THE HINDU Editorial Vocabulary - June 14, 2018 - Topic 1
In a surprising statement this month, Union Power
Minister R.K. Singh said India would overshoot its target of installing 175
gigawatts of capacity from renewable energy sources by 2022. India was on track, he said, to hit 225 GW
of renewable capacity by then. This is a tall claim, considering India has
missed several interim milestones since it announced its 175 GW target in 2015.
The misses happened despite renewable capacity being augmented at a blistering
pace, highlighting how ambitious the initial target was.
Technological and
financial challenges remain: both wind and solar generation could be erratic,
and India’s creaky electricity grid must be modernised to distribute such power
efficiently. Meanwhile, wind and solar tariffs have hit such low levels that
suppliers are working with wafer-thin margins. This means small shocks can
knock these sectors off their growth trajectories. The obstacles have capped
capacity addition to 69 GW till date, with India missing its 2016 and 2017
milestones. To hit its 2022 target of 175 GW, 106 GW will have to be added in
four years, more than twice the capacity added in the last four.
In the solar sector alone, which the government is prioritising, policy
uncertainties loom large. Manufacturers of photovoltaic (PV) cells have
demanded a 70% safeguard duty on Chinese PV imports, and the Directorate
General of Trade Remedies will soon take a call on this. But any such duty will
deal a body blow to solar-power suppliers, who rely heavily on Chinese
hardware, threatening the growth of the sector. There is also the problem of
the rooftop-solar segment. Of the current goal of 100 GW from solar energy by
2022, 40 GW is to come from rooftop installations, and 60 GW from large solar
parks. Despite being the fastest-growing renewable-energy segment so far —
rooftop solar clocked a compound annual growth rate of 117% between 2013 and
2017 — India only hit 3% of its goal by the end of 2017, according to a
Bloomberg New Energy Finance report. The reason? Homeowners aren’t warming up
to the idea of installing photovoltaic panels on their terraces because the
economics does not work out for them. Compared to industries and commercial
establishments, a home typically needs less power and will not use everything
it generates. So, homeowners need to be able to sell electricity back to the
grid, which in turn needs a nationwide “net-metering” policy. As of today, only
a few States have such policies, discouraging users elsewhere. Such challenges
can be overcome with the right incentives, but they will take time to kick in.
The good news is that even if India hits the 175 GW target, it stands to meet
its greenhouse-gas emission goal under the Paris climate agreement. This in
itself will be a worthy achievement. Overshooting this target will be a plus,
but until the government tackles the policy challenges, it must hold off on
implausible claims.
Vocabulary
Overshoot: go
past a point unintentionally, especially through traveling too fast or being
unable to stop.
Example: They
overshot their intended destination
Claim: an
assertion of the truth of something, typically one that is disputed or in
doubt.
Example: He
was dogged by the claim that he had CIA links
Synonyms: assertion, declaration, profession, affirmation, avowal, protestation
Interim: in
or for the intervening period; provisional or temporary
Example: An
interim arrangement
Synonyms: provisional, temporary, stopgap, short-term, fill-in, caretaker
Despite: without
being affected by
Example: He
remains a great leader despite age and infirmity
Synonyms: in
spite of, notwithstanding, regardless of, in the face of
Augment: make
something greater by adding to it; increase.
Example: He
augmented his summer income by painting houses
Synonyms: increase, add
to, supplement, build up, enlarge, expand, extend
Blistering: intense.
Example: The
blistering heat of the desert
Synonyms: intense, extreme, ferocious, fierce, scorching, searing, blazing
Erratic: not
even or regular in pattern or movement; unpredictable.
Example: Her
breathing was erratic
Synonyms: unpredictable, inconsistent, changeable, variable, inconstant
Trajectories: the
path followed by a projectile flying or an object moving under the action of
given forces.
Example: The
missile's trajectory was preset
Synonyms: course, path, route, track, line, orbit
Uncertainty: the
state of being uncertain.
Example: Times
of uncertainty and danger
Synonyms: unpredictability, unreliability, riskiness, chanciness, precariousness
Segment: each
of the parts into which something is or may be divided.
Example: Its
genome is made up of 100 million bases divided into six segments , or
chromosomes.
Synonyms: piece, bit, section, part, chunk, portion, division, slice, fragment
Elsewhere: in,
at, or to some other place or other places
Example: He
is seeking employment elsewhere
Synonyms: somewhere
else, in/at/to another place, in/at/to a different place
Implausible: not
seeming reasonable or probable; failing to convince.
Example: This
is a blatantly implausible claim
Synonyms: unlikely, improbable, questionable, doubtful, debatable, unrealistic
