Aluminium: The Metal of Choice for India's Energy Security

Aluminium accounts for 85 percent of most solar panel components. Special properties like high strength-to-weight ratio, high surface reflectivity, and excellent electrical & thermal conductivity, make aluminium suitable for solar panel applications.

May 30, 2023. By News Bureau

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Access to affordable, reliable, and clean energy will be a key enabler in the sustainable economic development of India and the world. According to International Energy Agency, India's energy demand is expected to double by 2040, on account of increasing population, rapid urbanisation, rising incomes, and improving standards of living.

India is already the world's third-largest energy consumer after China and the United States, and the country will soon be the world's largest energy consumer.

India’s announcement of becoming net zero in carbon emissions by 2070 and meeting 50 percent of its electricity requirements from renewable energy sources by 2030 foretells a dynamic period in the development of the domestic energy industry.

The shift towards green energy sources is essential to address the challenges of climate change and ensure India's energy security in a sustainable manner. In such a scenario, the domestic aluminium industry will have a crucial role to play in the ground realisation of this mission.

Electrifying India with Aluminium

High structural strength, lightweight, excellent conductivity, high ductility, and non-magnetic properties have made aluminium and its alloys indispensable for the electrical industry. The major areas of application include cables, busbars, overhead transmission lines, motors, foil windings, electrolytic capacitors, heating elements, heat sinks, and many more.

Aluminium is versatile, by virtue of its exceptional design flexibility as well as superb conductivity. Among base metals, only copper has a higher conductivity than aluminium. An aluminium wire will need a nearly 1.5 times larger cross-section to pass the same current, but it is two times lighter and non-corrosive in the face of weather elements, which is why aluminium wire rods are used for transmission lines. The light weight of aluminium wire rods lends itself very well to the non-sagging of transmission lines, which is of vital importance while ensuring power distribution over long distances.

Further, weight is a crucial parameter for high-voltage power lines that transmit electricity over long distances. Aluminium wires reduce the load onto grid pylons and increase the distance of spans between them, thus reducing expenses and shortening construction time. Therefore, only aluminium wires are used in the main overhead power lines. This is further bolstered by the fact that aluminium has good ductility and formability, and easily sustains significant static loads.

Another special property of aluminium is that it is non-corrosive, which lends itself to a significantly longer service life (almost 40 years) with low maintenance needs. So, on a cost-benefit analysis, aluminium ranks significantly high compared to traditional metals. And at the end of its life, aluminium can be 100 percent recycled with barely any loss in properties to find usage across diverse sectors. In our quest for a circular economy, aluminium is the metal of the present and the future of the electrical sector.

Envisioning a Solar-Powered Energy Future for India

The pressing need for climate action has got countries ramping up renewable energy (RE) production. For a sun-soaked country like India, solar photovoltaic (PV) technology, used in solar panels, is a clear choice, offering two advantages – module manufacturing can be done in large plants, which allows for economies of scale, and being a very modular technology, also permits small scale uses. This makes the potential of applications limitless, from tiny personal electronics to massive energy facilities.

A recent report by McKinsey, on the raw materials essential for generating clean energy, pegs aluminium as a crucial enabler for the ongoing transition to cleaner energy systems. Special properties like high strength-to-weight ratio, high surface reflectivity, and excellent electrical & thermal conductivity, make aluminium suitable for solar panel applications. Aluminium already accounts for 85 percent of most solar panel components, in the form of the frames and mounting structures that hold the PV panels together and support them. Aluminium also finds extensive usage in the transmission and distribution of electricity over long distances.

Extruded aluminium sections are easy to machine, transport and assemble, and require less expertise and time to erect solar infrastructure. Being naturally corrosion resistant, they don’t require high maintenance or additional protective measures. Heat-treated aluminium alloys are also capable of withstanding wind speeds of up to 150-170 km/hr easily. Aluminium is quick to cool down, which is important for solar PV, as the increase in temperature of PV cells reduces the efficiency of electricity generation. These properties have made aluminium the material of choice worldwide in solar infrastructure.

Indian Aluminium Industry, well-resourced to boost India’s RE journey

India’s energy consumption has almost doubled since 2000 and the potential for further rapid growth is enormous. The future of India’s electrical market looks bright with growth in the industry fundamentally driven by the recent developmental push in power and infrastructure segments, and government policies.

The wires and cables sector is a direct beneficiary of the power generation and distribution infrastructure. According to leading research firms, the wire & cables industry accounts for 9 percent of global aluminium demand and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 3 percent till CY30. The share of extrusions in the electrical segment is 11.6 percent globally, and around 10 percent in India. This global demand is expected to grow at a CAGR of 2.7 percent till CY27 from CY22.

For any player looking to capitalise from the boom in India’s electrification demand, the Indian aluminium industry is a reliable supplier, offering high-quality products at large volumes, a bevy of customised offerings, robust after-sales services and upcoming metal parks for downstream players.

Domestic aluminium producers, with a combined production capacity of over 4 million tonnes per annum, have significantly invested in R&D to indigenously develop special high-performance alloys for various applications in the electrical industry.

Domestic aluminium producers, with over 4 MTPA production capacity, have significantly invested in R&D to indigenously develop special high-performance alloys for various industries. Market leaders such as Vedanta, which is one of the world’s largest producers of aluminium, manufacture high-end aluminium products, such as electrical conductor (EC) grade wire rods, alloy wire rods, billets and more, for the electrical industry. They are also global giants, as the largest producers of wire rods in the world, exporting to developed countries. This has not only put India on the map as a top producer and exporter of wire rods but is a resounding testimony to the quality of Indian-made aluminium products.

Vedanta’s massive production capabilities and capacities have opened immense opportunities for downstream manufacturers catering to the electrical & solar industries. Besides availing raw materials that are at par with global quality standards, they can access their R&D centres to co-create new products and applications customised for India’s growing electrical & energy industry. Clearly the four pillars of economy, population, urbanisation, and industrialisation will keep the domestic aluminium industry at the heart of India’s energy & electrification ecosystem.

- Rahul Sharma, CEO, Vedanta Limited – Aluminium Business