Nexus of Good: Ahead of the curve

Consequent to the "findings" of a CAG report, and the endorsement of the report by the Supreme Court in 2014, all hell seemed to have broken loose in the coal sector. I was posted as coal secretary to clear the mess. In the following couple of years, the coal sector was resurrected. However, what I witnessed in another ministry — Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) under the same minister, Piyush Goyal — was nothing short of a miracle. The miracle man was Upendra Tripathi, an IAS officer who had already earned accolades while working in his own state — Karnataka

Upendra, who had never worked in the field of energy earlier (except in the Petroleum sector way back in early 90s), took charge as secretary to the Government of India in the MNRE. This Ministry had been created in the early 1980s as a response to the global oil crisis. It was beset with a precarious financial situation in April 2014. Against an annual budget of Rs 1,500 crore (around USD 214 million), the subsidy arrears to the states for completed activities was INR 3,300 crore (around USD 471 Million). The Ministry was grappling to fund subsidy arrears. However, all this changed in May 2014. A new government came to power at the Centre. Narendra Modi, the new PM who had written a book 'Convenient Action' in response to Al Gore's 'Inconvenient Truth', called Upendra for a discussion. He wanted to know if India could have 100 GW of solar power by 2022. Upendra answered in affirmative, being aware of the millions of hectares of wastelands in the country. What he did not know at that point was that just before he had joined, his predecessor had sent a detailed letter to the PM's office stating the proposition of 1,00,000 MW of solar energy by 2022 against the existing target of 20,000 MW to be impossible – there was no land, no money, no demand, and no wherewithal.

Having promised to the PM that the target was not a challenge, Upendra soon discovered the ground reality. The challenge now was how to plan for this huge target and convince the cabinet and other stakeholders that 100 GW of solar for India was both desirable and doable without any substantial investment from the Government of India.

The key to the solution lay in the creation of a policy ecosystem of land, labor, capital, and technology and sell this dream to the global galaxy of investors as a real and profitable venture. India has had the famous solar mission since 2010 — making some institutional mechanisms already available. Upendra evolved a four-fold strategy towards realising his commitment:

(1) Making full use of two public sector entities under the ministry — a SECI-IREDA model of mutual cooperation for solar deployment between a developer (Solar Energy Corporation of India) and an investor (Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency) was created. The latter invested for 50 MW of solar power in Kerala to reap financial benefit over next 30 years by selling power to the state of Kerala, and SECI implemented the project as an EPC contractor. The pilot project became a case study for future investments. This was a very practical move to demonstrate to the world that MNRE could find buyers, investors, and developers to finance and implement bankable and profitable projects. The investment could be recovered in the first seven years and the rest of the project life of 23 years was meant for generating surplus.

(2) Brainstorming with colleagues and Industry brought forth the idea of a global summit of investors. This was deliberated at length and finalised. It was christened as Renewable Energy-Invest (RE-Invest). Re-invest became both a brand and a signature event for the ministry which organised such an investment focused mega-event in February 2015 with two unique and innovative add-ons — Green Energy Commitment Certificates to invest in solar projects and Green Finance Commitment Certificates to finance such projects. The top ten commitment providers were handed over the certificates during the inaugural event of RE-invest by the PM himself. There were 462 corporations who committed to deploy 287 GW of renewable energy projects by the year 2022. Some 40 financial institutions committed up to USD 78.75 trillion at the rate of USD 1 million/MW. This provided the blueprint for the future.

(3) On the suggestion of Industry, the idea of solar parks (huge, centralized generation centers running into thousands of MWs) was taken up. Under this dispensation, the responsibility for providing land for the projects was with the federal and provincial governments. Land acquisition in India in those days was among the most complicated procedures – time consuming and litigation prone.

(4) A scheme was launched to train 57,000 suryamitras (friends of the Sun) as solar mechanics — providing for a workforce that the industry badly needed. The capacity-building measure was financed by the government and implemented by state renewable energy agencies that were brought together on a common platform called the Association of the Renewable Energy Agencies of the States (AREAS).

The rest, as they say, is history. Over the years since 2015-16, India has commissioned 38 GW of solar projects and is well on track to achieving the most ambitious target set as a part of one of the biggest solar energy expansion programmes in the world. Recognising the phenomenal work done by Upendra, he was chosen as the founding director general of the International Solar Alliance — the multilateral body that has a target of mobilising more than USD 1,000 billion by 2030 among ISA member countries and pursues more innovative ideas such as the World Solar Bank and the One Sun One World and One Grid.

Upendra Tripathi and his committed team presented an excellent example of Nexus of Good that could be and is being scaled in the country through public-private partnership.

Views expressed are personal