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Energy Efficiency Could Save India 183.5 Billion kWh

April 24, 2009 | 5 Comments

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Toronto, Canada [RenewableEnergyWorld.com] With an investment of US $10 billion dollars in energy efficiency improvements, India's economy would benefit from its potentially vast annual energy savings of 183.5 billion kilowatt hours, according to a new report from the World Resources Institute (WRI).

“India’s energy demand is expected to more than double by 2030. There is a dramatic need for domestic and international energy efficiency technology providers, service providers, and equipment manufacturers to develop innovative ways to conserve energy,” said Robin Murphy, WRI vice president of external relations.

A key element in realizing this potential is the energy service company (or ESCO) sub-sector. ESCOs operate on the basis of energy-performance contracts, wherein revenue is earned based on the amount of energy cost savings produced. In India, the ESCO industry had an annual growth rate of 96 percent from 2002 to 2007 and is estimated to have grown by an additional 62 percent in 2008, according to financial information provided by these companies to WRI.

WRI’s report, Powering Up: The Investment Potential of Energy Service Companies in India is being released as part of the New Ventures India Investor Meet, a gathering of leading investors and other stakeholders interested in the intersection of environment and enterprise.

The majority of ESCO efficiency projects have payback periods of less than two years, and ESCOs save clients an average of 20 to 25 percent of baseline energy costs. For example, the large and energy-intensive Lilavati Hospital in Mumbai hired Sudnya Industrial Services, an ESCO, to undertake an analysis. The results showed that the air-conditioning system comprised 60 percent of the hospital’s energy usage and that an upgrade was necessary. The entire investment of the hospital to do this upgrade was US$12,000, the annual savings are US$17,000, and the payback time was nine months.

Though the Indian ESCO industry has grown rapidly over the past five years, compared to similar industries in the U.S., Brazil, and China, it is relatively small. One of the factors holding back the Indian ESCO industry has been a lack of access to financing.

To reach their conclusions, the authors conducted an extensive survey of more than 90 percent of the ESCOs in India, as well as interviews of various investors, government officials, and clients of ESCOs. Using the findings from this study, WRI is currently working with various banks in India to develop a financial product that will help build investments in energy-efficiency projects performed by ESCOs.

Energy Efficiency

5 Reader Comments

Comment
1 of 5

adrian-akau-36758

April 27, 2009

I have no doubt that billions of kilowatt hours could be saved in India but what is more important is the production of power for people in rural areas for it is estimated that several hundred million of the population are without electricity. What is needed are distributed systems such as with PV but presently, solar is still expensive.

Solar energy for lighting at night and to run irrigation pumps are needed. Energy is also needed to spray arsenic contaminated water into the air through shower heads so that exposure to oxygen will enable the poison to be precipitated out of the water after it has been collected. Seventy million in the Bengal, Bihar and Orissa areas would benefit by the Gupta method. The estimation for people in the Bengal delta is 1% of all are close to death and 5% are seriously afflicted due to the arsenic.

Arsenic swept down from the Himalayas and deposited on river banks started becoming soluble thirty or forty years ago because of the introduction of large amounts of chemical fertilizers which permitted microbes to act on the arsenic. Now the ground water has become contaminated.

adrianakau2aol.com

Comment
2 of 5

dennis-houghton-41194

April 28, 2009

There are certain applications for which solar PV is ideally suited, such as the ISS, tsunami warning bouys and pumping water. One billion people do not have access to clean water, mostly in Africa and the Asian sub-continent. If solar PV is to save the world it must save them first, not when they can afford it. Clean water requires energy input but careful design can match capacity to demand and is easily scalable in the 100 to 10,000 gallon per day range.
One other experiment is the Solar School boat project in Bangladesh. Although execution has been a bit controversial the concept of boat mounted solar arrays charging LED lantern batteries in exchange for on-board school attendance (primarily for girls) has proven effective where managed honestly. 65 million people with no roads, electricity or reliable communications requires innovation.
India will probably direct their solar PV production inward or regionally leveraging demand reduction through efficiency. 183 billion kWhr per year saved means dozens of coal-fired plants will not be built while distributed sources will assume more base-load, this is a very big, very good thing.

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3 of 5

shashidhara-b-v-72701

April 29, 2009

Politicians lack the will & foresightedness when it comes to addressing this important area of Energy efficiency & Generation for our future needs.

Whatever policy on paper will not get translated into measurable actions. All the good talk on Solar PV programmes end in workshops & meetings.

The Indian solar PV industry needs support & programmes for increasing the PV installation in India rather than promoting the Production of modules for export market.

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4 of 5

MarcusVdaCunha

April 29, 2009

A pity to single out India in this world-wide issue. Population control and humble life-styles could save trillions of kWh annually everywhere in the world, 25% of it from the US.

In a world in advance stage of ecological overshoot, where powerdown is the only viable solution to postpone the depletion of the phantom carrying capacity, it's cornucopian to think our Indian friends ought to be more energy efficient to better their lives.

My 2 cents.

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5 of 5

pramod-ne-112730

June 15, 2009

Fully agree with Marcus. During the years to come we may not have water for our use. Climate Change may make our earth not as livable as it is now. Something is needed to be done urgently. Each individual can contribute on his own way. Otherwise it will be gone forever. Hence professionals have to take a lead role in this. Forests are to be regained, Water sources to be retained, hillocks to be protected, agricultural fields to be maintained ..............If we don't do this doomsday is not far.

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