India Renewable Energy Awareness Survey

India Renewable Energy Awareness Survey Executive Summary http://www.mercomcapital.com Copyright 2010-2011 | Mercom Capital Group, LLC | www.mercomc...
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India Renewable Energy Awareness Survey Executive Summary

http://www.mercomcapital.com

Copyright 2010-2011 | Mercom Capital Group, LLC | www.mercomcapital.com | [email protected]

About Mercom Capital Group, llc

Mercom Capital Group is a clean energy communications and consulting firm with offices in the US and India. Mercom’s communications division helps clean energy companies build powerful relationships with media, analysts, government decision-makers, local communities and strategic partners. Mercom’s consulting division advises cleantech companies on new market entry, custom market intelligence and overall strategic decision-making. Mercom delivers highly respected industry market intelligence reports covering Solar Energy, Wind Energy and Smart Grid. Our reports provide timely industry happenings and ahead-of-the-curve analysis specifically for C-level decision making. For more information about Mercom Capital Group, visit: http://www.mercomcapital.com. To get a copy of Mercom’s popular market intelligence reports, visit: http://mercomcapital.com/market_intelligence.php

Methodology

Respondent Numbers: A total of 509 respondents were interviewed for this survey. The survey was conducted face-to-face due to limitations of technology in some areas we surveyed. We would like to thank the students of Environmental Engineering from SJCE College in Mysore for assisting Mercom in conducting this survey.

Location of Respondents: This survey was conducted in Karnataka State, in the areas around Bangalore and Mysore cities. Rural areas covered: Villages of Akkihebbal, Sindhugatta, Balagatta and Vasanthapura. Residential areas covered: Bangalore – Basaveshwaranagar, Mysore – Yadavagiri, T.K. Layout, Bogadi and Bamboo Bazaar. Industrial/Commercial areas covered: Bangalore – Rajajinagar, Yeshwanthpur, Shivananda Circle, Seshadripuram and Peenya. Mysore – Hebbal, Belavadi and Metagalli.

Classification of Respondents: Rural, Commercial/Industrial and Residential Rural – 101, Residential – 204, Commercial/Industrial – 204

Interviews were conducted in English and in the local language, Kannada. Questionnaires were prepared in both languages.

Copyright 2010-2011 | Mercom Capital Group, LLC | www.mercomcapital.com | [email protected]

India Renewable Energy Awareness Survey

Introduction

Mercom Capital Group (Mercom), a global clean energy consulting and communications firm, recently conducted the “Renewable Energy Awareness in India” survey to assess consumer attitudes and awareness of the renewable energy and power sectors in India. With recent government initiatives promoting renewable energy and policies like Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM) the perceptions and understandings of the general population will be an important component to the overall success of such programs. This survey serves as a gauge of people’s awareness of basic renewable energy concepts as well as their ability to relate to and comprehend the government and industry initiatives.

Survey Findings Overall, we found a general lack of education and understanding about renewable energy, though the people surveyed were very enthusiastic about renewable energy concepts. Survey respondents were more aware of Solar than other renewable energy technologies, though this was primarily due to awareness of solar water heaters. Awareness of wind energy was surprisingly low. Awareness of energy efficiency and the BEE Star label was especially low.

Our survey revealed a surprisingly high acceptance to paying more for electricity, if power cuts could be avoided. This is a very positive finding for utilities that are losing money every year due to low power prices.

Summary Governments have a responsibility to communicate and educate their constituents about subsidy programs and policies, while renewable energy industry participants need to educate communities before and during project development, in order to achieve community “buy-in” and avoid potential backlash.

The cost of energy conservation is substantially lower compared to adding new power supply, however education and communication programs among the population are vital if energy efficiency goals are to be achieved.

It is easier to develop a renewable energy project on a land close to population centers if you have already communicated and educated people about the benefits that renewable energies bring to communities without facing resistance and obstructions to these projects because of misconceptions. In one of the villages we surveyed, Akkihebbal, the population was extremely receptive to renewable energy as they already had a positive experience with solar street lights installed under a government program, and clearly understood the good that renewable energy could bring to their communities. For any policy or program to achieve broad success, it will require efforts at the grass root level to educate and communicate the initiative(s) and assess people’s awareness and opinions on those initiatives.

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Copyright 2010-2011 | Mercom Capital Group, LLC | www.mercomcapital.com | [email protected]

India Renewable Energy Awareness Survey

81% of commercial surveyors identified renewable energy with “good for environment”, 54% said “no power cuts” and 47% identified renewable energy with lower electricity rates.80% of residential respondents also identified renewable energy with “good for environment” while 33% identified “no power cuts” as a benefit and 30% said lower bill and 26% mentioned “less dependence on utility” as a benefit. 44% of rural respondents identified “lower bills” as a benefit of renewable energy while 33% said it is “good for environment” and 39% did not know what the benefits of renewable energy were.

Lack of education as to the benefits of renewable energy was prevalent, especially among rural population. It is critical for the government and renewable energy industry to educate and communicate the benefits of renewable energy to the population to gain increased acceptance to large scale projects which tend to be developed in rural areas.

