India loses appetite for clean energy

Demand for renewable energy credits drop 16% in January from December.

The government said this was due to the failure of regulators to enforce clean energy targets. As a result, cleantech companies abstained from trading.

One analyst said the government hasn’t been very forceful in levying penalties on companies that haven’t met their targets to buy credits, especially in the case of non-solar credits, and that has meant lower demand. There has been more interest as there’s more pressure from the authorities.\

The Indian government requires companies including state-run power distributors, Coal India Ltd., Oil & Natural Gas Corp., Tata Power Co. and other large power consumers to buy as much as 10% of their electricity every year from renewable sources.

Those unable to secure enough clean power locally can meet their target by purchasing credits sold by wind and solar farms, hydropower and biomass plants from the country’s two power exchanges. Each credit represents one megawatt-hour of clean electricity fed into the grid.