Why is large hydro not renewable

Since social impact assessment is not in place for LHPs, issues of land conflicts with people affected or likely to be affected by these projects, environmental violations and finally, geological surprises are some impediments associated with LHPs. Projects are mostly identified by the Central Water Commission in India, but in certain instances, independent producers develop self-identified projects despite strict government guidelines for ICB in project allocation.

The government decision announced on March 8 included a slew of additional subsidies to the already highly subsidized large hydro sector. Another private large hydro power developer with two operational projects of and MW, said on the condition of anonymity, that the move to include LHP in the renewable mix is nothing but a politically motivated one. Responses from the Ministry of Power and the Central Electricity Authority, requesting a comment on how the new energy mix will shape up, given that many LHPs in India are stressed due to time and cost overruns, went unanswered.

It is noteworthy that around 10 GW of generation assets with debts are already before the tribunals, and a large chunk of the remaining stressed assets is also set to take the insolvency route. Several hydropower projects in India are witnessing significant overruns in both time and costs. This calculation is based on actual generation measured as Million or Billion Units and not installed capacity.

The hydropower sector is currently going through a challenging phase and the share of hydropower in the total capacity has declined from Besides being environment friendly, hydropower has several other unique features like ability for quick ramping, black start, reactive absorption etc.

Further, hydropower also provides water security, irrigation and flood moderation benefits, apart from socio-economic development of the entire region by providing employment opportunities and boosting tourism etc. One of the reasons for high tariff of hydropower is the loading of cost of flood moderation and enabling infrastructure in the project cost.

In this backdrop, the decision has been taken to adopt measures to promote hydropower sector including providing budgetary support for flood moderation cost and enabling infrastructure cost and tariff rationalization measures to reduce tariff and thus the burden on the consumer. Due to the variety of reasons discussed above, governments across the world are progressively becoming more cognizant of the adverse impacts of dams. Many countries , such as the United States of America, Brazil, China and Peru, are now actively taking steps to de-commission existing dams, or to abort plans for commissioning future dams.

Similarly, it has been recommended that unsafe and unproductive dams in India should be de-commissioned. Policymakers should desist from shifting the goalposts by re-classifying large hydro as a source of renewable energy. In view of the large environmental and social costs of energy from large hydro, it may be more prudent at this juncture to reduce dependence on large hydro, and if required, signal this through a reduction in the NDC target of GW to GW.

Indian model of urban planning is heavily borrowed from the American models. Car-based city expansion models would not remain relevant in the Indian context in future. India's announcement follows China's plan for carbon neutrality by , while the United States and European Union aim to hit net zero by Firstpost Conversations 9 Months S. Home India News India's love for hydroelectric power is misplaced: It isn't renewable, river flow is erratic and mega dams dangerous. File image of Pong Dam.

Image courtesy Bhakra Beas management Board. India Urban 2. How different will it be from 1. A 3 C world will be a lot worse than a 1.