Towards Powering India

How solar could spark a clean-energy transition through transformative innovation—creative financing, revolutionary technologies, and flexible energy systems. Solar energy, once a niche application for a limited market, has become the cheapest and fastest-growing power source on earth. What's more, its potential is nearly limitless—every hour the sun beams down more energy than the world uses in a year. But in Taming the Sun, energy expert Varun Sivaram warns that the world is not yet equipped to harness erratic sunshine to meet most of its energy needs. And if solar's current surge peters out, prospects for replacing fossil fuels and averting catastrophic climate change will dim. Innovation can brighten those prospects, Sivaram explains, drawing on firsthand experience and original research spanning science, business, and government. Financial innovation is already enticing deep-pocketed investors to fund solar projects around the world, from the sunniest deserts to the poorest villages. Technological innovation could replace today's solar panels with coatings as cheap as paint and employ artificial photosynthesis to store intermittent sunshine as convenient fuels. And systemic innovation could add flexibility to the world's power grids and other energy systems so they can dependably channel the sun's unreliable energy. Unleashing all this innovation will require visionary public policy: funding researchers developing next-generation solar technologies, refashioning energy systems and economic markets, and putting together a diverse clean energy portfolio. Although solar can't power the planet by itself, it can be the centerpiece of a global clean energy revolution. A Council on Foreign Relations Book

Since the economic liberalization of the early 1990s, India has been, on several occasions and at different forums, feted as a great power. This subject has been discussed in numerous books, but mostly in terms of rapid economic growth and immense potential in the emerging market. There is also a vast collection of literature on India's 'soft power '- culture, tourism, frugal engineering, and knowledge economy. However, there has been no serious exploration of the alternative path India can take to achieving great power status - a combination of hard power, geostrategics, and realpolitik. In this book, Bharat Karnad delves exclusively into these hard power aspects of India's rise and the problems associated with them. He offers an incisive analysis of the deficits in the country's military capabilities and in the 'software' related to hard power--absence of political vision and will, insensitivity to strategic geography, and unimaginative foreign and military policies--and arrives at powerful arguments on why these shortfalls have prevented the country from achieving the great power status.

India will be the world's most populous country by 2024 and its third largest economy by 2028. But the size of our population and a sense of historical greatness alone are insufficient to guarantee we will fulfil our ambition to become a global power. Our approach to realize this vision needs more than just planning for economic growth. It requires a shift in attitudes. In Making India Great, Aparna Pande examines the challenges we face in the areas of social, economic, military and foreign policy and strategy. She points to the dichotomy that lies at the heart of the nation: our belief in becoming a global power and the reluctance to implement policies and take actions that would help us achieve that goal. The New India holds all the promise of greatness many of its citizens dream of. Can it become a reality? The book delves into this question.

`...sober and extremely well-researched book.' - Inder Malhotra, Business World `...very detailed and up-to-date account.' - Richard Newman, Times Higher Education Supplement This book examines the economic and technological basis for India's rise to power and the political factors that shape the nature of the power it will develop into. It shows that while India has concentrated on many of the scientific and technical capabilities that serve the needs of a rising power, it has not been able to achieve a balanced process of development. This imbalance feeds sub-national political discontent and undercuts the very power that India has sought to acquire, thus delaying her rise to power.

This volume explores opportunities and challenges in articulating and implementing a robust but flexible set of strategies for meeting India’s primary energy needs; making the energy system more resilient, in order to drive India’s economic growth, and more equitable, in order to fulfil the basic energy needs of all citizens in an uncertain future. A range of national scenarios is explored to examine possibilities of fuel and technology substitutions along two time horizons: in some detail until 2030 and also mapping out plausible pathways to 2050. This volume is the first time a tripartite effort has been undertaken by an IOC (Shell) and two reputed think-tanks (CEEW and TERI) to develop a single narrative on energy choices and related issues in India. It combines Shell’s international and energy-specific know-how with CEEW and TERI’s domestic and broader sustainable development experience. Finally, it is unique in its treatment of the energy sector as a whole in India’s development (focusing on both the technology and policy dimensions), and in its engagement with the world (including diplomatic and security dimensions).

Mark Twain observed, “I'm in favour of progress; it's change I don't like.” Coal dominates Indian energy because it’s available domestically and cheap (especially without a carbon tax). If the global focus is on the energy transition, how does India ensure a just transition? Managing winners and losers will be the single largest challenge for India’s energy policy. Coal is entrenched in a complex ecosystem. In some states, it’s amongst the largest contributors to state budgets. The Indian Railways, India’s largest civilian employer, is afloat because it overcharges coal to offset under-recovery from passengers. Coal India Limited, the public sector miner that produces 85% of domestic coal, is the world’s largest coal miner. But despite enormous reserves, India imports about a quarter of consumption. On the flip side, coal faces inevitable pressure from renewable energy, which is the cheapest option for new builds. However, there is significant coal-based power capacity already in place, some of which is underutilized, or even stranded. Low per-capita energy consumption means India must still grow its energy supply. Before India can phase out coal, it must first achieve a plateau of coal. How this happens cost-effectively and with least resistance isn’t just a technical or economic question, it depends on the political economy of coal and its alternatives. Some stakeholders want to kill coal. A wiser option may be to first clean it up, instead of wishing it away. Across 18 chapters, drawing from leading experts in the field, we examine all aspects of coal’s future in India. We find no easy answers, but attempt to combine the big picture with details, bringing them together to offer a range of policy options.

