India is producing power from solar cells more cheaply than by burning diesel for the first time,

spurring billionaire Sunil Mittal and Coca-Cola Co. (KO)s mango supplier to jettison the fuel in favor of photovoltaic panels. The cost of solar energy in India declined by 28 percent since December 2010, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. The cause was a 51 percent drop in panel prices last year as the worlds 10 largest manufacturers, led by Chinas Suntech Power Holdings Co. (STP), doubled output capacity. Solar is going mainstream in India, helped by Chinese pricing, said Ardeshir Contractor, founder of developer Kiran Energy Solar Power Pvt. Kiran, whose investors include Bessemer Venture Partners, an early financier of Skype Technologies SA, won one of the largest projects auctioned by India last month. India joins pockets of Italy, Spain and Hawaii where rising fuel costs and lower panel prices make solar pay for itself without state subsidies, New Energy Finance data show. Factories and homes in the Asian nation switch on emergency diesel-fired generators during chronic blackouts and to bridge gaps in the power-delivery grid as the government prepares a $400 billion program through 2017 to curb the shortfall and spur growth. If they had the foresight, these factories would be replacing their diesel generators now or at least getting what they can from solar, said Lalit Jain, chief executive officer of Moser Baer Clean Energy Ltd., which owns 100 megawatts of operating solar plants in India, Italy, the U.K. and Germany.

Power Deficit
Electricity demand exceeds supply in India by about 14 percent during peak hours, and about 400 million people have no access to power, according to the United Nations. While European governments have cut preferential rates paid to solar-plant operators amid an escalating debt crisis, India is driving down its costs by forcing utilities and developers to compete on price. Winners of Indias national solar-capacity auction in December agreed to supply power for an average rate of 8.78 rupees (17 cents) a kilowatt-hour by early 2013. In comparison, electricity from burning state-subsidized diesel costs generators about 17 rupees, according to Charanjit Singh, an energy analyst at HSBC Holdings Plc. The cheapest power comes from burning coal, which is about 4 rupees a kilowatt-hour, though users must be connected to the grid.

Bharti, Jain
Mittals Bharti Airtel Ltd. (BHARTI), Indias largest mobile-phone operator, and Jain Irrigation Systems Ltd. (JI), the worlds biggest mango-puree producer and supplier to Coca-Cola, are among companies swapping diesel generators for photovoltaic modules. While Airtels Bharti Infratel unit typically runs its phone towers on the cheapest, griddelivered power, it estimates that electricity from diesel costs about four times as much.

The company upgraded 1,646 out of about 22,000 rural sites that get little or no gridconnected power to run on solar and other renewable sources, it said in an e-mail. The governments Telecom Regulatory Authority recommended this month that at least 75 percent of rural mobile towers and 33 percent of urban towers run on a combination of solar, wind and diesel by 2020. Indias 300,000 mobile towers account for about 4 percent of diesel use, according to HSBCs Singh. Jain Irrigation will complete an 8.5-megawatt solar project in March to replace diesel-fired output at its processing plant in Jalgaon, Maharashtra, CEO Anil Jain said Jan. 3. The company estimates it could recoup the cost in as little as five years.

Solar Target
India, the third-biggest energy user behind China and the U.S., has a goal to have installed 20,000 megawatts of solar- energy capacity by 2022, about equal to 18 new nuclear reactors. That target is 10 percent of todays total generating capacity including all energy sources. Less than 1 percent of that current power base is solar. Indias solar industry has benefited from tax breaks and a guaranteed government buyer of its cleaner power. Diesel generation has been helped by state subsidies that make the fuel cost less than the market price to cap inflation. The diesel price set for the capital Delhi was at 32 percent below the market rate as of Jan. 16, according to market data published by the nations Oil Ministry. Factories burn diesel during blackouts to maintain a constant power source. Their huge warehouses and empty rooftops make them a prime candidate for solar power, said Hari Manoharan, an analyst at Energy Alternatives India. Indian manufacturers are losing more than 432 billion rupees a year as a result of power failures, Manoharan said in a December report.

