Macroeconomic and Environmental Beneffits Due to Wind Energy Policy: A Case Study of Gujarat Wind Energy Sector | |
| Author | Jose, Alvin |
| Call Number | AIT Thesis no.ET-13-07 |
| Subject(s) | Wind power plants Macroeconomics |
| Note | A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Engineering in Energy |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Abstract | Energy is one of the main ingredients of development and with increasing energy prices and an impending depletion of conventional energy sources, governments around the world are emphasizing on the need to shift toward alternative energy through various policy initiatives. Although sustainable development is one of the forefront agendas of the governments of developing countries, however, there are many obstacles when considering sustainable energy strategies and this varies from technology access to high capital costs. A fossil fuel based developmental model also has many environmental and social impacts and these factors emphasize more the need to shift towards cleaner fuels for a sustainable development. In the last decade renewable energy has made a lot of progress in terms ofits commercialization due to technological advancement and lower capital costs. This renewable energy promotion by governments globally has been made possible through various policy instruments which has encouraged renewable power projects and increased the share of electricity generation from it. Policies such as feed-in tariffs, tax incentives, generation targets, subsidies etc. have become increasingly popular to bring the cost of electricity production from renewable energy projects close to that of conventional ones, although there is still a long way to go. Policy decisions in order to promote the use of renewable energy have mainly been in the form of subsidies whether it is giving tax incentive to set up capacity or fixed tariff rates usually higher than the conventional rates as a subsidy to make the renewable energy business lucrative. Government of India provides two main schemes of Accelerated Depreciation (tax incentive) and Generation Based Incentive (fixed tariff rates) for wind energy project developers. It has been seen that due to these schemes there has been a significant improvement in the investment environment in the sector and there has been a significant increase in the capacity addition from wind power. In 2012, the Government of India had withdrawn its Accelerated depreciation scheme that was introduced for a span of 2 years and it continued its Generation Based Incentive scheme. This policy decision was claimed to slow down the progress of the wind energy sector in India, as the industry has maintained that such policy promotion would be required over a longer period of time to bring a stable growth in this sector. This research would try to quantify the impact of such scheme on a typical wind energy project in India and how does the withdrawal of the schemes impact a project. It would also use Input-Output analysis to quantify and assess the macroeconomic impacts of such policies, since such policies encourage investment which would result in higher economic activity dues to it in other sectors of the economy and also increase employment opportunities. This research would take the state of Gujarat in India as a case study and assess the micro implications of the said wind energy policies on the wind energy projects and also the macroeconomic impacts on the state of Gujarat. This study emphasizes the need of governments and policy makers to collect data in a comprehensive and extensive manner in order to conduct scientific analysis of the policies formulated by them which would enable them to implement the best policy options and wise use of resources. |
| Year | 2013 |
| Type | Thesis |
| School | School of Environment, Resources, and Development (SERD) |
| Department | Department of Energy and Climate Change (Former title: Department of Energy, Environment, and Climate Change (DEECC)) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Energy Technology (ET) |
| Chairperson(s) | Marpaung, Charles O.P.; |
| Examination Committee(s) | Kumar, Sivanappan;Dhakal, Shobhakar; |
| Degree | Thesis (M.Eng.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2013 |