Lack of data, R&D poses difficulties for investors in India

LONDON: If India wants to realise its vast renewable energy potential, it needs to overcome major challenges of lack of data and Research and Development, a report said on Tuesday.

Noting that the Indian renewables industry is dogged by a catalogue of mismanagement, a report published jointly by London-based Commonwealth Business Council and IIM, Ahmedabad, said: "Lack of data and R&D poses huge technical difficulties for investors."

However, director general of the council Mohan Kaul said "I am still hugely confident that India will, in the long run, resource a significant amount of its energy from renewables because there is a tremendous amount of will within the government to do it and it also has huge natural resources."

The report said "there is no real data on where the windiest parts of India are, although the country is blessed with high velocity winds from the strong south-west summer monsoon."

With 35 cities and towns, which have over 10 lakh population, there is a vast potential to develop electricity from municipal waste, but there is no reliable information on what type of waste these places generate, it said.

Out of the 553 wind-monitoring stations that are installed in India, only 53 are in operation, it added.