GTL, Acme
GTL Infrastructure Ltd. (GTLI), a Mumbai-based owner of 32,000 phone towers, said its saving 56,000 liters of diesel a year after installing solar panels. Acme Telepower Ltd., a Gurgaon- based company converting sites for Viom Networks Ltd. and Bharti, estimates the panels can cut the diesel running time of a rural tower to eight hours a day from 22, it said Jan. 10. India charges the highest power prices to industrial and commercial consumers such as factories, mines and malls, and gives away free power to farmers for irrigation pumps. As the cost of solar falls, more businesses are deciding it makes sense, said Akhilesh Magal, an analyst at Bridge to India. Things that werent feasible have suddenly opened up, Magal said. As prices drop, you suddenly see huge segments of the market open up.

Cost Of Solar Power In India Over Rs 15 Per KWh

By now, anyone who has been reading about renewable energy in India would have heard about Indias National Solar Mission, which envisages an installed solar generation capacity of 20,000 MW by 2020, 1,00,000 MW by 2030 and of 2,00,000 MW by 2050.. This is from a current installed capacity of next to nothing! Oh well, and they plan to tax fossil fuels (gasoline and diesel) for this, or so we are told. Though the amount of money generated from such taxation alone might not be enough to fund the massive amounts that will be required for the high feed-in-tariffs expected for solar based power generation. All these awesome ambitions are fine, but what exactly is the reality with regard to the cost of solar energy in India? It is common knowledge that solar power costs more; what is not well known is that it costs much more than coal-based (or natural gas based) electricity. Levelized Costs for Renewable Power Coal-based and natural gas-based power cost anywhere between Rs 2 and 3 per KWh; wind-based power costs slightly more around Rs 3-3.2. Solar-based power currently costs over Rs 15 per KWh this is for solar PV. Solar thermal costs about 2 rupees less per kWh. (Now, this number of Rs 15 is going to be contested, I can wager on that! There are folks who would venture as low as Rs 10, but I think it is unlikely it could be lower than Rs 12 at no-subsidy level, as of mid 2009). All the above mentioned costs are the levelized costs they take into account all direct and indirect costs, including amortization of capital costs. Reasons for High Costs The primary reason for the high cost of solar power is the high capital cost. Currently, it costs about Rs 15 crores per MW of capital cost for a solar PV power plant (MNRE has taken a benchmark capex of Rs 16 crores). About 50% of this cost is owing to the cost of the panels and the rest are for balance of systems (inverters, transformers, monitoring systems, wires and cables etc), the civil support infrastructure and the cost of installation. Among the balance of systems, inverters contribute the highest cost component, at about Rs 2.5 crores per MW. The good news is, the cost of solar panels are showing dramatic decreases year on year. The bad news is, the balance of systems are not. So, solar (both PV and thermal) is 3-4 times as costly as wind. Thatll indeed be a bit of a shocker to many. This will make many wonder why the government is so much more aspirational on the solar front, when they should have been at least equally ambitious about wind. Reasons for the Solar Focus 1. Solar is more predictable than wind 2. It makes more sense to combine both solar and wind in renewables mix because some areas might have significant sunlight while some others have significant wind (but not that as much sunlight) 3. The total potential for wind energy for India is estimated at 45000 MW. This is only about 25% of current total electricity capacity for India. If these estimates are correct, wind alone cannot supply all of Indias renewable electricity (By the way, I dont subscribe to the 45GW number, I think it is far higher than thatthe 45GW potential was estimated in the early 80s when the turbines were of much smaller sizes and at much lower heights). 4. On the other hand, India is blessed significant amounts of land areas having good sunshine for over 300 days a year. If solar (either in the form of PV or thermal) becomes cost effective, the entire countrys electricity needs can be fully met from solar alone!

