Jigar shah: India must learn from its successes and faults

, July 20, 2014, 0 Comments

Interview of Jigar Shah, Solar Pioneer, Founder of SunEdison  and  1st CEO of  The Carbon War Room by MarketExpress –  India based Global Insights & Analysis Sharing Platform.

Name: Jigar shahPeople - India jigar shah cleantech solar-MarketExpress-in

Designation: CEO, Jigar Shah Consulting,Founder SunEdison; 1st CEO Carbon War Room

Company:  Jigar Shah Consulting,Carbon War Room

Website
: www.thecarbonwarroom.com

Could you tell us more about creating climate wealth concept and your initiatives:
Today, resource efficiency solutions are cost effective and represent the largest wealth creation opportunity of our time. The key to unlocking these solutions are “pay as you save” financing solutions – like the ones that have unlocked the solar PV market. The Creating Climate Wealth concept helps entrepreneurs and others understand how to bring the best practices of solar to the rest of the marketplace.

What kind of trends do you see in solar industry as a whole – the promising ones from India’s perspective?India did a wonderful job bringing solar to the marketplace in a controlled way. There are now hundreds of solar companies and many trained investors. Now that the costs of solar have come down, solar in India is ready for 100% annual growth until solar reaches 10% of India’s electricity supply by 2020. This will require $200 billion in investment and India is ready.

According to you, how the new Indian government should approach and formulate its policies, taking into consideration the ground realties of India.
The auction process is not working any more to reduce costs, it only increases uncertainty. The Indian government should move to a fixed 20 year contract at a reasonable rate with a bonus payment for the first 5 years to pay for any small viability gap. This 5 year payment should go down by 10% for every 1,000 MWs installed until it approaches zero.

Can India try to replicate the model of Germany or China or try to create its own model and approach?
Yes, India must learn from their successes and their faults. Germany did not have a volume based reduction, but it did have an open process. China did not value distributed generation until later, but now is making up for lost time. India should focus on smaller 5 MW projects and distributed generation.

Your take on anti-dumping duty on solar power equipment from specified companies in China, Taiwan, the US and Malaysia?
I believe that India should have its own local manufacturing of solar panels, but they should not put harmful tariffs on foreign made panels. India should simply provide a small additional subsidy for all systems that use India made panels.

Is the tax incentives enough to attract the required attention towards India Solar Industry in terms of investments, knowhow and technology?
India’s tax subsidies are difficult to utilize and so should be phased out over the next few years. To raise $200 billion, India will have to attract tremendous amounts of foreign capital that cannot utilize the tax incentives.

 


About Jigar shah:

Jigar Shah is a  Solar Pioneer and visionary committed to leveraging the next economy by solving the challenging issues of our time. Jigar shah is the Founder of SunEdison and first CEO of Carbon War Room – the global organization founded by Richard Branson and Virgin Unite to help save the world from Climate Change.

Shah has authored book on “Creating Climate Wealth” – Creating Climate Wealth is about how climate change – the biggest challenge of our time –can be turned into a $10 trillion dollar wealth-creating opportunity.

Shah has noted that a global “Impact Economy” is one in which mainstream investors team up with corporations, entrepreneurs, and governments at scale to solve the big environmental and social problems of our time while generating compelling financial returns – not just average returns.

Today, he is a partner at Inerjys, a $1 billion fund that invests in clean energy via growth capital and project finance, CEO of Jigar Shah Consulting, and a board member of the Carbon War Room. He works closely with some of the world’s leading influencers and guides policy makers around the globe on key issues to implement solutions for global warming and sustainability that will unlock that next trillion dollar impact economy.