Can you point out the benefits of renewable energy? 90% 80%

81%

Commercial/Industrial

Residential

Rural

Response Percent

70% 60%

54% 47%

50% 40%

80%

30%

23%

20%

33%

10% 0%

22%

30%

26% 13%

Good for Less Environment dependence utility

44% 6%

9% 9% Good for business

39%

33% 23%

6% 1% 1% 1%

8% 0%

Lower Energy Govt Subsidy No power cuts No benefit bills

6% Don't Know

Source: Mercom Capital Group, llc

Have you heard of the term “Renewable Energy” or “Clean Energy”? All Respondents Commercial/Indus trial Residential Rural

56.2% 60.7% 60.5% 38.6%

39.5% 61.4%

the term “Renewable Energy” or “Clean Energy”, only 39% of rural

43.8% 39.3%

56% of respondents had heard of

respondents had heard of these Yes No

terms compared to almost 60% of residential and commercial. Overall there is a lack of education and understanding when it comes to people knowing what renewable/clean energy is.

Source: Mercom Capital Group, llc

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Copyright 2010-2011 | Mercom Capital Group, LLC | www.mercomcapital.com | [email protected]

India Renewable Energy Awareness Survey

About 60% overall had heard of “carbon emissions” and “global warming”. Only 30% of rural respondents had heard of these terms compared to about 54% residential and almost 80% of commercial respondents.

Have you heard of the term “Global Warming”?

Have you heard of the term “Carbon Emissions”?

Yes

41%

Yes

40%

No

59%

60%

Source: Mercom Capital Group, llc

No

Source: Mercom Capital Group, llc

Most surveyed residential, rural and commercial respondents, 73%, had not heard of the term “energy efficiency” or energy efficiency programs. Almost 75% of residential, rural and commercial respondents did not know what BEE Star label was. Energy efficiency/conservation tends to cost a fraction of what it would cost to add new energy supply, education and communication is the primary way of promoting energy efficiency which seems to be severely lacking according to our survey.

Have you heard of BEE Star Label?

Have you heard of energy efficiency programs?

26.8%

25.2%

Yes No

73.2%

74.8%

Source: Mercom Capital Group, llc

39.2%

No

Source: Mercom Capital Group, llc Almost 61% of surveyed respondents said

Do you consider your electricity rates High, Low or Fair? All Respondents

Yes

their electricity rates were either fair or low.

57.6%

3.1%

About 65% of residential respondents said Commercial/Industrial

60.6%

39.4%

High Low

Residential

Rural

34.8%

47.5%

60.7%

4.5%

6.9%

45.5%

Fair

their rates were low or fair, whereas about 61% of commercial/industrial respondents said their electricity rates were fair.

Surprisingly about 53% of rural respondents also said their electricity rates were low or fair.

Source: Mercom Capital Group, llc

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Copyright 2010-2011 | Mercom Capital Group, LLC | www.mercomcapital.com | [email protected]

India Renewable Energy Awareness Survey

Almost 98% of residential and commercial respondents had heard of solar power compared to only 68% of rural respondents. Most respondents told us that this was due to “solar water heating” being so common and were generally less aware of roof top solar energy for electricity generation or large scale solar projects.

Surprisingly awareness of wind energy was low, a little over half of the commercial and residential population had heard of wind power and only 22% of rural respondents had heard of wind power. Awareness of Biomass was high among rural respondents with 90% having heard of it, but only about 40% of residential and commercial respondents had heard of biomass. Awareness of waste to energy was generally low across the board.

Have you heard of the following types of power? 120%

Commercial/Industrial

100% Response Percent

Residential

Rural

All 92%

80% All48%

All 49%

60% 98% 97%

40%

89% All 21%

68%

53% 56%

20%

38% 40% 22%

19%

0% Solar

Wind

Biomass

30% 2%

Waste to Energy

Source: Mercom Capital Group, llc

Would you consider buying electricity from a renewable source even if it was slightly expensive?

48% of residential respondents said they are willing to pay more for electricity generated from a renewable source, 36% of

All Respondents

39%

29%

32%

commercial respondents said they would pay more and 27% of rural respondents also

Commercial/Industrial

36% 48%

Residential

Rural

27%

19%

44% 21% 66%

31%

Yes

said they would pay more for renewable

No

energy. The critical number here is that 44%

Maybe

of commercial respondents and 31% of residential respondents said “maybe” when

7%

asked if they were willing to pay more for renewable energy. Through education and communication there is an opportunity to

Source: Mercom Capital Group, llc

convert the maybe’s to yes as they will be more willing once they understand the true benefits of renewable energy.

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Copyright 2010-2011 | Mercom Capital Group, LLC | www.mercomcapital.com | [email protected]

India Renewable Energy Awareness Survey

About 45% of residential respondents had renewable energy installed (almost all were solar water heaters) and only 11% of commercial/industrial respondents said they renewable energy installed.

Commercial - Do you currently have any renewable energy installed?

Residential - Do you currently have any renewable energy installed?

