Solar Power at Rs 1 per
Kwh ?
Today’s MINT carries following news report
:
------------------------------------------------------------------
Govt mulls introducing fixed-cost component in renewable energy tariff :
The
idea is to prevent distribution companies (discoms) shying away from procuring
electricity generated by such projects, as they will have to pay the fixed tariff component even if they don’t buy the electricity
contracted for.
Such a
tariff mechanism already exists for electricity from conventional sources such
as coal and gas which has two parts—A
FIXED COST, WHICH IS THE INVESTMENT INCURRED TOWARDS POWER GENERATION EQUIPMENT, and a variable cost or the cost
of fuel.
“The
idea is to fix a certain component which will allow a renewable energy project
developer to SERVICE THE DEBTS even if the distribution companies (discoms) back down
from buying electricity. It is under consideration,” said a government
official, who too sought anonymity.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In case
of solar power ,
Cost of fuel ( sunlight ) is ZERO
Cost of Maintenance is almost ZERO (
wash the panels )
Cost of Investment is “ Interest
on borrowed funds “
How
low can this “ fixed cost “ ( servicing the debt of the company generating
solar power ), go ?
In
California , when interest cost went down to 1 % , fixed cost of generation
went down to 4 cents / Kwh ! ( Rs 2.7 )
Website
of MASDAR
(http://www.masdar.ae/
) , talks of latest installation where this has gone down to 2.6 cents (
Rs 1.74 / Kwh ) !
In
India , we are planning to add Solar Power to the tune of 100 GW by 2022
How
can we make that happen ?
And ,
can we make that happen at Re 1 per Kwh ? or less ?
We
can , if CAPITAL COST is ZERO ! No interest burden !
How ?
It
can happen if NDA government musters enough courage to implement what I have
been suggesting for past 2 years, viz:
* Government declares units belonging to " Solar
Power ( Panel Mfr / Power Production &
Distribution / Ancillary Mfr ) " as a
" SOS " industry
*
Units will need to register as such with Department of Company
Affairs ( DIPP )
*
Units will be exempt from paying Corporate Income Tax for 10 years , on whatever
income they earn ( only those starting operations latest by 31 March 2018 )
*
No questions will be asked as to the " source " of funds invested in
the shares of such
units ( a kind of Temporary Amnesty Scheme -
01 April 2017 till 31 March 2018 - to
channelize BLACK MONEY into creation of PRODUCTIVE / NON-POLUTING assets
)
*
Units cannot engage in any other Industrial / Commercial / Financial activities
*
Units cannot declare any dividends to share-holders for 10 years
These
are just broad outlines and details need to be worked out
If
there is political courage to pull off such an initiative , government will NOT
need to allocate ANY AMOUNT !
NO
NEED TO SUBSIDIZE THESE UNITS OR THE USERS , WITH THE TAX PAYERS' MONEY !
Remember
, how , only a few months back , tiny Indonesia managed
to collect $ 300 billion of its Black Money , by levying tax ( no penalty ) of just 4 % !
And
with this kind of INCENTIVE WINDOW ( to convert BLACK into WHITE ) ,
expect
*
Hundreds of SOS Units to spring up before 31 March 2018
*
They will have ZERO cost as far as servicing of EQUITY is concerned ! No
dividends !
*
They will not need to borrow funds from banks and pay interest ( no danger of
NPA ! )
*
They will compete with each other fiercely and ( as it is already happening in
USA ) ,
start offering roof top installations, absolutely FREE, and
selling the generated power at
20 paise/Kwh, for 10 year purchase agreement and with a 5 % tariff reduction per year !
We can look forward to witnessing similar competition among large , land-based
, solar
power installations which will be the main suppliers to large commercial
establishments /
industrial factories / infrastructure projects / Electric Vehicle Charging
stations , etc
Just
imagine
*
how much, our LOW
ENERGY COST ECONOMY can make us
, INTERNATIONALLY COMPETITIVE !
*
the rise in GDP !
*
the possibility of being able to export our surplus power to neighbouring
countries
*
Being able to replace 6 million petrol / diesel vehicles with EVs by 2020 , due to
easily available charging
stations on every street corner
*
Reduction in pollution by shutting
down of hundreds of existing fossil
fuel based power
plants , whose utilization will drop below 10 %
by 2022 ( as against National Electricity
Plan expectation of 48 % , and a un-viability threshold
of 55 % )
30 Jan 2017
www.hemenparekh.in
/ blogs
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