The Centre has decided to nudge banks to fund the renewable energy projects in the country.
| Photo Credit: B. JOTHI RAMALINGAM

To help meet India’s ₹30 trillion funding requirements for installing 500 GW of non-fossil fuel capacity by 2030, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy is in talks with financial institutions, public and private sector banks, urging them to commit a portion of their loans to renewable energy projects.

At the forthcoming Re-Invest summit, scheduled in Gandhinagar next week, all major banks and financial institutions will be giving “shapath patra” (promissory notes) about their proposed loans or funding plans in the renewable energy sector, Pralhad Joshi, Minister for New and Renewable Energy, said at a press briefing on Wednesday (September 10, 2024). Such “shapath patra” would be given by developers, manufacturers and private equity investors, he added.

“We have not specified any targets but banks are expected to give firm commitments. Only with the participation of banks and industry can India hope to attract finance to facilitate the renewable energy sector,” said Mr. Joshi.

Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, is scheduled to inaugurate the conference.

Also read:The challenges of renewable energy 

In a statement to the Rajya Sabha last year, R.K. Singh, former Renewable Energy Minister, said that the Reserve Bank of India had included bank loans up to a limit of ₹30 crore to borrowers for purposes like solar-based power generators, biomass-based power generators, windmills, micro-hydel plants and for renewable energy-based public utilities, under Priority Sector Lending classification. However, actual terms and conditions of the loans, including the requirement of collateral security, vary among different banks/financial institutions based on factors such as exposure of banks/institutions to the sector, creditworthiness of the borrower, and risk perception.

A view shows the Lego logo and some bricks inside their headquarters in Billund, Denmark, April 25, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Toymaker Lego said on Wednesday (August 28, 2024) it was on track to replace the fossil fuels used in making its signature bricks with more expensive renewable and recycled plastic by 2032 after signing deals with producers to secure long-term supply.

Lego, which sells billions of plastic bricks annually, has tested over 600 different materials to develop a new material that would completely replace its oil-based brick by 2030, but with limited success.

Now, Lego is aiming to gradually bring down the oil content in its bricks by paying up to 70% more for certified renewable resin, the raw plastic used to manufacture the bricks, in an attempt to encourage manufacturers to boost production.

“This means a significant increase in the cost of producing a Lego brick,” CEO Niels Christiansen told Reuters.

He said the company is on track to ensure that more than half of the resin it needs in 2026 is certified according to the mass balance method, an auditable way to trace sustainable materials through the supply chain, up from 30% in the first half of 2024.

“With a family-owner committed to sustainability, it’s a privilege that we can pay extra for the raw materials without having to charge customers extra,” Christiansen said.

The move comes amid a surplus of cheap virgin plastic, driven by major oil companies’ investments in petrochemicals. Plastics are projected to drive new oil demand in the next few decades.

Lego’s suppliers are using bio-waste such as cooking oil or food industry waste fat as well as recycled materials to replace virgin fossil fuels in plastic production.

The market for recycled or renewable plastic is still in its infancy, partly because most available feedstock is used for subsidised biodiesel, which is mixed into transportation fuels.

According to Neste, the world’s largest producer of renewable feedstocks, fossil-based plastic is about half or a third of the price of sustainable options.

“We sense more activity and willingness to invest in this now than we did just a year ago,” said Christiansen. He declined to say which suppliers or give details about price or volumes.

Rival toymaker Hasbro has started including plant-based or recycled materials in some toys, but without setting firm targets on plastic use. Mattel plans to use only recycled, recyclable or bio-based plastics in all products by 2030.

Around 90% of all plastic is made from virgin fossil fuels, according to lobby group PlasticsEurope.

FILE PHOTO: A technician is pictured inside a desalter plant of Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, India, September 30, 2016. REUTERS/Amit Dave/File Photo
| Photo Credit: AMIT DAVE

State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) will invest about ₹2 lakh crore in setting up renewable energy sites and green hydrogen plants and cutting gas flaring to zero to achieve its 2038 net-zero carbon emission goal.

The company, which produces about two-thirds of India’s crude oil and about 58% of natural gas, on July 9 released a 200-page document, detailing its path to achieving net zero emissions.

