Every unit of energy saved is going to have that much lesser impact on the environment. Energy efficiency and clean, green and renewable energy, will be the defining features of India’s contribution as a responsible global citizen to the world. To continue with India’s energy security and still achieve the benefits of development and progress, it is time India does not follow the world but starts leading the world. Minister of State with independent charge for Power, Coal and New & Renewable Energy in the Government of India, Piyush Goyal, speaking on ‘India’s efforts in shaping the Global Solar Alliance’ recently at Pune International Centre, stressed on how India can become more energy-efficient. Corporate Citizen brings to you excepts of the informative and engaging speech, offering relevant and on-topic insights
The Energy Efficiency Services Limited, a Government of India company and a public sector undertaking, managed by a team no larger than probably 80 people, which used to manufacture 6 lakh LED bulbs per year until 2013-14, has currently crossed 7 lakh bulbs a day. It’s an effort which only needed a change in mindset, ability to think positively, think big and be bold and confident in the team’s ability to achieve some extraordinary results.
There was this LED bulbs programme talking about some 10-20 lakh LED bulbs to be given out on subsidy basis, and in the future, they will give out over 1 lakh solar streetlights. I thought if I put this up to the cabinet, I am certainly going to lose my job. But then as we got thinking, we realised the huge potential of LED bulbs. India had moved a little away from the incandescent bulbs to CFLs, but then technology evolves. At that point of time, it was thought to be a great energy saver. It’s very easy for me to say that it should never have been bought to India given the severe risk of ground contamination caused from mercury, due to disposal of these CFLs.
While we were looking into the LED programme potential, I was surprised with the reports that India continues to use 77 crore incandescent bulbs and if all of them were to be replaced by LEDs, the country would save 10,000 crore units of electricity annually, bringing down consumers’ bills by about Rs.40,000 crore, at an aggregate. In addition, saving the country from 22,000 MW of additional capacity requirement in the peak hours, since the bulbs or lighting are usually used during the peak hours. And to top it all, it will reduce carbon dioxide emission by 6 crore tonnes per year. For those of you who are concerned citizens worried about the environment, reduction of 6 crore tonnes of carbon dioxide per year from a single programme is a huge potential.
We were planning to replace 20/30 lakh incandescent bulbs out of those 77 crore, with LED bulbs. And that was a cabinet note I had been preparing for nearly one-and-a-half years. I tried to tell my colleagues that let’s scrap the programme and rework on it, but then they pointed out to me that if we don’t get it approved by the Cabinet, the budget will lapse. It was suggested to me that if the budget goes, the department has to wind up… so let’s grab it while it’s there. So, I approved it; it went to the Cabinet. The PM asked me a few embarrassing questions and I had to say that I will come back with a modified story a few months later but at this moment let’s approve this. When I came back, I just spoke from the top of my hat to my team about what was possible to do in this programme.
If any of you has been buying LED bulbs earlier, you may recall that these bulbs about three years ago were about Rs.2,000 each, for a good-quality brand. At that point of time, in February 2014, it was the last time, EESL had purchased these 7-watt bulbs at Rs.310 per piece, with all the taxes loaded on it. And with interest for giving it out on deferred payment, it costs somewhere around Rs.500 effectively to EESL. Then they would give some subsidy on it and give the bulbs out in the small number. That purchase was 6 lakh bulbs in the whole of 2013-14.
When I talked to my team, I had said, “Look, at this price point, it can never work in India. The poor of India are not going to shell out Rs.500, or even if you subsidise it to any amount of money close to that, to replace the incandescent bulb. So it’s going to always be a non-starter”. I suggested, instead can we plan that 77 crore incandescent bulbs have to be replaced in the next four years; and can we use economies of scale and bring in competition from all across the world and build up the manufacturing base in India to leverage on India’s competitive advantage, and I need to see a double-digit price on this. Actually, they didn’t even understand what I meant by double-digit price. It took me a lot of painful effort to explain that by double-digit I meant a below-Rs.100 price.
I was surprised with the reports that India continues to use 77 crore incandescent bulbs and if all of them were to be replaced by LEDs, the country would save 10,000 crore units of electricity annually
They thought I must be an idiot coming out from Mr Modi’s party for suggesting that Rs.310- priced LED bulb, has to be brought down to Rs.99 and giving out these bulbs without a single rupee subsidy. It should be made an economically viable proposal because as long as we remain dependent on subsidies, we will never be able to scale it up to the level that we want. Then we had a series of discussions with all the manufacturers, suppliers, technology experts and international companies. I personally would sit into those discussions and articulated this concept of Rs.99 and got it drilled into everybody’s head that this is going to happen: we are going to get Rs.99 and we are going to replace 77 crore incandescent bulbs.