The costs of solar energy are indeed coming down (current capital costs are about $4 million per MW), but the question is, how long will it take before capital costs come down enough in order to make electricity generation costs competitive to coal, natural gas and wind. (here is some hope Indian govt is working with IITs to come up with hybrid solutions; and perhaps this work from Tata BP Solar could help too). Solar Energy Grid Parity There are some who predict that solar PV will achieve grid parity by latest 2020 in India. Grid parity is a term that describes a situation where the cost of the alternative source of power (in this case solar PV) is the same as that of the grid power derived from traditional fossil sources such as coal and natural gas. Grid parity by 2020 might not be just a hope, because at the current rates of solar panel prices decrease and the expected increases in prices of coal and natural gas based electric power, with one curve going down fast and the other up equally fast, the parity might be achieved sooner than one might be inclined to think. (some interesting articles and insights on solar grid parity here, here, here and here). Just imagine the day when solar achieves grid parity. It might be far from where we stand today, but a renewable energy source that can supply power at an affordable price could be very interesting indeed. One question that arises in my mind is whether solar could also become a baseload power source once it achieves grid parity. The answer to this might not be a resounding yes, because we need efficient and cost-effective energy storage systems in place for solar (be it PV or thermal) to become suitable for baseload supply. Solar can supply energy only for 4-5 hours a day, but we need electricity all through the day (which is today supplied by baseload sources such as coal, natural gas and hydro-power). In order for solar to be able to supply power throughout the day and night, the suns energy captured during the day needs to be stored effectively. And energy storage is one area where, despite significant R&D money and a huge list of brilliant minds, disruptive developments have been hard to come by. So, while we might have grid parity for solar within the next 10 years, we may have to wait longer for solar to become the only (or dominant) electricity generator for our homes and offices. And What about Wind? At any rate, I feel the government of India should give much higher thrust to wind energy as well given that it is a far more mature technology, we already have over 10,000 MW installed capacity, and one of the top 5 global wind turbines manufacturers is Indian! In addition, as I have mentioned earlier, the total potential for wind energy in India is expected to be much higher than 45,000 MW because that is an old estimate, done way back in the early nineties! With larger and more efficient turbines that operate at higher altitudes, recent estimates suggest that the potential for wind power could be more than 100,000 MW. And this does not include the potential for offshore wind. Wind does suffer from a particular disadvantage that afflicts solar the power is intermittent and it is costly to store it. Which means wind cannot serve as a source of baseload power for the foreseeable future (4-5 years). But, it costs much less, already has over 150 GW of installed capacity worldwide and about 10 GW in India alone and has a reasonably good manufacturing ecosystem in India with one of the worlds top 5 wind turbine manufacturer being India. These alone would merit a closer attention to this sector, wouldnt you think?

The electricity sector in India had an installed capacity of 185.5 GW as of November 2011, the world's [1] fifth largest. Thermal power plants constitute 65% of the installed capacity, hydroelectric about 21% and rest being a combination of wind, small hydro, biomass, waste-to-electricity, and nuclear. In terms of fuel, coal-fired plants account for 55% of India's installed electricity capacity, compared to South Africa's 92%; China's 77%; and Australia's 76%. After coal, renewal hydropower accounts for 21%, [2][3] and natural gas for about 10%. In December 2011, over 300 million Indian citizens had no access to electricity. Over one third of India's rural population lacked electricity, as did 6% of the urban population. Of those who did have access to electricity in India, the supply was intermittent and unreliable. In 2010, blackouts and power shedding interrupted irrigation and manufacturing across the country. The per capita average annual domestic electricity consumption in India in 2009 was 96 kWh in rural areas and 288 kWh in urban areas for those with access to electricity, in contrast to the worldwide per [6] capita annual average of 2600 kWh and 6200 kWh in the European Union. India's total domestic, agricultural and industrial per capita energy consumption estimate vary depending on the source. Two [7][8] sources place it between 400 to 700 kWh in 20082009. As of January 2012, one report found the per [4] capita total consumption in India to be 778 kWh. India currently suffers from a major shortage of electricity generation capacity, even though it is the [9] world's fourth largest energy consumer after United States, China and Russia. The International Energy Agency estimates India needs an investment of at least $135 billion to provide universal access of electricity to its population. The International Energy Agency estimates India will add between 600 GW to 1200 GW of additional new [5] power generation capacity before 2050. This added new capacity is equivalent to the 740 GW of total power generation capacity of European Union (EU-27) in 2005. The technologies and fuel sources India adopts, as it adds this electricity generation capacity, may make significant impact to global resource [10] usage and environmental issues. India's electricity sector is amongst the world's most active players in renewable energy utilization, [11] especially wind energy. As of December 2011, India had an installed capacity of about 22.4 GW of renewal technologies-based electricity, exceeding the total installed electricity capacity in Austria by all technologies. Electricity distribution network in India is inefficient compared to other networks in the world. India's [5] network losses exceeded 32% in 2010, compared to world average of less than 15%. Loss reduction technologies, if adopted in India, can add about 30 GW of electrical power, while simultaneously reducing electricity cost and carbon footprint pollution per MWHr used. Key implementation challenges for India's electricity sector include new project management and execution, ensuring availability of fuel quantities and qualities, lack of initiative to develop large coal and natural gas resources present in India, land acquisition, environmental clearances at state and central government level, and training of skilled manpower to prevent talent shortages for operating latest [ technology plants.
[4][5]

Current developments
Map of solar electricity potential in Europe. Germany is the current leader in solar production.