It listed clean energy projects even as it looks to boost its hydrocarbon output to meet the country’s energy needs.

ONGC will invest ₹97,000 crore by 2030 in setting up 5 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity, green hydrogen, biogas, pump storage plant and offshore wind project, according to the document.

Another ₹65,500 crore will be invested by 2035, mostly in a green hydrogen or green ammonia plant, and the remaining ₹38,000 crore by 2038, primarily in setting up 1 GW of offshore wind projects.

These projects will help the firm offset 9 million tonnes of carbon emissions it is directly (Scope-1 emissions) or indirectly (Scope-2 emissions) responsible for.

ONGC said it will invest ₹5,000 crore to cut gas flaring to zero by 2030 through technological intervention. The firm released into the atmosphere 554 million cubic metres of methane in 2021-22 (base year), mostly because it was an incidental by-product of oil or the quantity was not economical enough to pipe it to consumers.

ONGC will spend ₹30,000 crore in setting up 5 GW solar parks that will convert sunlight into electricity and turbines that will do the same with wind energy. It will add 1 GW of solar and onshore wind capacity by 2035 and 2038 at a cost of ₹5,000 crore each.

It will invest ₹40,000 crore by 2030 and a similar amount by 2035 to set up two 1,80,000 tonnes per annum green hydrogen and/or 1 million tonnes of green ammonia projects.

ONGC, which has installations in the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal to produce oil and gas from below the seabed, is also looking at installing offshore wind turbines to generate 0.5 GW of electricity by 2030 and double it by 2035. The first 0.5 GW offshore wind project is likely to cost ₹12,500 crore and the next about Rs 12,000 crore.

By 2038, it will add another 1 GW of offshore wind energy capacity at an investment of ₹25,000 crore, the document said.

The company is also looking at investing ₹20,000 crore for setting up 3 GW of pump storage plants to meet electricity requirements when renewable sources like sunlight and wind energy are not available.

The remaining investment will be in biogas, carbon capture and other clean energy projects. All this while it continues to hunt and produce more oil and gas.

Crude oil, which companies like ONGC pump out from below the seabed and from underground reservoirs, is a primary source of energy. It is processed in oil refineries to produce petrol, diesel and jet fuel. With the world looking to transition away from fossil fuels, companies around the globe are looking at new avenues to use crude oil.

Gas produced in a similar fashion is used to generate electricity, produce fertiliser or convert into CNG to power automobiles or into PNG to fire kitchen stoves.

Scope 1 emissions are from directly emitting sources that are owned or controlled by a company. Scope 2 emissions are from the consumption of purchased electricity, steam, or other sources of energy generated upstream from a company’s direct operations.

ONGC produced 21.14 million tonnes of oil in 2023-24 (April 2023 to March 2024) and 20.648 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas.

“The membership of the International Solar Alliance is open to all member states of the United Nations and everyone is welcome to join,” Mr. Singh said.
| Photo Credit: AP

China was welcome to be part of the International Solar Alliance (ISA), as the membership of the 116-country compact was open to all, R.K. Singh, Minister for Power and Renewable Energy, said at the inaugural session of the International Solar Alliance (ISA) Assembly here on Tuesday.

“The membership of the International Solar Alliance is open to all member states of the United Nations and everyone is welcome to join,” Mr. Singh, who’s also Co-President, ISA Assembly, said in response to a question from The Hindu on why China, despite being the largest producer and supplier of solar panels globally, wasn’t a member of the group which was formed in 2015 under the leadership of India and France.

“It is true that 80% of the manufacturing capacity, polysilicon wafers and above, is in China. However, there is a need to diversify manufacturing and this was particularly apparent during the pandemic. So most countries have now set up their own manufacturing facilities,” Mr. Singh said.

The ISA was set up following a decision at the historic 21st meeting of the United Nations Conference of Parties in Paris, that resulted in the ‘Paris Agreement’, where countries committed to keep temperatures from rising beyond 2 degrees Celsius and “as far as possible” below 1.5 degrees Celsius. While there have been feelers, since 2018, of China possibly joining the ISA, nothing has materialised and the freeze in diplomatic relations between India and China has further stalled progress, sources told The Hindu.