I am delighted to share with you that prices kept falling. In fact, we didn’t reduce the technical specs by even an iota, we made it even better. The qualifying criteria to bid in our process are electronically-operated reverse bidding. I think by the time I finish my term, the government of India will hate me for having brought reverse bidding and e-auctions into everything that I do.
But that process was so useful that between February 2015 when I first floated the first purchase contract through the electronic platform in a most transparent manner and until the last bid for 5 crore bulbs in March of 2016, the price had fallen from Rs.310 for a 7-watt bulb to Rs.54.90 for a 9-watt bulb. It’s a reduction of about 83-84 percent.
And who are these suppliers? They are Phillips, Osram, Surya, and Crompton Greaves, amongst other companies. They fit into very exacting standards and qualifying criteria and gave us a product which has three years of warranty. Our test reports give us the confidence that they will work for seven to 10 years in the normal course. They are able to withstand the huge voltage fluctuations, by and large, in most parts of the country and are given out without a single rupee subsidy.
I have announced that we are further bringing it down to Rs.80 a bulb, for which people can pay Rs.10 upfront and the balance Rs.70 in seven monthly installments of Rs.10 each. There are savings even for the most common ordinary consumer of power, who can pay for this bulb in four to five months.
But that process was so useful that between February 2015 when I first floated the first purchase contract through the electronic platform in a most transparent manner and until the last bid for 5 crore bulbs in March of 2016, the price had fallen from Rs.310 for a 7-watt bulb to Rs.54.90 for a 9-watt bulb. It’s a reduction of about 83-84 percent
I would like to bring it to your notice that the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs), that India has put forth in Paris and the leadership role that Prime Minister Modi plays through the negotiations in Paris, is indeed a matter of great pride.
For each one of us those targets, even though they are not a commitment in legal terms, it’s a moral assurance we are giving to the world and to the people of India. We can’t afford to let climate change get any worse and despite the reality that India’s own contribution to this problem is very small—supporting 17 percent of the world’s population, we have only contributed to some two to two-and-a-half percent of this greenhouse gases.
It’s the United States and Europe supporting barely 10-12 percent of the world’s population, put out more than 50 percent of these carbon and greenhouse gases. And they are doing nothing concrete, nothing of substance, nothing of significance, when it comes to addressing the problems of climate change. It’s a very unfortunate, bitter, inconvenient truth that I am sharing with you. But India does not want to get daunted by that—irrespective of any support the rest of the world gives to any significant effort of India, this government stands committed.
In India, we revere the trees, nature, rivers, sun, and we recognise the value of the universe. In fact, there is a native African proverb which says that we do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we actually borrow it from our children. And effectively that is the level of commitment that we have taken upon ourselves that we will leave behind a better planet than the one we inherited, so that the next generation will understand the value of the natural resources on the earth and in this universe.
Hopefully, this global effort can save the planet from a potential catastrophe. In some sense, as the world is evolving and developing newer and newer technologies, India hopes to be at the forefront of this movement. And the same thing we did with LEDs—we do the same to introduce solar energy usage in India in a big way.
I have actually penned a book, which never got published as I got busy with the elections. In that, I had penned down a whole ecosystem where we should plan for a 100-gigawatt of solar power for the country. That was somewhere in late 2013, when I had gone to my daughter’s school programme to London. Between two programmes, I had about a week in London when I was quite free. So I called my colleague and I actually used to talk to him and he would record it on his phone as we walked in Hyde Park for hours. One of the topics that I had written about was this 100-gigawatt solar. It’s probably God’s own way of challenging you that okay, you want to give fancy ideas, let’s see if you can do it yourself. And I got this opportunity and I articulated this concept of 100 gigawatts solar energy for India. At that point of time, Indian Solar Mission had planned for 20,000 megawatts by 2022. When I became a minister, the actual achievement was 2,400 or so. I first talked of 1 lakh megawatts and you can imagine the ridicule that I had to face.
I got flak from almost every quarter across the board—the power sector, the power producers, power associations—my own department, they pointed out all the possible challenges that can come in. I don’t say that all the challenges have got mitigated as yet. But I am delighted that our Prime Minister had the confidence and the courage of conviction to accept this challenge. And today, India has embarked on the world’s most ambitious solar programme.
It’s the largest programme in the history of mankind that has been embarked on in the solar power sphere. We are committed to doing a 1 lakh-megawatt by 2022. And I am happy to share with you that in the last 12 months, opened out for bidding are 21,000 megawatts of solar projects. I am very confident that next year we’ll add more than 12,000 megawatts of solar power to the country’s requirement.
By 2017, we look forward that India would cross 20,000-megawatts of solar power, a target we originally had set for 2022—five years ahead of schedule. It’s really possible if one challenges your own ability and is willing to work with an open mind; prioritise what your work has to be… do a root cause analysis whatever is required to be done; figure out what is the inhibiting factor, where does the problem come from.