Photovoltaic panels based on crystalline silicon modules are encountering competition in the market by [24] [25] [26] panels that employ thin-film solar cells (CdTe CIGS, amorphous Si, microcrystalline Si), which had been rapidly evolving and are expected to account for 31 percent of the global installed power by [27] 2013. However, precipitous drops in prices for polysilicon and their panels in late 2011 have caused [28] some thin-film makers to exit the market and severely squeezing profits at others. Other developments [29] include casting wafers instead of sawing, concentrator modules, 'Sliver' cells, and continuous printingprocesses. The San Jose-based company Sunpower produces cells that have an energy conversion ratio of 19.5%, [30] well above the market average of 1218%. The most efficient solar cell so far is a multi-junction [31] concentrator solar cell with an efficiency of 43.5% produced by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in April 2011. The highest efficiencies achieved without concentration include Sharp [32] Corporation at 35.8% using a proprietary triple-junction manufacturing technology in 2009, and Boeing Spectrolab (40.7% also using a triple-layer design). A March 2010 experimental demonstration of a design by a Caltech group led by Harry Atwater which has an absorption efficiency of 85% in sunlight and [33] 95% at certain wavelengths is claimed to have near perfect quantum efficiency. However, absorption efficiency should not be confused with the sunlight-to-electricity conversion efficiency. For best performance, terrestrial PV systems aim to maximize the time they face the sun. Solar trackers achieve this by moving PV panels to follow the sun. The increase can be by as much as 20% in winter and by as much as 50% in summer. Static mounted systems can be optimized by analysis of thesun path. Panels are often set to latitude tilt, an angle equal to the latitude, but performance can be [citation needed] improved by adjusting the angle for summer or winter. Generally, as with other semiconductor [34] devices, temperatures above room temperature reduce the performance of photovoltaics. The new European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA) report predicts a promising future for photovoltaics. "The future of the PV market remains bright in the EU and the rest of the world," the report said. "Uncertain times are causing governments everywhere to rethink the future of their energy mix, creating new opportunities for a competitive, safe and reliable electricity source such as PV." By 2015, between 131 and 196 gigawatts (GW) of photovoltaic systems could be installed around the globe

In October last year, Moser Baer Clean Energy commissioned a 30 megawatt (MW) photovoltaic (PV) farm at Banaskantha district in north Gujarat. The plant will supply an estimated 52 million units of energy in a year - roughly the amount that Kerala consumes in a day. Earlier this month, the Adani Group announced that it had commissioned a 40-MW solar power project, touted as the country's largest, in Gujarat's Kutch district. For Adani,

India's largest private thermal power producer, it is the first major project in the renewable energy space. But it is Solairedirect that has really set the new benchmark. The French company's bid of Rs 7.49 per kilowatt-hour (kWh), equivalent to 15 US cents, for its proposed 5 MW plant in Pokhran, Rajasthan, is by far the lowest tariff quoted under India's ambitious Solar Mission. In comparison, the price per kWh is about 23 US cents in Germany, the world's biggest solar power user. Each project underlines the importance that is now being given to solar energy in India. The country, sundrenched for more than 300 days a year, is ideally suited to use it. But while the potential is well known, India has remained far behind Europe and the US, both in manufacturing and project capacities. Now, the central and state governments are slowly working to harness the power of the sun. In January 2010, the Centre launched the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission, which targets setting up a generation capacity of 20,000 MW by 2022. In addition, 21 states are pursuing their own programmes, which optimists reckon will add another 10,000 MW over the next 10 years. Thus far, Gujarat and Rajasthan, blessed with the largest incidence of solar radiation, have attracted the largest inflows of investment.

Platts Top 250 Global Energy Company Rankings

Top 250
1. ExxonMobil Corp 2. Chevron Corp 3. Gazprom Oao 4. Petrochina Co 5. Total SA 6. Royal Dutch Shell 7. ConocoPhillips 8. China Petroleum 9. OJSC Rosneft 10. LUKOIL 11. Statoil Asa 12. Petrobras 13. E.On AG 14. Repsol YPF SA 15. CNOOC Ltd 16. ENI SpA 17. RWE AG 18. JX Holdings Inc 19. Endesa SA 20. TNK-BP