The ISA, which has its Secretariat in Gurugram, Haryana, aims to mobilise $1,000 billion in solar energy solutions by 2030 while delivering energy access to a billion people by installing 1,000 gigawatt (1 gigawatt or GW is 1000 megawatt or MW). This the organisation estimates would cut a billion tonnes of CO2 annually. Its key thrust, as part of this goal, is to expand solar panel installations in Africa. “Last year, of the $310 billion invested in solar power, less than 3% was invested in Africa. For this reason, much of the efforts are to increase investment in big solar plants as well as small solar micro-grids, rooftop solar, solar cold storages, etc. In the past year, we have invested in 20 solar start-ups in Africa,” Ajay Mathur, Director-General, ISA, said.

In several African countries, the dominant investor and developer of clean energy projects is China. South Africa, for instance, quadrupled its imports of solar panels from China in the first half of 2023 and Africa, overall, has doubled its imports of Chinese solar panels. Panel exports from the country grew 34% over the previous year to 114 GW, more than the total installed solar capacity of the United States of 113 GW, a 2023 report from U.K. research firm Ember said. However, African imports pale in comparison to the 66GW imported by Europe and the 9.5GW by Brazil.

India, once a significant importer of panels from China, has stepped up domestic manufacturing and reduced such imports. In 2023, it imported only 2.3GW worth of panels compared to the 9.8GW in 2022. It has, however, stepped up imports of solar cells to make its own panels and export.

The global stocktake outcome may also include a call for a “global phase-out of unabated coal power generation by 2040 in a just manner” and tripling the capacity deployment of renewable and clean energy by 2030. File
| Photo Credit: AP

Calls to phase out unabated fossil fuels, reform subsidies on it and triple global renewable energy capacity may find their way into the outcome of the first-ever global stocktake, a periodic assessment of collective efforts to achieve the Paris Agreement goals.

Initiated in Glasgow in 2021, the first-ever global stocktake will conclude at the annual climate talks (COP28) in Dubai in December.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) recently released a report summarising submissions made by countries and non-party stakeholders regarding the political response to the global stocktake.

“They will inform negotiations but there’s no guarantee any particular element will make it into the final text. With that said, fossil fuel phase-out is prominently featured in this long list of possible decision elements,” Natalie Jones, a policy advisor at climate policy think tank International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), said.

According to the UNFCCC report, possible elements of the global stocktake outcome could include a call to parties on “phase-out of fossil fuels, support global commitment to accelerate the phase-out of unabated fossil fuels, and efforts to phase out inefficient fuel subsidies by 2025, supported by enabling environments and upscaling investments in renewable energy”.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) said in September that global demand for oil, natural gas and coal is likely to peak by 2030. The IEA termed it an encouraging development but “not nearly enough” to limit the rise in global average temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Countries promised to phase out “inefficient” fossil fuel subsidies at COP26 in Glasgow in 2021 and COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh in 2022, but they hit record highs in 2022.

A report that came ahead of the G20 Leaders’ Summit in New Delhi in September said countries in the bloc allocated a staggering USD 1.4 trillion of public funds to support fossil fuels in 2022, aiming to counter the impact of their soaring prices due to the Ukraine war and strengthen energy reserves.

Earth’s global surface temperature has risen by around 1.15 degrees Celsius. The CO2 spewed mostly by the developed countries into the atmosphere since the start of the industrial revolution is closely tied to it.

In the business-as-usual scenario, the world is heading for a temperature rise of around 3 degrees Celsius by the end of the century.

Climate science says the world must halve emissions by 2030 from the 2009 levels to limit global average temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius as compared to the pre-industrial levels to avoid extreme, destructive and likely irreversible effects of climate change.

According to global agencies, the last four months (June, July, August and September) were the hottest on record, with 2023 on track to be the warmest year ever.

Developing countries argue that wealthier nations should take greater responsibility for emission reductions, given their massive historical emissions and provide the necessary means of implementation, including finance and technology, to assist developing and vulnerable nations in transitioning to clean energy and adapting to climate change.