I say that India will produce a 100 crore tonnes of coal by 2020, I may be ridiculed by my former power minister for thinking of Coal India growing at 10 percent. But then unless we are willing to dream big, we are never going to be able to achieve even the 8.6 percent, the target for last year. And we never will be able to get out of the syndrome of our two-thirds of the power plants based on coal, running on critical stocks. But see, what two years can do. In the first year, Coal India grew by 6.9 percent.
The Coal India output was 3.2 crore tonnes for the year 2014-15, which was more than the previous year and more than the previous four years put together. Actually, at one point, Coal India was growing at 9.8 percent and we had to regulate production because we didn’t have enough offtake, we were not even able to move coal out. I had to allow them to come down from 9.8 to 8.6 percent to maintain the level of stocks that the mines can hold.
It’s the largest programme in the history of mankind that has been embarked on in the solar power sphere. We are committed to doing a 1 lakh-megawatt by 2022. And I am happy to share with you that in the last 12 months, opened out for bidding are 21,000-megawatt of solar projects
In Varanasi, I recently started the work of underground cabling in the old city of Varanasi, where the Kashi Vishwanth temple is, in a congested part of the city. I was told it will take about a year-and-a-half to two, for completing the project. I have challenged them to do it by December, which is within eight-and-a-half months. They said they will do it in one year. I am continuously going to follow it up. So, have deputed a senior IAS officer from Delhi, who goes every Tuesday to review the progress of the work there. That lady officer travels to Varanasi, diligently follows up what’s happening. I promise you, it will be a benchmark for how government projects have to be executed—in a defined time frame and through focused concentration. And to enable me and empower me to get that done, I have released an app yesterday in Varanasi, called ‘Kashi-IPDS’ on Google Playstore. I have put out the entire project in detail like what work has to be carried out and broken up the entire project into 8,800 milestones. We are monitoring every activity and as it gets completed, it’s logged on to the system so that everybody in the entire Varanasi area knows exactly what was expected, when that part of the work was expected area-wise, this is the nature of work, and this is the quality of goods that will be used. We have put out all that transparently through the app for the people to monitor the work. One can also give feedback, suggestions, and complaints to help us perform better.
Can we not think, that if we start a road project, flyover, or a rural electrification project, we take it from start to finish. There are times people say why I didn’t get any new projects in our constituency, but they listen to you when you explain to them that look, you have 12 projects in your area which are incomplete, allow us to focus on completing them, so that people benefit, passengers benefit, from travelling on those lines.
Our first focus should be money and how our resources should be used to implement what’s already on the ground. And these are the type of changes we need—the change in mindset will bring the self-confidence in the system.
Three of the ministers sat down to see what we should do with the fertiliser story in India. And the fact that so many years after independence, knowing full well we need a certain level of fertiliser, should India continue to import?
And those of you who know this industry, will realise that the day India opens a tender, prices just shoot up through the roof, though we are the largest buyer of fertiliser, internationally. But if we can produce another 60-70 lakh tonnes and become secure and have 100 percent production in-house, we can actually save maybe thousands of crores on fertiliser subsidies.
Climate change is one area in which India will lead the world; we will show the world the path forward; we will demonstrate to the world. Many of us as children were asked by our parents, when we walked out of a room, if we switched off the light and fan. We were told not to waste food served in our plate. Use only as much water for bathing, as is needed. That is traditional India, a conservative society which believed in conservation and effective utilisation of scarce resources. I don’t think the Western consumer-driven model will work for a country like India, where still one-third of the people still find it hard to get two square meals a day.
In fact, India’s coal consumption today is what it was in the United States, 150 years ago, in 1860s. America used to consume 0.5 times of coal per capita what we do currently, a little more or less. And even today, as we speak on clean energy financing, something which the Western world has been talking of for the last 15 years but has done nothing about it. There is so-called ‘clean energy fund’, ‘clean climate fund’, where some $100 billion were committed, $5-6 billion of pledges are there; but there is zero money in the bank. The poor of India who opened those 210 million JanDhan accounts are probably better than the world economies. They have put in $ 6 billion into these accounts. But the world has put hardly anything towards clean energy financing.