10.7%

Yes

56.9%

44.6%

No

89.3%

Yes No

Source: Mercom Capital Group, llc

Source: Mercom Capital Group, llc

About 32% of residential and

Which type of renewable energy have you installed?

commercial/industrial respondents said they had solar water heaters

Solar Water Heater

31.8%

solar panels for electricity installed,

Solar Panel

59.8% 5.5%

1% said they had wind turbine

Wind Turbine

installed and about 2% had biomass

Biomass

installed. About 60% of respondents had no form of renewable energy

None

1.0% 1.9%

installed, about 6% said they had

installed.

Source: Mercom Capital Group, llc

Are you willing to pay higher rates if you are provided electricity 24 hours without cuts?

A majority of 65% of surveyed respondents said they were willing to pay higher electricity rates if provided

All Respondents

34.8%

52.2%

13.0%

24 hours of uninterrupted power without rolling blackouts or

Commercial/Industrial

Residential

43.8%

55.9%

24.5%

31.7%

44.1%

Yes

brownouts. 62% of rural respondents

No

said yes and 56% of residential

Maybe

respondents also said yes, while about 76% of commercial/industrial respondents said yes or maybe. (the

Rural

62.2%

37.8%

32%of maybe among commercial/industrial respondents was due to the fact that they had

Source: Mercom Capital Group, llc

already made significant investments into installing backup generators)

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Copyright 2010-2011 | Mercom Capital Group, LLC | www.mercomcapital.com | [email protected]

India Renewable Energy Awareness Survey

In following up to our question of how much more were survey respondents willing to pay for 24 hours of uninterrupted power – About 56% of Commercial/industrial respondents were willing to pay Rs.100-5000 more for electricity, about 56% of residential respondents were also willing to pay Rs.0-500 more for electricity, 60% of rural respondents were willing to pay Rs.0-100 more for electricity. This is a significant finding as electricity rates in India are subsidized and are low due therefore most government run power utilities run at a loss, this is also an indication that power utilities have room to raise rates as public opinion supports it.

Commercial/Industrial - How much more are you willing to pay per month? 30.0% 20.0%

25.1%

23.6%

Rural - How much more are you willing to pay per month? 50.0%

21.7%

40.0%

15.8%

45.0%

30.0%

10.3%

10.0%

40.0%

2.5%

1.0%

0.0%

20.0%

15.0%

10.0% 0.0%

0.0% Rs 0

Rs. 50100

0.0%

Rs. 100- Rs. 200- Rs. 500+ 200 500

Source: Mercom Capital Group, llc

Source: Mercom Capital Group, llc

50.0%

Rs. 0-50

0.0%

Residential - How much more are you willing to pay per month? 42.1%

40.0% 29.2%

30.0%

15.8%

20.0% 10.0% 0.0%

Rs 0

Rs. 0-50

Rs. 50100

6.4%

5.4%

Rs. 100200

Rs. 200500

1.0% Rs. 500+

Source: Mercom Capital Group, llc

Do you have plans to install renewable energy in the near future?

26.5%

27.8%

Yes No Maybe

28% of respondents said they had plans to install renewable energy in the future and 27% said maybe, while 46% of respondents said they had no plans to install any type of renewable energy.

45.7%

Source: Mercom Capital Group, llc 7

Copyright 2010-2011 | Mercom Capital Group, LLC | www.mercomcapital.com | [email protected]

India Renewable Energy Awareness Survey

An overwhelming majority of about 90% of all surveyed

About 82% of all surveyed respondents said they

respondents said government should support renewable

would support renewable energy projects if it were

energy which is a very positive sign for the industry.

carried out in their region, 18% said no or maybe.

Should government support renewable energy? 90.0% 80.0% 70.0% 60.0% 50.0% 40.0% 30.0% 20.0% 10.0% 0.0%

89.0%

If a renewable energy project was carried out in your region would you support it? 14.0%

Yes

3.7%

No 2.2% Yes

82.3%

8.8%

No

Maybe

Source: Mercom Capital Group, llc

Source: Mercom Capital Group, llc

About 62% of all surveyed respondents had not heard of government subsidies for renewable energy. An 80% of rural respondents had not heard of renewable energy subsidies, while 61% of commercial/industrial respondents were unaware of government subsidies for renewable energy, 54% of residential respondents were also not aware of subsides. Increasing communication and education of government subsidies for renewable energy programs like the “Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission” (JNNSM) and others might spur more adoption and installation among population as awareness is low.

Are you aware of any government subsidies for renewable energy?

All Respondents

38%

62%

Commercial/Industrial

39%

61%

Yes No

Residential Rural

46% 20%

54% 80%

Source: Mercom Capital Group, llc

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Copyright 2010-2011 | Mercom Capital Group, LLC | www.mercomcapital.com | [email protected]

Contacts & Locations USA: Mercom Capital Group, llc 4611 Bee Caves Road, Suite 303 Austin, Texas 78746 +1.512.215.4452 [email protected] India: Mercom Communications India 14/24, II Floor, SNS Plaza Kumarakrupa Road Bangalore-560001 +91.80.22342856 [email protected]

©2010-2011 Mercom Capital Group, llc. This publication is the copyright of Mercom Capital Group, llc.

Copyright 2010-2011 | Mercom Capital Group, LLC | www.mercomcapital.com | [email protected]