The global stocktake outcome may also include a call for a “global phase-out of unabated coal power generation by 2040 in a just manner” and tripling the capacity deployment of renewable and clean energy by 2030.

Doubling the rate of energy efficiency improvements from 2.2 per cent to over 4 per cent annually across sectors by 2030 is also among the possible elements listed in the U.N. report for discussion at COP28.

The final discussions could also include a call for supporting the doubling of low-carbon hydrogen production across sectors by 2030 and recognising the role of natural gas as an efficient transitional fuel.

The UNFCCC report highlights the possible element that the global North cannot be asking to end financing for fossil fuels in the global South “without taking corresponding actions” in their own countries.

India had also highlighted this issue in its submission to the UNFCCC regarding its expectations from the global stocktake outcome.

In 2022, the burning of fossil fuels provided 82% of the world’s energy. In 2000, it was 87%. Even as renewables have undergone tremendous growth, they’ve been offset by increased demand for energy.

That’s why the United Nations earlier this month released a global stocktake – an assessment on how the world is going in weaning itself off these energy-dense but dangerously polluting fuels. Short answer: progress, but nowhere near enough, soon enough.

If we consult history, we find that energy transitions are not new. To farm fields and build cities, we’ve gone from relying on human or animal muscle to wind and water to power sailboats and mill grain. Then we began switching to the energy dense hydrocarbons, coal, gas and oil. But this can’t last. We were first warned in 1859 that when burned, these fuels add to the Earth’s warming blanket of greenhouse gases and threatening our liveable climate.

It’s time for another energy transition. We’ve done it before. The problem is time – and resistance from the old energy regime, fossil fuel companies. Energy historian Vaclav Smil calculates past energy transitions have taken 50–75 years to ripple through societies. And we no longer have that kind of time, as climate change accelerates. This year is likely the hottest in 120,000 years.

Also Read | Seeing India’s energy transition through its States 

So can we learn anything from past energy transitions? As it happens, we can.

Energy shifts happen in fits and starts

Until around 1880, the world ran on wood, charcoal, crop residue, manure, water and wind. In fact, some countries relied on wood and charcoal throughout the 20th century – even as others were shifting from coal to oil.

The English had used coal for domestic heating from the time of the Romans because it burned longer and had nearly double the energy intensity of wood.

So what drove the shift? Deforestation was a part. The reliance on wood worked while there were trees. In the pre-industrial era, cities of 500,000 or more needed huge areas of forests around them.

In some locales wood seemed boundless, free and expendable. The costs to biodiversity would become apparent only later.

Also Read | High hopes for climate and energy outcomes at summit as India takes lead

Britain was once carpeted in forest. Endemic deforestation drove the change to coal in the 16th and 17th centuries. Most English coal pits opened between 1540 and 1640.

When the English figured out how to use coal to make steam and push a piston, it made even more possible – pumping water from deepening mining pits, the invention of locomotives, and transporting produce, including the feed needed by working animals.

Yet for all this, coal had only reached 5% of the global market by 1840.

In North America, coal didn’t overtake wood until as late as 1884 – even as crude oil became more important.

Why did America first start exploiting oil reserves? In part to replace expensive oil from the heads of sperm whales. Before hydrocarbon oil was widely available, whaling was depended upon for lubricants and some lighting. In 1846, the US had 700 whaling vessels scouring the oceans for this source of oil.

Also Read | India plans to export solar power: official

Crude oil was struck first in Pennsylvania in 1859. To extract it required drilling down 21 metres. The drill was powered by a steam engine – which may have been fired by wood.

Steam and muscle

The 19th century energy transition took decades. It wasn’t a revolution so much as a steady shift. By the end of that century, global energy supply had doubled and half of it was from coal.

When they were first invented in 1712, steam engines converted just 2% of coal into useful energy. Almost 150 years later they were still highly inefficient at just 15%. (Petrol-powered cars still waste about 66% of the energy in their fuel).

Even so, steam sped up early proto-industries such as textiles, print production and traditional manufacturing.

But the engines did not free us from the yoke. In fact, early coal mining actually increased demand for human labour. Boys as young as six worked at lighter tasks. Conditions were generally horrific. Alongside human muscle was animal strength. Coal was often raised from pits by draft horses.

