Renewable energy market in India

NEW YORK, USA: Reportlinker.com announced that a new market research report is available in its catalogue: Renewable Energy Market in India.

India's renewable energy efforts began in the 1970s and have gathered pace with the growing realization that renewable energy is not something that India can do without.
Today, renewable energy is considered necessary for a growing India where once it was considered more of a climate change obligation that developing countries were 'required' to meet. This requirement has transformed into India's own need with the growing realization that renewable energy has multiple advantages apart from being ecologically benign.

India will face an uphill task trying to cover its energy gaps with the energy needs growing three to four times over the next 20 years. This will not be made easy if India keeps looking at fossil fuels to meet its requirement, if the rising prices of these fuels are anything to go by.

Moreover, the fossil fuels have been unable to meet the 'energy inclusion' needs of the Indians, where we still find infrastructural constraints blocking development in far flung rural areas or difficult to reach areas. Renewable energy taps the resource base at these areas to enable self sufficiency meet their energy need. There are ample examples of how small hydro electric plants, village biogas plants, etc. have ushered in this much needed change.

The government effort needs a special mention here, because this is one factor which has kick started and will continue the engine running. The policy is two folds, one the one hand it 'mandates' states to start increasing the share of renewable energy, on the other hand it has introduced a number of incentives right from tax benefits, duty cuts, finance, monitoring and supervision, expert technical assistance, to aiding technology transfer. A direct result of these efforts has been the growing investment in this sector in India and a large potential for development.

A number of domestic companies have risen to take advantage of this scenario and have established their name in the international arena. A number of foreign firms have realized that they can help bridge the technology gap that India is suffering from and have stepped in to invest in India.

The government has stepped up investment in R & D and the local communities and entrepreneurs have also not lagged behind ensuring that they ride the 'renewable energy wave' and India's large pool of skilled technical manpower has helped in this regard. But the need to increase this pool quite rapidly has emerged to keep it in consonance with the growing energy needs. Right now, some specialist positions are being filled in with manpower from allied infrastructural sectors.

One of the biggest advantages that India can boast of is the huge potential of renewable energy in India. India is grossly underutilizing its current potential, for a country with one of the largest cattle populations, abundant sunlight for close to 300 days in a year; innumerable untapped streams with perennial flowing water the potential for development are immense to say the least.

India has gained momentum in terms of economic growth and its strong fundamentals were visible in the current economic recession. Asia Pacific (spurred by India and China) continued to be a growing consumer of energy and this trend will rise exponentially as the global scenario normalizes.

Renewable energy definitely finds a prime place in the factors that will drive India's growth in its journey from a developing to a developed country.