Look at the tremendous potential that the world has, to become more energy-conscious to save electricity. We are told to stop our coal plants—it amazes me that a country which talks of encouraging renewable energy, goes to the WTO against India and says why we put up 400-megawatt of domestically-produced panels
Look at the tremendous potential that the world has, to become more energy-conscious to save electricity. We are told to stop our coal plants—it amazes me that a country which talks of encouraging renewable energy, goes to the WTO against India and says why have we put up 400-megawatt of domestically-produced panels. Should I have allowed US to compete even in those 400 megawatts that India has produced domestically? This happened when India’s domestic manufacturers had gone to the government before I became a minister, to impose anti-dumping duty on solar imports. I had extensive discussions to explain to them that I’ll ensure that every piece that they produce, we will procure, but allow us to think of a 100-gigawatt. Because if we impose anti-dumping duty, I won’t even be able to do the 20-gigawatt that is originally planned.
I pleaded to domestic manufacturers not to insist on anti-dumping, because it will kill the solar projects. Solar power will become so expensive, nobody will buy it. I want to, in fact, scale it up so that cost will come down. And I am delighted and I am obliged and I am proud of our domestic manufacturers who withdrew their case. And thanks to that, today not only are we confident of achieving 1 lakh megawatts, we are well on path to achieve our targets. We will continue to support every domestic manufacturer, and use every piece of equipment they make. Those of you who monitor your bills will know that in the last 10 years, electricity prices would have, at least, doubled, if not more. So imagine, you are going to get power from a natural resource, where we don’t have to be worried that some foreign country will cut off your supplies.
We have villages which are going to be connected through off-grid solutions. There are around 800 villages in Arunachal Pradesh which are so remote that it will take years for the grid to reach. What would India do before? Give a 25- watt small solar panel, maybe just two LED bulbs could work in that and nothing else, not even one fan—and then say we have connected them
Underdeveloped countries and emerging economies should open their boundaries to allow foreign capital to flow in, to allow foreign goods to flow in, unhindered. Everybody wants a free trade agreement. But this complete opening up should be a two-way traffic—you have surplus capital, you have technologies, which we want and we have human capital and skilled manpower. It should be a two-way trade. You bring in your investable surplus to India, I will take my investable surplus to your country. Let’s have a fair, two-way trade. Our capital—human capital—is what we have in abundance.
In fact, publicly, the world has recognised terrorism and climate change to be the two biggest challenges before the world. And I would think any forbearance on trade pacts, any concessions on encouraging renewable energy, encouraging green energy, on making the world a better place to live in, should have actually been welcomed by the world. The International Solar Alliance, rests on India’s commitment that what has happened to India—and a country as large in dimension and scale—if this can happen to India, you imagine what happens to the rest of the underdeveloped world, to other emerging economies.
It pains me when I hear people in Davos say their company has given 3 lakh solar lamps to villagers in Africa. One 7/9- watt LED bulb and then they boast further that they have also added a mobile charger. So, now they have got energy and now they have got connected to the world. If the world is truly series about affordable energy access and a decent life for the underprivileged sections of society of the world, then we should be planning a life or a level of existence which is not suboptimal, but of a certain decent standard.
We have villages which are going to be connected through off-grid solutions. There are around 800 villages in Arunachal Pradesh which are so remote that it will take years for the grid to reach. What would India do before? Give a 25- watt small solar panel, maybe just two LED bulbs could work in that and nothing else, not even one fan—and then say we have connected them. We have said, we will give at least 200 watts, and with that, considering these people have been deprived of energy for seven decades after independence, living in such a sensitive border areas of Arunachal Pradesh, we’ll not only give you a 200-watt unit free of charge, we’ll also give you LED bulbs along with that. We’ll also give you a small LED television, to truly connect you to show you what’s happening in the world; make you feel a part of growth, development, progress that India is making.
The whole world has to be connected with renewable energy, particularly solar energy; all should benefit from energy security, clean energy, and better environment. The benefit should be to a scale which is respectable. And India would like to contribute to developing solar energy across the world—faster, more effectively, more efficiently. ISA is going to be that platform, which will help us engage with countries around the world; also help the developed countries, if they really so desire to contribute to the efforts we are doing in other parts of the world. And this international platform will help us truly integrate energy as an important part of the global ecosystem, be it in terms of climate change, be it in terms of economics, be it in terms of the financial world.
We believe, the leadership role that India is providing to the solar energy revolution can best be taken to all parts of the world through a multilateral agency like the ISA. On April 22nd, we shall be opening it up for formal signatures and membership in New York and I am very confident and hopeful that countries from around the world will participate in that. Those which are not within the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn, beyond the 121 countries, will come in as partner countries—all will benefit from global trade but also global technology, global finance, and all will chip in to help the rest of the world benefit.
The alliance rests on the fundamental belief that India deserves to have a rightful place in the committee of nations and that rightful place can only be achieved when we, as a nation, as Team India, believe in ourselves. We should have some optimism, we should trust our own ability. An attitude of pessimism and cynicism that is often reflected even in our own international engagements, is a narrative that India needs to change.
(Excerpts from a public lecture delivered by Piyush Goyal at Pune International Centre)