This book provides an in-depth account of India's role in world politics at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The author shows how the approach laid down by Nehru and followed by his successors (an approach that included nuclear self-restraint, the search for friendly relations with Pakistan and China, seeking the high ground in moral and diplomatic spheres, and giving a lead to the non-aligned Third World) has been replaced. The new, more self-confident and assertive approach of this book is based on India's growing economic strength and has a more strategic and pro-Western orientation. Meticulous in approach, this book discusses this change, shows how it has come about, and explores how India's role in world politics might develop going forward. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of South Asian studies, Asian politics, international relations, and security studies.

India is a leading developing country in providing electricity to rural and urban populations. By late 2012, the national electricity grid had reached 92 percent of India's rural villages, or about 880 million people. Yet, approximately 311 million people-mostly those in rural areas-still live without electricity. Less than half of all households in the poorest income group have electricity. Even among households with electricity, hundreds of millions lack reliable supply and experience power cuts almost daily. Achieving universal access to electricity by 2030 is not fi nancially prohibitive for India. The challenge of providing electricity for all is achievable, ensuring that India joins such countries as China and Brazil in reaching out to even its remotest populations. Policies will need to be aligned with the principles followed in other successful international programs. The potential benefi ts of electrifi cation for those without service are quite high. The benefi ts of lighting alone would approximately equal the investments necessary to extend electricity for all. Households with electricity consume more than 100 times as much light as do households with kerosene for about the same amount of money. Without quality energy services, households often face entrenched poverty, poor delivery of social services, and limited opportunities for women and girls. This book will be of interest to a wide audience, including policy makers, experts and managers in the international development community, and those in academia.

After the thorough study of the present market, we learned that there isn't much scope for the general public to become aware of the regulations which guide the power sector of our country. In fact, even people working in the power sector, like those who are related to power generation, transmission, distribution, operation and maintenance, etc, but not directly related to power business and regulatory matters, are ignorant of such various rules and regulations. Current power market is consumer-driven, and hence it is very important on the part of the consumers and other utilities to have knowledge about these regulations in order to maximise their output, enhance their profit, and in the same place shielding themselves from various kinds of gaming by other competing utilities. The one who has full knowledge of such rules and regulatory matters can efficiently manage their business, extracting maximum gain in this competitive market and will rise to become the final champion in the market. This book starts from the genesis of power industry in India, covering in its path the Electricity Act and earlier legislations and legal background, overview of the Indian Power Sector, Role which the Regulators play in efficient running of this sector, Indian Electricity Grid Code, Presence of Load Despatch Centres and their functions, scenario of Open Access in power Sector in India, Tariff determination and its structure, Power Exchange, evolution and expansion of Renewable Energy Sector in India and efficient energy management. The aim of writing this book is to reach out to more and more people. This book will be of great help to power industry professionals, who will finally know what their effort is finally yielding to. Thus it will increase their interest as well as efficiency. Each step is interlinked, so the final profit will be the compound gain of each individual step. The book will also be useful to aspiring power engineers and power management students, who can have a broad outlook of the Indian Power Sector as a whole. Lastly, the general public will also be benefitted as they are the one who ultimately pays

INTEGRATION OF RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES WITH SMART GRID Provides comprehensive coverage of renewable energy and its integration with smart grid technologies. This book starts with an overview of renewable energy technologies, smart grid technologies, and energy storage systems and covers the details of renewable energy integration with smart grid and the corresponding controls. It also provides an enhanced perspective on the power scenario in developing countries. The requirement of the integration of smart grid along with the energy storage systems is deeply discussed to acknowledge the importance of sustainable development of a smart city. The methodologies are made quite possible with highly efficient power convertor topologies and intelligent control schemes. These control schemes are capable of providing better control with the help of machine intelligence techniques and artificial intelligence. The book also addresses modern power convertor topologies and the corresponding control schemes for renewable energy integration with smart grid. The design and analysis of power converters that are used for the grid integration of solar PV along with simulation and experimental results are illustrated. The protection aspects of the microgrid with power electronic configurations for wind energy systems are elucidated. The book also discusses the challenges and mitigation measure in renewable energy integration with smart grid. Audience The core audience is hardware and software engineers working on renewable energy integration related projects, microgrids, smart grids and computing algorithms for converter and inverter circuits. Researchers and students in electrical, electronics and computer engineering will also benefit reading the book.