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Green Globe: India's electric vehicle push raises questions on infrastructure

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Green Globe: India's electric vehicle push raises questions on infrastructure

With improving economics and private-sector innovation, India could become a major electric vehicle market, potentially bringing about 24 million electric vehicles onto the road by 2030. But it is unclear how quickly the country's government and private sector will be able to bring electric vehicle adoption up to speed.

According to a new report from Germany-based firm TFE Consulting, EVs made up less than 0.01% of cars bought by Indian consumers in 2017. However, declining battery costs, more advanced charging infrastructure and government subsidies are pushing the price of electric vehicles down. TFE Consulting estimates that EVs could match the initial cost of conventional vehicles by the early 2020s and that electric vehicles will make up 40% of India's new cars sold by 2030.

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"This will likely not be a top-down transition driven by the central government. … It will be driven by pioneering companies and city governments," the report said. "Whether that will be enough to ensure that Indian companies will have a large share in this newly emerging value chain and create much-needed manufacturing jobs will depend not so much on battery manufacturers or infrastructure providers … but on the strategic positioning and investments of the Indian car industry."

Mercom Capital Group's India subsidiary said that expanding the EV market will require the rapid deployment of charging infrastructure. In a May 22 note, the clean energy consulting group said the Indian government is boosting the EV market by setting aside up to $16.2 million in funding for select cities to buy EVs for mass transportation and by easing license requirements to operate charging stations.

"Hopefully, the government handles electric vehicles with much more seriousness and competence than other renewable energy sectors like solar and wind, considering high oil prices lead to reduced GDP growth," Mercom Capital Group's CEO Raj Prabhu said in the note.

Japan-based trading house Mitsui & Co. Ltd. has acquired a 50% stake in Yushan Energy Co., an energy developer that has been picked by Taiwan's government to develop one of 11 offshore wind projects. Bloomberg first reported the deal.

Yushan Energy is a unit of Enterprize Energy Pte. Ltd., a Singapore-based offshore wind company. Yushan and Northland Power Inc. are jointly developing the 300-MW Hai Long Offshore Wind project, off Taiwan's west coast. In April, Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs picked offshore wind facilities with a combined capacity of more than 3,800 MW from seven developers, including Yushan and Northland Power.

The Ministry of Economic Affairs has set a goal to procure 5,500 MW of offshore wind by 2025 as part of the country's effort to move away from nuclear power. Taiwan installed its first offshore wind facility, an 8-MW demonstration project, in 2017.

Neoen S.A.S. has gained approval on a hybrid generation and energy storage project in Australia, as the clean energy developer from France moves to expand its presence in Australia.

Neoen received planning approval for the Kaban Renewable Energy Hub, a 160-MW wind-plus-storage project in north Queensland, the state government's minister for state development Cameron Dick said in a May 21 statement. The A$300 million project is expected to create 150 jobs during construction and generate enough power to supply 57,000 homes in the region.

"This means jobs for the region over the 12-month estimated construction period and more clean energy for the region to tap into," Dick said.

Neoen has been working on a handful of hybrid clean energy projects, pairing wind or solar generation with battery storage, including a 500-MW solar-plus storage project in southwest Queensland. In November 2017, Tesla Inc. completed its 100-MW/129-MWh system at Neoen's Hornsdale Wind Farm.

Elsewhere

* Electricité de France SA is in talks to sell half of its United Kingdom wind assets, according to the Financial Times.

* Italy-based developer ERG S.p.A. announced that it completed several acquisitions, gaining two wind farms with 26 MW in combined capacity along with a project pipeline of 750 MW.

* Panama could reach its 2050 target to have 70% of electricity come from renewables if its regulatory environment and power system management improve, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency.

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