MARCH 202319solar energy cost by 66 percent as compared to the current cost. Use of renewables in place of coal will save India Rs.54,000 crore ($8.43 billion) annually. Around 15,000 MW of additional wind-solar hybrid capacity is expected to be added by 2025. As per the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) estimates, by 2029-30, the share of renewable energy generation would increase from 18 percent to 44 percent, while that of thermal is expected to reduce from 78 percent to 52 percent. The CEA also estimates India's power requirement to grow to reach 817 GW by 2030. With the high scale of demand, strong policy support from government and competitive advantage of India over other economies makes it highly poised to achieve large investments in renewable energy sector.One of the major challenges for the renewable energy sector is balancing the demands for energy with other land-use requirements. How can this requirement be met and balanced with the need for land for housing, food production, flexibility and more?In India, electricity generation has to compete with alternative uses for land such as agriculture, urbanization, human habitation and nature conservation, unlike Europe or the United States of America. India needs to ensure smart, judicious, and adequate planning of land use for renewable energy projects to meet its ambitious 2050 energy decarbonization and sustainability goals. It is expected by 2050, the amount of land that could be needed for solar will be equivalent to 1.7-2.5 per cent of the country's total landmass, or 2.2-3.3 per cent of its non-forested land. Balancing this huge land requirement with other alternative land uses is one of the toughest challenges the country will face in near future. Though there is no equal alternative to land based solar installations but with improvement in Renewable Energy technologies some part of this issue can be addressed in a better way. It is important that innovation plays its part in minimizing land use. We have many options available with us like solar can continue to use more and more rooftops, even those belonging to large public and private institutions. At present, India has three best bets to minimize its land dependency, these are offshore wind installation, floating solar and large-scale battery storage. India can potentially generate 194GW of offshore wind power along its 7,600km coastline. Tamil Nadu and Gujarat combined can offer 71GW of offshore wind. Offshore wind projects can deliver more than 50-55 percent utilization factors with a better wind resource profile in deep oceans. Recently, the ministry of new and renewable energy (MNRE) has revived its offshore wind power development goals by unveiling a roadmap for installing 30 gigawatts (GW) by 2030, just as project costs are falling globally. In addition to offshore wind, floating solar is another which has some good potential for Solar energy generation. A report by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) has found that India's reservoirs have 18,000 sq. km of area with the potential to generate 280 GW of solar power through floating solar photovoltaic (PV) plants. NTPC is already developing a 100 MW floating Solar capacity in Ramagundam out which 20 MW capacity is operational additionally MP state is coming up with a 600 MW floating Solar capacity on Narmada River in Omkareshwar Dam. With combination of offshore wind, floating solar and other feasible options like rooftop solar and wind, battery storage and Agrisolar, India can easily achieve its ambitious decarbonization goals.Energy companies will need sophisticated, smart solutions and the data derived from these solutions in order to help them understand their consumers' usage pattern in real time. How can companies use this data to help customers get better value from the services they receive?With advancement in metering technologies and implementation of smart grid solutions, electric supply companies are becoming more aware about the consumption pattern of its user and they are able to efficiently recover their energy charges with minimum losses. Smart solutions hold the promise of performance improvement in the form of quicker detection of outages and losses in the system, better service quality, and load management. To reap such benefits, it is important to closely monitor the implementation of the program. Going forward, smart meters will be the main interface between consumers and DISCOMs, and if the metering systems, and not just meters, do not function properly, it will result in significant inconvenience to consumers. India has already started a program to replace conventional energy meters with smart meters. Way back in
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