Also Read | 57% of power generated will be via renewable sources by 2027: Central Electricity Authority

In 1850s New England, steam was three times more expensive than water flows powering textile mills. Vaclav Smil has shown industrial waterwheels and turbines “competed successfully with steam engines for decades”. The energy of flowing water was free. Digging up coal was labor-intensive.

Why did steam win? Human ecologist Andreas Malm argues what really drove the shift to steam-powered mills was capital. Locating steam engines in urban centres made it easier to concentrate and control workers, as well as overcoming worker walk-outs and machine breaking.

The question of who does the work is often overlooked. When energy historians refer vaguely to human muscle, we should ask: whose muscles? Was the work done by slaves or forced labourers?

Even in the current energy transition there can be gross disparities between employer and worker. As heat intensifies, some employers are giving ice vests to their migrant workers so they can keep working. That’s reminiscent of coal shovelers in the furnace-like stokeholes of steam ships being immersed in ice-baths on collapse, as historian On Barak has shown.

What does this mean for us?

As Vaclav Smil points out, “every transition to a new energy supply has to be powered by the intensive deployment of existing energies and prime movers”. In fact, Smil argues the idea of the “industrial revolution” is misleading. It was not sudden. Rather, it was “gradual, often uneven”.

History may seem like it unfolds neatly. But it doesn’t at all. In earlier transitions, we see overlaps. Hesitation. Sometimes, more intense use of earlier energy sources. They start as highly localised shifts, depending on available resources, before new technologies spreads along trade routes. Ultimately market forces have driven – or hindered – adoption.

Time is short. But on the plus side, there are market forces now driving the shift to clean energy. Once solar panels and wind turbines are built, sunlight and wind are free. It is the resistance of the old guard – fossil fuel corporations – that is holding us back.

Union Minister of Power and New & Renewable Energy R. K. Singh. File

Union Minister for Power and New and Renewable Energy R. K. Singh on July 21 said that in order to achieve the net-zero carbon emission target, storing the renewable energy is necessary so that it becomes available round-the-clock.

Chairing the inaugural function of G20 14th Clean Energy Ministerial meeting and 8th Mission Innovation meeting in Goa, Mr. Singh also said that the governments will have to work on building storage capacities of renewable energy.

Also Read | Rich nations must achieve net zero carbon quicker, by 2040: U.N. chief Antonio Guterres

Minister Singh said, “If you want to get to net zero (carbon emission), then you will have to store the renewable energy so that it is available round-the-clock and that is a problem. The cost of storage is huge. The G20 Ministerial meeting will discuss the problems that lie on the path of climate action, energy transition and the strategies to achieve it.”

“We kept talking about how important energy transition is and how important climate change is. But if we were actually serious, we would have more capacity of batteries. We have only one country doing it,” he said, without naming the country.

Mr. Singh said that another challenge is that the reserves of lithium are limited and the bulk of the reserves are tied up by just one or two countries. “That is a major problem which we need to solve,” he said.

“We also need to address the question of chemistry – why only lithium and why not sodium-ion (in manufacturing batteries). I would request – let’s get together and crack this challenge of storage,” the Minister said.

Talking about India’s initiatives in this area, Mr. Singh said that the country plans to use green hydrogen and green ammonia as storage.

“We are huge on pumped storage. We have 33,000 MW of pumped storage under different approvals. We have established 1,500 MW of pumped storage,” he said.

The Minister said that the G20 countries also need to address supply chain issues which were exaggerated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the Ukraine war. “India’s energy demand grew by 9.5% last year as the economy grew by 7.5%,” he said.

“The challenge is to add more capacity to the energy generation…We have added 1,82,000 circuit kilometres of transmission lines so that we can generate solar installations in Rajasthan and consume it anywhere. We have one grid-one market,” he pointed out. The Minister also cautioned about the use of low-carbon hydrogen.

“The problem with this one kilogram of hydrogen from natural gas will get you about 10 kilogram of carbon dioxide. How do we guarantee that it won’t leak out – that is a problem,” he said.