With growing investments being regularly made in the Indian textile sector, there is greater need now for uninterrupted power supply to ensure full capacity utilisation. Unlike in other countries, the Indian textile industry is facing a major challenge in meeting the required power needs for sustained production of yarns. The Government efforts towards finding a solution to erratic power supply have yielded little results. In fact, during summer power cut is enforced for several hours at a stretch, forcing textile manufacturers to invest heavily on gensets to meet the power requirements.
A recent report on the anticipated power shortage in the country shows the energy requirements in India in 2014-15 would increase by 4.6 per cent as against the current availability of 3.7 per cent. With reduced availability, the country as a whole is expected to experience a shortage of 5.1 per cent as against 4.2 per cent prevalent in the last two years. Though several textile mills, particularly in the South, have invested in wind mills for power generation, they still remain dependent on Government power supply to keep their units fully operational.
It is against this backdrop that the recent setting up of New Development Bank (NDB) by the BRICS countries at their sixth annual summit held in July to promote sustainable development with a special focus on renewable energy has come as a really welcome move. Already China, India and Brazil have nationalized production of some components of wind and solar electricity, and South Africa will follow suit soon. NDB will favourably consider such renewable energy projects as will use those components or the services of BRICS’ firms in installing them. In 20 years, NDB could be lending around $35 billion a year for renewable energy development. Further, the International Energy Agency has estimated that investment of $1 trillion a year in clean energy is just unavoidable to meet the climate safety goals.