Why is it important?
For India, renewable energy holds the key to meeting its carbon emissions target made at the Paris Agreement on Climate Change in 2016. It needs to reduce its carbon footprint by a third in 2030 and ensure that 40% of its electricity comes from non-fossil fuel-based sources. That can only be made possible if there is a much higher energy off-take of renewables and its integration in the grid.
As part of its efforts to cut emissions, India is looking to install 175 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy capacity by the year 2022. A big problem with renewable energy like solar and wind is intermittency or variability of energy output from these sources. Unlike energy produced from coal whose steady supply to power generation plants means steady output, variance in the amount of sunshine or wind speed can disrupt the output. Renewable storage is crucial.
What are the advantages of battery storage?
There are two kinds of lithium ion batteries. What are they?
Nearly 92% of all storage batteries use Lithium. Lithium-ion batteries are of two kinds:
Today, many factories, industrial plants, and residential colonies are turning to distributed energy—putting up hundreds of solar panels on rooftops or setting up wind farms—not just to cut power bills but also to reduce their carbon footprint and be environment-friendly.
Why is cheaper energy storage being advocated?
Cheaper energy storage opens up opportunities to accelerate the transition to sustainable energy systems, including electric vehicles, urban power consumption, rural energy access, electricity distribution, grid integration and a drastic replacement of coal power plants.
What is FAME 2.0?
The government notified the second phase of the FAME India scheme with a Rs 10,000-crore outlay to encourage adoption of electric and hybrid vehicles. The scheme is implemented over a period of three years, with effect from April 1, 2019, for faster adoption of electric mobility and development of its manufacturing ecosystem in the country.
Under the second phase of the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles in India(FAME-II) scheme, electric two-wheelers and e-rickshaws, hybrid four-wheelers, e-buses will get financial benefits.
It will cover buses with EV technology; electric, plug-in hybrid and strong hybrid four wheelers; electric three-wheelers including e-rickshaws and electric two-wheelers.
An inter-ministerial empowered committee, 'Project Implementation and Sanctioning Committee' (PISC) shall be constituted for overall monitoring, sanctioning and implementation of the scheme.
The scheme also envisages support for setting up of adequate public charging infrastructure to instill confidence amongst EV users.