With its wide expanses of open space and ever-increasing energy needs, India
would be an ideal place for Israeli renewable energy innovators to take their
business, experts from both sides of the equation agreed on
Tuesday.
Representatives from both the Indian and Israeli governments, as
well as leaders from around 50 Israeli renewable energy companies, gathered on
Tuesday morning in Tel Aviv to discuss such opportunities – which seem to be
plentiful. India is an enormous country where 400 million people still lack
access to electricity, and despite already relying on renewable sources for 6
percent of its 200-gigawatt power supply, the country still depends on oil for
the vast majority of its energy needs, according to Ashwani Kumar, a solar
energy scientist at the New and Renewable Energy Ministry of
India.
“Israel is a start-up nation, and both the people and the country
are known for innovation,” said Vani Rao, charge d’affaires at the Indian
Embassy in Tel Aviv. “India has put energy security on the top of its
agenda.”
To this effect, Gireesh Pradhan, secretary of India’s New and
Renewable Energy Ministry, was visiting Israel on Monday and Tuesday with a
delegation from his office to examine cooperation opportunities between the two
countries. A portion of that visit included meeting with a roundtable of Israeli
industry leaders on Tuesday morning.
“As we complete 20 years as an
embassy, we are thinking of what we can do together [with the Israeli
government] in the future,” Rao said. “One of the areas we have identified is
renewable energy.”
Pradhan, who is on his first visit to Israel, said he
was very pleased to see the large turnout of Israeli renewable entrepreneurs and
business leaders, and that the numbers nothing less than “overwhelmed”
him.
“I frankly did not expect the kind of interest that I see around
this table,” he said.
Forging partnerships with energy innovators such as
those in Israel is crucial, as nearly 40% of the Indian population does not have
access to electricity, Pradhan stressed.
“India is a very vast country
and like all vast countries has very vast problems,” he said.
“Energy is
one of the most crucial issues, which we feel could do wonders for us but could
also act as the biggest holdback.”
As the situation has become critical,
the ministry – the only renewable energy ministry in the entire world – is eager
“to provide energy access to our population at the earliest,” Pradhan
added.
To accomplish this in the short and medium term, renewable energy
methods will be key, according to Pradhan.
Of India’s already existing
25.857 gigawatts of installed renewable energy, 17.967 are from wind, 3.412 are
from biomass, 3.434 of small hydroelectric and only 1.044 from solar sources,
Kumar told the Israelis. While solar is relatively new in India, Kumar said that
he believes it will become increasingly important as per the ministry’s future
renewable energy plans. The ministry estimates a potential for 30 to 50
megawatts per square kilometer worth of solar energy in India, amounting to a
projected total capacity of 10 gigawatts by 2017 and 20 gigawatts by
2022.
Increasing the presence of solar facilities, as well as biomass,
hydroelectric and wind structures, will help the ministry achieve its target of
grid parity – when alternative energy sources can be purchased for similar
prices to conventional ones – by 2022, according to Kumar. In order to
accomplish this, the Indian government is issuing a number of subsidies, such as
those for off-grid solar development in rural communities, and is also reducing
custom fees, nixing excise duties and providing tax exemptions for imported
machinery associated with initial solar power station setup, Kumar
explained.
Within the next five years, the ministry aims to install
another 30 gigawatts worth of renewable energy total – primarily through private
sources, Pradhan explained.
“The important difference in India between
conventional and renewable power is that for conventional power the lead is the
government or the public sector, and for renewables it is the private sector,”
Pradhan said. “In that context we look to partnering with countries such as
Israel.”
In India, there are bounds of land that could be put to no use
other than building solar fields, as well as a vast array of other renewable
energy opportunities, and Pradhan said he believes that Israeli technology and
ideas should be employed in consonance with this advantage.
“Israel has
the ability to innovate under very trying circumstances,” Pradhan said. “The
constraints that your country has faced and the ability to deal with these
constraints and produce out-of-the-box solutions are well known.”
Yifat
Inbar, manager of the India-China desk and director of the Foreign Trade
Administration at the Industry, Trade and Labor Ministry, assured the business
people and entrepreneurs sitting around the table that her ministry was there to
help them take up such opportunities.
Her office, she explained, would be
helping forge dialogues, ease access the Indian market, get in touch with local
players and generally “facilitate that connection which we know is very
difficult to make.”
Placing a great value on Israel and India’s trade
that continues to improve and flourish, Inbar attributed Israel’s ability to
largely evade the world financial crisis in part to its success in trading with
Asian countries such as India. Currently, the two governments are in the process
of negotiating an agreement to reduce customs levels between the two nations in
order to bring about free trade, she said.
Innovators and business people
from all sides of the renewable energy industry presented themselves to the
Indian delegation, eager to create partnerships and bring their technologies to
the subcontinent.
Representatives attended from defense company Rafael,
which is developing technology for fuel substitutes; energy storage startup
EnStorage; photovoltaic field developer Arava Power Company; solar-thermal firms
Ener-T Global and HelioFocus; solar panel enhancer Solar Edge; and from all
corners of the solar, wind, biomass and capital investment
industries.
“India is a very important country for renewable energy
market. We are actively pursuing opportunities there,” Dr. Daniel Farb, CEO and
founder of Leviathan Energy – for wind and hydroelectric power – told The
Jerusalem Post.
Ultimately, both sides expressed enthusiasm about the
partnerships they anticipated would result from the roundtable and the visit,
the highest-level renewable delegation ever to come to Israel from
India.
“Energy is the flavor of the month,” said Anat Bernstein- Reich,
vice president of the Israel-Asia Chamber of Commerce and president of the
Israel-India Friendship Association. “Israel has the need and developed
the solutions. India has the need and we don’t want you to develop your
own solutions.”