May 25:
New prime minister-elect Narendra Modi has proposed using solar power to bring some electricity to the energy impoverished in India, of whom there are an estimated 400 million. Justin Gray of the Sierra Club says past promises to deliver power have failed “…because they want to build huge power plants and extend the grid.” So-called bottom-up power from renewable is his preferred solution.
Count me among the skeptics. I remember Enron’s proposed Dabhol LNG and power plant complex, which they touted as promising clean, reliable power. Unfortunately, India needed cheap power more than clean power and the plant would have delivered expensive power. Why, if solar is too expensive for Germany, would it be the choice for India?
Granted, isolated villages would seem to have good prospects for solar (and other renewable) power, because it saves the cost of hooking up to the power grid. However, unlike solar connected to the grid, stand-alone solar will require expensive battery or other backup power, or it risks being significantly unreliable. And villages without electricity probably aren’t well equipped to maintain such equipment. The good news is that this will allow politicians to put friends on payroll as solar power technicians.
Another problem is that local installations of solar panels will offer huge opportunities for corruption and incompetence; social welfare programs famously suffer from this. Although so does centralized power, as politicians offer constituencies subsidized power. Which highlights the real problem: bad governance, not reliance on centralized, conventional power. Fix that first, and then, perhaps, pursue solar power.
But another initiative raises interesting possibilities: Modi has said he will invite Pakistan’s prime minister to his inauguration, holding out the potential for a rapprochement with their western neighbor. This could allow an opening for a much more promising project: a natural gas pipeline from Iran. Pakistan has repeatedly proposed such a project (it would receive transit fees), but India has long feared being held hostage to Pakistani politics, Islamabad’s promises notwithstanding.
Shipping 20 billion cubic meters of natural gas (a large, but not the largest size pipeline) and converting existing coal plants would save more than 3 million tonnes a year of CO2 emissions. Depending on the price of the natural gas, it could be economic–although Iran might prove a tough bargainer. Considering how much diesel is apparently used by backup generators in India, this would certainly be a better alternative, though. And perhaps the US could offer to promote such a pipeline if Iran compromises on its nuclear research program.
Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaellynch/2014/05/25/indias-modi-promises-solar-why-not-gas/?
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