Distributed Energy Platform

---

India has made significant progress in adding large grid-scale solar energy infrastructure in line with its ambitious goals for renewable energy and commitments under the Paris Agreement. Also, it has achieved 100% electrification by connecting all the villages to the grid. However, 305 million people, mostly in semi-urban and rural areas, don’t have access to affordable, uninterrupted high voltage supply of energy. Farmers and small commercial-industrial customers continue to suffer due to lack of access to reliable energy supply. This directly affects economic growth and standard of living of these people.   

Distributed and community solar energy projects can play an important role in addressing these issues. These projects are easy to manage and execute due to smaller size, offer high scalability and replicability in addition to providing local solution to local problems and boosting economic activity. 

Use of GIS and blockchain technology facilitates decentralized energy generation, peer-to-peer transaction, efficient operations and monetization of the renewable energy certificates as well as carbon credits generated.    

In addition to ambitious renewable energy production, India is making fast progress in electrification of transportation. Together, these developments are expected to create demand for about 180 to 200 GWh of energy storage capacity by 2030. Energy storage addresses the intermittency issues in renewable energy generation, facilitate grid stabilization and improve utilization of off-grid renewable energy capacity. This is essential to increase per capita availability of clean energy in India from 105 watts against the global average of 268 watts per year.

Off-grid electrification for energy access to under-served communities

About 305 million people in India, mostly in semi-urban and rural areas, don’t have access to affordable, uninterrupted high voltage supply of energy. Only 65% rural enterprises reported having electricity grid connection according to the Smart Power India Report. 

 Role of community oriented distributed energy projects for inclusive energy transition has been well accepted around the world. These projects complement the government efforts and help achieve electrification targets. In addition to energy access, creation of employment opportunities and boost to local economy results in improved standard of living. 

AETERNA Clean Energy is working on off-grid solutions such as Solar mini-grids, Solar home systems and Bioenergy, that have huge potential in rural and semi-urban India.  

GREEN COOLING 

Demand for air conditioning in India  is likely to grow 4 times by 2050 in case of >1.5 degrees temperature rise scenario leading additional emissions of 120 million metric tons. Cold storage requirement for agriculture-produce, pharma products and other perishables is projected to grow exponentially increasing demand for cooling equipment 8 times by 2037. 

Availability of green cooling infrastructure will not only reduce wastage of 40% of perishable food and 29% of vaccines annually but also avoid emissions on a massive scale.

According to National Sample Survey of India, 56% of rural households (about 520 million people) still use coal, kerosene, wood, agriculture & animal waste for cooking. This not only results in higher pollution but health hazards for the rural communities especially women, girls and other weaker sections. Affordability issues and lack of reliable supply chains have put limitation on centralized schemes such as providing LPG cylinders to these people. Additionally, cooking is one area where one-size-fits-all approach is bound to fail. 

Community clean energy infrastructure such as Solar and biofuel projects not only address these challenges but also ensure quality and reliability of fuel supply, lower prices and deployment on scale.

At Aeterna Clean Energy, we are working on 

- Electricity based cooking

- Solar cooking

- Methanol cookstove

- Efficient biomass cookstove

As Indian economy becomes 3rd largest globally by 2027, demand for energy is expected to grow exponentially. Energy efficiency initiatives play an important role in reducing carbon intensity of economic activities and achieving decarbonization goals.

Local energy production, demand aggregation (community solar instead of individual rooftop solar projects) and economies of scale help in reducing transmission and distribution losses. Promotion of energy efficient machinery/ appliances and processes is another way to improve efficiencies. 

Carbon credit mechanisms provide an incentive to reduce emissions and improve energy efficiency. For example, Micro Small and Medium Enterprise sector contributed to 45% of India’s industrial output and 8% of GDP in 2022 offers significant opportunity for the implementation of energy efficiency measures. This will help Indian economy improve productivity, quality and compete globally.