cent blending of ethanol, which is mostly derived from sugar, in petrol.

The move will have the potential to dampen the demand for conventional fuel, which is mostly imported, and thereby reduce the outgo of foreign exchange. It will also reduce the large buffer stock of sugar that the government has built up as a result of excess output. But once the buffer goes, either domestic consumption or export has to be curbed. If the latter happens, then export earnings will go down and negate the gains made from reducing fuel imports.

The attempt to increase the use of ethanol is undoubtedly a move in the right direction, but there is a need to clarify how this is best done. The government seeks to achieve this goal by proceeding on two fronts — use more of extract from sugarcane (which is the source for sugar) and also agricultural waste. The simple point is, the agricultural waste route should be followed and the sugarcane route abandoned.

This is because sugarcane is a water guzzler and India is water-deficient. Currently, farmers across the country are using canal irrigation water as also groundwater to grow sugarcane. What makes the current practices absolutely harmful is the groundwater being extracted through electrically powered pump sets, with the electricity consumed often not properly metered and paid for. And what is even worse is that a lot of that power is generated by plants which run on coal, emitting harmful exhausts which add to global warming and accelerate adverse climate change.

A properly balanced policy, taking in all aspects, should adopt the following route. Foremost, cut down on the cultivation of sugarcane and encourage farmers to grow foods like pulses and oilseeds and commodities like cotton which consume far less water. This is easier said than done as over the decades, an elaborate government support system has been constructed which makes it rewarding for farmers to grow sugarcane and most of public discussion is centred around farmers not getting their sugarcane dues in time from mills which crush sugarcane. The policy route that needs to be followed is to slowly whittle down the incentives available to farmers for growing sugarcane and in its place construct a set of incentives and mechanisms to encourage the cultivation of pulses, oilseeds and cotton.

With the supply of cane juice or sugar slowly going down, it will not be possible to produce ethanol from those sources. Hence, a policy decision needs to be taken to produce ethanol only to the extent that it can be done from agricultural waste. Right now, a huge amount of agricultural waste is not put to proper use and in fact, in some instances, misused.

A lot of Delhi’s air pollution is caused by the burning of stubble left behind after the harvesting of crops. It is widely agreed that this practice should be discouraged but there is very little progress in that direction.

If as a result of the policy imperatives outlined above, there isn’t enough input for raising the supply of ethanol, then what is to be done to reduce the oil import bill as also the air pollution caused by burning fossil fuels?

The answer to this already exists and is in fact a part of government policy: make massive efforts to increase the supply of renewable energy like solar and wind power. While progress is being made on that front, the problem is that there are limited hours of sunshine and that too not during periods like the monsoon when there is a cloud cover. Wind energy can be produced round-the-clock, but only when the wind direction and velocity are right. Thus, a power grid which requires a minimum base load cannot rely on them alone. The answer which is currently available is to have a set of power plants run on natural gas which can be quickly switched on and off depending on fluctuating grid requirement. It would be ideal if excess power generated through the wind and solar routes could be stored, but that would require storage capacity (batteries) which technology has been evolving.

The best news is that the country at last appears to be arriving there. ReNew Power, the country’s leading renewable energy company, has just signed a power purchase agreement with Solar Energy Corporation of India, a Central government undertaking, for round-the-clock electricity supply — the first of its kind in the country. ReNew will supply power at an extremely moderate Rs 2.90 per unit or kWh (compared to an average Rs 3.85 paid by states during the financial year 2021) by operating at 80 per cent average annual plant load factor and having a minimum monthly capacity utilisation of 70 per cent. This is far higher than what typical wind or solar power plants are able to deliver. The project, valued at $1.2 billion, will consist of 900 MW of wind power and 400 MW of solar power capacity, and what is perhaps the greatest technological achievement, enough battery capacity.

Since the entire technology for wind and solar power and mass storage is now available at an affordable cost, making such power commercially viable, this is the route that needs to be followed to reduce the cultivation of sugarcane as also the consumption of fossil fuels so as to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases and enable the country to do its bit to halt the alarming rise in global warming.