Coal Free Future and Free Rides

Solar energy, cheap and clean is slowly but surely going to replace the age old dark fuel i.e. coal and its variants in near future, This prediction seems to fill our minds with optimism and gratitude towards solar. Why shouldn't this be a possibility is left to little doubts after the trend of falling per unit prices of solar power. Very recently in an auction for solar park in Rajasthan, the final auctioned prices per kilowatthour came down to as low as Rs 2.62/KWH. Now this rate is competetive enough to wipe out all the coal based generation plants in the country in future. The governments intensive and ruthless emphasis on development of renewable energy resources like generation target of 175 GW through renewanbles by 2022 is being taken up very seriously by the private players like Renew power, Acme etc. Huge amounts of foreign investments is also making the scenario conducive to the growth of the industry.

While it augurs well for the private industry but at the same time the government should pause for a while and think about the huge revenue churners like the NTPC and Coal India Limited(CIL). These two Maharatna companies are closely dependent on each other and in turn heavily dependent on coal. With emphasis on renewables and the solar energy tariffs going down, these industries will find it extremely difficult to survive. The problem could become acute when these industries will be left with no incentive to production and mass job losses may take place along with massive stranded assets of the companies.

Of course the commercial success and reliability of Solar is still left to the test of time but its high time the government should direct these industries to diversify and look for other alternatives. The NTPC can invest in solar farms around its coal based generating plants and can keep itself ready to compete with the private firms while CIL can look to producing by products from coal like methanol which can still find its use in certain vehicles and oil based power plants. The future is rosy but we should create a win win situation for both the players. With electric vehicles bound to replace the Indian roads by 2030, the prospects of renewables become even more interesting. In one way it will save huge amounts of foreign exchange spent on import of crude oil thereby reducing the burden on the exchequer considerably and on the other it will drive the engines of growth at a much faster rate than today. With retail production of solar energy through roof top solar panels coupled with promising advancement and development in batteries for storage charging of vehicles would become virtually free thereby making travel and movement absolutely free too.