Know your Ministry - No. 42 - New & Renewable Energy

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) is the nodal Ministry of the Government of India for all matters relating to new and renewable energy. The role of new and renewable energy has been assuming increasing significance in recent times with the growing concern for the country's energy security. The broad aim of the Ministry is to develop and deploy new and renewable energy to supplement the energy requirements of the country.

• Commission for Additional Sources of Energy (CASE) in 1981.
• Department of Non-Conventional Energy Sources (DNES) in 1982.
• Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources (MNES) in 1992.
• Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources (MNES) renamed as Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) in 2006.

The Mission of the Ministry is to ensure

• Energy Security: Development and deployment of alternate fuels like hydrogen, bio-fuels and synthetic fuels and their applications to contribute towards bridging the gap between domestic oil supply and demand; lesser dependency on oil imports
• Increase in the share of clean power: Renewables like wind, hydro, solar, geothermal, bio & tidal power to supplement fossil fuel based electricity generation.
• Energy Availability and Access: Supplement energy needs of cooking, heating, motive power and captive generation in rural, urban,industrial and commercial sectors
• Energy Affordability: Cost-competitive, convenient, safe, affordable and reliable energy supply options
• Energy Equity: Per-capita energy consumption at par with the global average level by 2050, through a sustainable and diverse fuel- mix

The Ministry has set up a long term vision to develop new and renewable energy technologies, processes, materials, components, sub-systems, products & services at par with international specifications, standards and performance parameters in order to make the country a net foreign exchange earner in the sector and deploy such indigenously developed and/or manufactured products and services in furtherance of the national goal of energy security. It is assigned with the following subjects/business under the Allocation of Business Rules:

• Research and development of Biogas and programmes relating to Biogas units
• Commission for Additional Sources of Energy (CASE)
• Solar Energy including Solar Photovoltaic devices and their development, production and applications
• Programme relating to improved chulhas and research and development thereof
• Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA)
• All matters relating to small/mini/micro hydel projects of and below 25 MW capacity
• Research and development of other non-conventional/renewable sources of energy and programmes relating thereto
• Tidal energy
• Integrated Rural Energy Programme (IREP)
• Geothermal Energy

Segments of the Ministry: Solar, Wind, Small Hydro, Waste to Energy, Bio Energy and Green Energy Corridor

New Technologies: Hydrogen Energy, Ocean Energy, Geo Thermal Energy & Energy Storage

Autonomous Institutes: National Institute of Solar Energy, National Institute of Wind Energy and National Institute of Bio Energy.

Public Sector Undertakings: Solar Energy Corporation of India Ltd (SECI) and Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Ltd(IREDA)

ROLE FUNCTIONS OF THE MINISTRY

To facilitate research, design, development, manufacture, and deployment of new and renewable energy systems/devices for transportation, portable and stationary applications in rural, urban, industrial and commercial sectors through:

• Technology Mapping and Benchmarking
• Identify Research, Design, Development and Manufacture thrust areas and facilitate the same
• Lay down standards, specifications and performance parameters at par with international levels and facilitate industry in attaining the same
• Align costs of new and renewable energy products and services with international levels and facilitate industry in attaining the same
• Appropriate international level quality assurance accreditation and facilitate industry in obtaining the same
• Provide sustained feedback to manufacturers on performance parameters of new and renewable energy products and services with the aim of effecting continuous upgrade so as to attain international levels in the shortest possible time span
• Facilitate industry in becoming internationally competitive and a net foreign exchange earner Resource Survey, Assessment, Mapping and Dissemination
• Identify areas in which new and renewable energy products and services need to be deployed in keeping with the goal of national energy security and energy independence
• Resource Survey, Assessment, Mapping and Dissemination.
• Deployment strategy for various indigenously developed and manufactured new and renewable energy products and services
• Provision of cost-competitive new and renewable energy supply options

CHALLENGES AND WAY FORWARD

• High Installation Cost has been a persisting issue in the domain of generation of power from new and renewable energy resources.  Hence, there is desperate need to strengthen the Research and Development framework and engage the global expertise to explore the same backed up with adequate financial budgetary allocation to the Ministry.
• Country needs to achieve Energy self-sufficiency as huge foreign exchange resources are getting depleted due to excessive dependence on imports for our energy and oil needs.
• Need for Proper system planning and integration of technical resources to explore availability of the energy source should be ensured as they are weather dependent; thus, factors like number of sunny days, wind condition, monsoon, tide level, supply of biomass, etc play an important role in evaluating the economic viability and technical feasibility of the Renewable Energy system.
• Mass National Level Campaign is required to spread awareness about the importance of Renewable energy resources as it’s Social acceptance is yet to materialize in our urban population despite heavy subsidy being provided by the government for installation of solar water-heaters and lighting systems as its penetration is still very low. It has be specifically targeted for increased productivity.
• Need for Specialized skill development and Manpower training through Skill upgradation of the human resources and training of new professionals are essential to achieve the objectives of the Vision and Mission of the Ministry.
• Its high time to identity all employment opportunities in this domain by engaging student community to take up this domain as a lucrative career and to participate in nation’s development.
• Government needs to devise concrete scientific plans to identify unexplored resources in energy generation like using wind speed of moving train or vehicle, heat energies from industrial machineries, transmission of sound energies, lightning & thunder, etc
• Revisit the Energy Security policy in the Development and deployment of alternate fuels like hydrogen, bio-fuels and synthetic fuels and their applications to realize the potential demand and supply of oil resources for realistic cost effective fuel production.
• Increase in the share of clean power: Renewables like wind, hydro, solar, geothermal, bio & tidal power to supplement fossil fuel based electricity generation.
• Need for scientific evaluation of Energy Affordability, Availability and Access in terms of energy production for the needs of cooking, heating, motive power and captive generation in rural, urban, industrial and commercial sectors and  Cost-competitive, convenient, safe, affordable and reliable energy supply options.