by Dr. Ahindra Chakraborti, Professor, Great Lakes Institute of Management

India is poised to make an evolutionary change in the areas of generation and consumption of non-conventional energy resources. Currently, India’s commercial energy consumption basket comprises of coal, oil, natural gas, nuclear power, hydro electricity and renewables. In terms of million tonne oil equivalent (MTOE) it has gone up from 320.8 in 2003-04 to 648.8 MTOE in 2013-14. Table -1 below showing the growth in the commercial energy basket, registered a CAGR of 6.61% (between 2003 and 2014); but highest growth had taken place in renewables around 25 % followed by others. Of the total capacity of 272503 megawatt now in the country renewable energy accounts for 35777 megawatt. Given the current state of research and development in the areas of renewable energy in general and solar energy in particular, successful implementation of renewable projects will not only change the energy mix in the country but dependence on fossil fuel would come down. Cost of electricity for all sectors of consumers would come down, disposable income would increase for all segments of customers. There are possibilities of drawing foreign investment in this sector, since current government policy to push renewable energy to top of the country’s energy security agenda - would assure better return on investment for the investors.