Energy Efficiency & Environment including Circular Economy
Ministry of Power issued five Year power vision document
The Ministry of Power (MoP) has issued a vision document which charts the way forward for India’s power sector. The document points out the problem areas and sets the timeline for every aspect of power generation, evacuation, and distribution.
The document, called “Vision 2024”, aims at developing a sustainable, viable, efficient, and competitive power sector to facilitate economic and social development. The report points out that the generation capacity in India has increased drastically in the past decade, but the sector is beset with falling plant load factor (PLF) and stressed assets.
Transmission is a huge problem for Indian renewable energy project developers. In many cases, renewable energy projects are ready to evacuate, but the evacuation infrastructure is not ready. In some other cases, due to the lack of proper transmission infrastructure, renewable energy has to be curtailed.
India will overachieve Paris pact targets by 60% : IEEFA
India would significantly exceed its 2015 Paris Agreement target of a 40% share of installed power capacity from non-fossil fuel sources by 2030, stated the US-based Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA).
Based on India’s Central Electricity Authority (CEA) projections, instead of 40%, India will have 63% of installed capacity from non-fossil fuel sources by 2029-30. And this amounts to 60% more than what India had committed to achieve under the 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change. IEEFA’s statement is based on a report released by the CEA. The CEA’s report on Optimal Energy Mix scenario projects that India could have 63% of its installed power capacity from non-fossil fuel sources, including hydro, by 2029-30. According to the CEA, the growth in new installed power capacity will lead renewables to generate close to 44% of all electricity consumed in India in 2029-30.
EESL successfully installs and operationalises over 5,00,000 Smart Meters across India
Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), a joint venture of four public sector enterprises under the Ministry of Power, Government of India, announced the successful installation of over 5,00,000 smart meters in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Bihar and Andhra Pradesh, under the Government of India’s Smart Meter National Programme (SMNP). The smart meters operational in these states aim to enhance consumer convenience and rationalise electricity consumption.
The smart meter technology is critical to India’s ongoing power sector reforms. The Smart Meter National Programme that aims to retrofit 25 crore conventional meters with smart variants will lead to 80-100 per cent improvement in billing efficiency.
MAIT Releases Report on Enhancing Export Competitiveness of India’s Electronic Hardware Manufacturing Ecosystem
Manufacturers’ Association of Information Technology (MAIT), released the report titled “Enhancing Export Competitiveness of India’s Electronic Hardware Manufacturing Ecosystem”. The report commissioned by MAIT, focuses on analysing the current ecosystem to outlining a combination of policy reforms, consisting of reimbursements of state and central tax levies, relaxation on corporate income tax and production-based incentives to boost the electronics manufacturing in the country.
As part of its mandate of enhancing ‘export-led electronics manufacturing’, MAIT has worked out a roadmap for the electronics sector with specific emphasis on Mobiles, Datacom and PCs.
Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) has released Draft National Resource Efficiency Policy- 2019
The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate has released Draft National Resource Efficiency Policy (NREP), 2019. NRPE, 2019 envisions a future with environmentally sustainable and equitable economic growth, resource security, healthy environment (air, water and land), and restored ecosystems with rich ecology and biodiversity. The Draft National Resource Efficiency Policy is guided by the principles of (i) Reduce primary resource consumption to ‘sustainable’ levels, in keeping with achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and staying within the planetary boundaries (ii) Create higher value with less material through resource efficient and circular approaches (iii) Minimize waste creation and loss of embedded resources at the end-of-life of products (iv) Ensure security of material supply and reduce import dependence for essential materials (v) Create employment opportunities and business models beneficial to the cause of environment protection and restoration.
New leadership group announced at Climate Action Summit to drive industry transition to low-carbon economy
A new initiative was launched on 23rd September at the UN Climate Action Summit to help guide the world’s heaviest greenhouse gas emitting industries toward the low-carbon economy.
India and Sweden together with Argentina, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, South Korea and the UK, as well as a group of companies including Dalmia Cement, DSM, Heathrow Airport, LKAB, Mahindra Group, Royal Schiphol Group, Scania, SpiceJet, SSAB, ThyssenKrupp and Vattenfall, announced a new Leadership Group for Industry Transition that will drive transformation in hard-to-decarbonize and energy-intensive sectors.
This global initiative will be supported by the World Economic Forum, the Energy Transitions Commission, Mission Innovation, Stockholm Environment Institute, and the European Climate Foundation among many others in an ambitious, public-private effort, to ensure heavy industries and mobility companies can find a workable pathway to deliver on the Paris Agreement.
India 6th-Largest Investor in Renewable Energy: Study
With investments of $90 billion in renewable energy over the last decade, India is placed sixth in the list of countries that have made the most investments in clean energy, says a new study. China, the United States, Japan, Germany, and the United Kingdom are the top five countries. While China invested $758 billion, the US came in a distant second with $356 billion in the decade between 2010 and the first half of 2019.