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The Bihar government is busy trying to get coal linkages and nuclear power plants and buying electricity from other states. Why is it not thinking the DRES way? The state government is looking at DRES in big way. It has already announced different programmes and has done large investments within four years on renewable energy, especially DRES. The state Name of Department Education Fisheries Urban Development Minor Irrigation Energy – BREDA PHED Chief minister house Chief justice house Bihar government secretariat, Patna Bihar police Cooperative Energy government has already announced and started different schemes in different departments. TYPE OF SCHEME Solar roof-top - 4115 school will be covered Niche machli upar bijli project - 100 MW Solar street light programme - 18 cities Solar pumps scheme with NABARD Saur Sichaie Yojana Solar-powered pumps for drinking water Solar roof-top - 70 kW Solar roof-top - 70 kW Solar roof-top All jails solar roof-top based micro-grid All PACS [primary agriculture cooperative society office in each district on bio-mass solar powered] Street light programme with rural development department What role will the government need to play to support the expansion of micro-grids? The government of Bihar will need to launch a dedicated programme for proving energy access through renewable energy-based microgrids. The government will have to address various barriers such as financial, legal and policy, institutional and technological barriers to facilitate the expansion of micro-grids based on renewable sources in the state of Bihar. Villages have never been on the radar of the governments. Why do you think the government will now show interest in the micro-grid especially for rural electrification? Villages house about 72 per cent of the country’s population. Hence it is a huge vote bank, a large area to be governed, a huge potential for revenue and growth. All these factors can no longer be ignored. As Dharnai displays, villages are no longer content agricultural setups. They are raring to go, are new markets and hold a tremendous 36 MEDIA MANUAL | The Way Ahead
potential for development and growth. India will have to develop its rural areas if it intends to sustain its GDP and growth. And energy access will be a crucial factor for all this to happen. With the money and politics around coal, why do you think governments will show interest in renewables? There is no doubt that renewables is where the money is and where the market is. The other sources of energy like coal and nuclear are no longer investment friendly. The renewable energy market is growing and the investments are also increasing (over $200 billion globally and around $6 billion in India according to a report – Global Trends in Renewable Investment), and also the fact that the energy access market or the off-grid renewable energy market is estimated to be around $2 billion. With the rapid pace at which renewables are growing and the pace at which they are completed, they are increasingly attracting investors as the cost of financing for renewables is way much lower than conventional energy, at least in India, where the cumbersome process and clearances required for conventional power is making it unviable. In this scenario, governments are more likely to consider renewable for energy access. Considering that the cost of micro-grid electricity is expensive than the grid electricity, why will the government risk its vote bank by taking up the case of expensive electricity? Putting the costs in perspective, 1. The price of coal is constantly rising. With limited coal reserves, the state-run Coal India has been unable to meet its target for six years in a row, and with power producers looking for expensive imported coal, tariffs are bound to increase. xxxii There has been a 50% rise in the cost of international procurement of coal for Indian power producers since 2004. xxxiii In the last 10 years power generation prices have risen by more than 300 per cent. xxxiv As a result, utilities have passed on the costs to consumers. Subsidised power users like Delhi have seen a rise in power tariffs by more than 25 per cent in the last few years. xxxv 2. Meanwhile, quietly and steadily, prices for renewables are coming down. At the beginning of 2011, the cost of a ground-mounted MW-scale solar power project in India was around INR 14m (EUR 2.15m, USD 2.8m) per MW. Today, this has fallen by almost 50% to around INR 7m (EUR 1m, USD 1.4m) per MW. The cost reduction has been driven largely by a drop in module prices from USD 1 per watt in 2011 to USD 0.65 per watt today. xxxvi Module prices have fallen globally largely due to a condition of acute oversupply. Against global demand for 30-35 GW of solar power in 2012, available supply was 50-60 GW, most of it from China. xxxvii The cost to the Bihar government in procuring electricity is Rs 8.84/unit and the power is distributed at Rs 4.11/unit. Clearly, this is resulting in huge losses for the state-run utilities and leading to the systematic failure of the sector in the state. It is the prerogative of the government to provide electricity to the people. If there is power to villages through a bottom-up approach, the vote bank in much happier and this is a win-win situation for politicians. MEDIA MANUAL | The Way Ahead 37
Page 1 and 2: © VIVEK M/greenpeace Dharnai live
Page 3 and 4: Introduction Decentralised Renewabl
Page 5 and 6: What is Greenpeace doing in Bihar?
Page 7 and 8: A biomass gasifier generates electr
Page 9 and 10: With higher costs, why do you think
Page 11 and 12: Micro-grid in Dharnai MEDIA MANUAL
Page 13 and 14: A solar powered street lamp at the
Page 15 and 16: Even today, 82% of Bihar’s popula
Page 17 and 18: Why Dharnai in Bihar? After an exte
Page 19 and 20: What is BASIX and CEED and what are
Page 21 and 22: electrification committees that wil
Page 23 and 24: A solar powered street lamp seen at
Page 25 and 26: What is the process to get the bene
Page 27 and 28: Tariff, Funding and maintenance MED
Page 29 and 30: Note: 1. Each commercial establishm
Page 31 and 32: Paying Rs 10 a day for mobile charg
Page 33 and 34: What will be the running costs? The
Page 35 and 36: How is it a business model? The mic
Page 37: What are your plans once the micro-
Page 41 and 42: i ii iii iv http://www.greenpeace.o

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