The pressing need for climate action has got countries all over the world taking rapid strides to develop, expand and increase output of the renewable energy (RE) industry, with solar energy emerging as the predominant source of green power. Today, India not only stands fourth in the world in terms of installed RE capacity — 5th in solar and 4th in wind — it is now pursuing an ambitious target of 450 GW of RE capacity by 2030 (source: PIB)
According to a World Bank report on green energy revolution, aluminium is the only metal that is both high-impact and cross-cutting, in all potential clean power technologies.
For a sun-soaked country like India, solar photovoltaics (PV) is not only a clear energy option, but it comes with two advantages — module manufacturing can be done in large plants, which allows for economies of scale, and being a very modular technology, it also allows for deployments in very small units at a time. This makes the potential of applications limitless, as solar-powered systems can range from personal electronics to utility-scale power generation facilities.
Aluminium is used in most clean energy technologies, especially in solar where it accounts for 85 per cent of most PV components in the form of the frames and mounting structures that hold the PV panels together and support them.
Aluminium will also find extensive usage in transmission and distribution of the energy generated, as it is the material of choice for energy transmission over long distances. In such a scenario, Indian aluminium producers like Vedanta Aluminium are well-resourced to fast-track India’s journey towards a low-carbon energy future.
Green metal
Aluminium is heralded as the green metal of the future. Owing to special properties like high strength-to-weight ratio, superlative corrosion resistance, high surface reflectivity, excellent electrical and thermal conductivity, as well as 100 per cent recyclability at the end of life, make aluminium suitable for solar PV applications.
Extruded aluminium sections are easy to machine, transport and assemble, requiring less skilled labour and lesser time to erect the structures. This helps engineers make complex, efficient, and cost-effective structures well in advance. Further, being naturally corrosion resistant, structures made with aluminium don’t require high maintenance or additional protective measures to prevent corrosion of the structure. Heat treated aluminium alloys are also capable of withstanding wind speeds of up to 150-170 km/hour easily.
Moreover, aluminium is quick to cool down compared to traditional materials, which is of significant advantage in solar PV, as increase in temperature of PV cells reduces the efficiency of electricity generation. Yet another advantage is aluminium’s ability to be endlessly recycled. Aluminium recycling is cost-effective and requires significantly less energy.
Indian scene
The Indian aluminium Industry, with its 4.1 MTPA aluminium production capacity, can easily cater to the domestic aluminium demand for the RE sector.
Domestic aluminium producers have significantly invested in R&D and innovation to indigenously develop special high-performance alloys for various industries. In fact, Vedanta Aluminium is the world’s largest producer of wire rods (ex-China), and India’s largest producer and exporter of billets. The company has also indigenously developed alloys for various industry sectors, which were earlier entirely imported into India.
Given their technical prowess and willingness to partner with extruders and downstream manufacturers catering to the solar industry, opportunities for players in the Indian solar industry are immense. Besides getting raw materials that are at par with global quality standards, they can also access the R&D centres of these large producers for developing new products or product applications specifically customized for solar industry.
The country is already witnessing strong strides in aluminium usage in the RE sector. For example, on the back of 100GW solar capacity addition over the next 2-3 years, the government has confirmed that there will be an anti-dumping duty of 40 per cent w.e.f. April 1 on imports of solar cells and modules from China to encourage domestic manufacturing of solar PV components in India.
However, factors such as lack of financing support, unfavorable policy structures, lack of scale and competition from low-priced Chinese imports have stunted India’s domestic module manufacturing growth. As per MNRE data, solar PV cell production capacity in India is only 2.5 GW/year and solar PV modules capacity is around 9-10 GW/year, whereas the annual requirement for the next 10 years is around 10 GW/year.
As a result, the Indian solar industry relies heavily on imports of important components such as solar cells, modules and solar inverters.
Aluminium, as the green metal of the future, holds massive economic promise for the evolving global renewable energy sector. This is India’s opportunity to strengthen its position in the global RE value chain, by not only producing domestically to meet our RE targets, but also become the global manufacturing hub in aluminium and solar PV components.
The writer is a retired faculty of IIT Bombay