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Gireesh Shrimali is a Precourt Scholar at the Sustainable Finance Initiative at Stanford University. Previously, he was the Director of Climate Policy Initiative’s India Program, and a Research Fellow at the Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance at Stanford University. He has taught at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, Monterrey as well as the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad. His current research focus is on renewable energy finance and policy; in general, on the catalytic role of finance in getting to the 2 °C climate target and, in particular, on pathways for provision of low-cost, long-term capital for clean energy transition. He holds a PhD from Stanford University, an MS from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, and a BTech from the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi.
In the context of India's ambitious electric vehicle targets, we examine two related questions. First, based on lifetime costs, which electric vehicles need to be subsidized? Second, based on lifetime subsidies, which subsidy option would be the most cost-effective? We find that electric two-wheelers, three-wheelers, four-wheeler-taxis, and buses do not need to be subsidized given that they are already cost competitive with comparable vehicles using internal combustion engines. We also find that personal cars and long-haul trucks need to be subsidized significantly, by one-third to one-half of the upfront costs. Finally, we find that an upfront subsidy is the most cost-effective subsidy option, followed by a per kilometer subsidy, which is effectively 19–31% costlier, whereas financing subsidies are found to be the least cost effective. Our results suggest that a cost-effective policy in India would be to subsidize only personal cars and long-haul trucks, while using the upfront subsidies.
Gireesh Shrimali. Getting to India's electric vehicle targets cost-effectively: To subsidize or not, and how? Energy Policy 2021, 156, 112384 .
AMA StyleGireesh Shrimali. Getting to India's electric vehicle targets cost-effectively: To subsidize or not, and how? Energy Policy. 2021; 156 ():112384.
Chicago/Turabian StyleGireesh Shrimali. 2021. "Getting to India's electric vehicle targets cost-effectively: To subsidize or not, and how?" Energy Policy 156, no. : 112384.
This paper seeks to study and compare the historical and present-day financial performance and risk profile of the renewable energy and fossil fuel power sectors. Our findings are as follows. First, renewable energy power portfolios have historically shown more attractive investment characteristics including, on average, 12% higher annual returns, 20% lower annual volatility and 61% higher risk-adjusted returns. Second, investors perceive renewable energy power investments to be less risky than fossil fuel power investments, with the expected returns on debt to the fossil fuel power sector is at least 80 basis points higher than for expected returns on debt for the renewable energy power sector. Third, the main risk factors driving the risk perception of both renewable energy and fossil fuels are counterparty, grid and financial risks; counterparty risk is the most significant risk by far, followed by grid risk and then financial sector risk. Our findings have significant implications for investments in these technologies in India.
Gireesh Shrimali. Financial Performance of Renewable and Fossil Power Sources in India. Sustainability 2021, 13, 2573 .
AMA StyleGireesh Shrimali. Financial Performance of Renewable and Fossil Power Sources in India. Sustainability. 2021; 13 (5):2573.
Chicago/Turabian StyleGireesh Shrimali. 2021. "Financial Performance of Renewable and Fossil Power Sources in India." Sustainability 13, no. 5: 2573.
The Government of India plans to install 175 GW of renewable energy projects by 2022, and 275 GW by 2027. In meeting these goals, the Indian power sector faces twin challenges: first, managing renewable energy will require increased flexibility in the system; second, there will be under-utilization of existing coal-based plants, which would stress the economics of not only individual plants but also the overall power sector. This creates a need to explore the conversion of existing baseload coal plants as flexible resources. Our analysis shows the following: first, the incremental costs for converting baseload coal plants to flexible ones would be only 5%–10% of the total costs of baseload plants in net present value terms or 8%–22% in levelized terms; second, flexible coal may be the most cost-effective flexible solution in the near-term, by a factor of approximately 4–22, when compared to lithium ion batteries or pumped hydro. Finally, while we have provided an indicative analysis of additional costs of converting baseload coal plants into flexible ones, we recommend that flexible coal be procured cost-effectively using appropriate market mechanisms, such as capacity auctions.
Gireesh Shrimali. Managing power system flexibility in India via coal plants. Energy Policy 2021, 150, 112061 .
AMA StyleGireesh Shrimali. Managing power system flexibility in India via coal plants. Energy Policy. 2021; 150 ():112061.
Chicago/Turabian StyleGireesh Shrimali. 2021. "Managing power system flexibility in India via coal plants." Energy Policy 150, no. : 112061.
India's ambitious decarbonization goals for 2030 – 40% of electricity generation capacity from renewable energy and 30% of automobile sales as electric vehicles – are expected to create significant demand for battery storage in India. This provides an opportunity for India to become a leader in battery storage manufacturing. However, setting up appropriate conditions for the same would require an understanding of the typical barriers faced by a country's industry in establishing manufacturing competency. To do so, this study first develops a critical barrier framework by identifying and assimilating barriers to industrial development, via a comprehensive literature review on industrial development. This framework consists of barriers that fall under three main categories, namely Getting to Scale, Resources and Infrastructure, and Global Competitiveness; and it posits that all these barriers need to be overcome for an industry to be successful. This framework is then verified using international and Indian case studies on the automobile, pharmaceutical, and solar photovoltaic industries. This framework is subsequently used to provide suggestions to policymakers for consideration, including the following: First, clearly identifying target markets; second, potentially exploring the use of protectionist measures; third, enabling entry in the value chain closer to the end product, while ensuring appropriate access to infrastructure and resources; and, eventually moving up higher in the value chain, via a focus on research and development.
Aravind Retna Kumar; Gireesh Shrimali. Battery storage manufacturing in India: A strategic perspective. Journal of Energy Storage 2020, 32, 101817 .
AMA StyleAravind Retna Kumar, Gireesh Shrimali. Battery storage manufacturing in India: A strategic perspective. Journal of Energy Storage. 2020; 32 ():101817.
Chicago/Turabian StyleAravind Retna Kumar; Gireesh Shrimali. 2020. "Battery storage manufacturing in India: A strategic perspective." Journal of Energy Storage 32, no. : 101817.
India has ambitious solar energy targets of 100 GW by 2022, including 60 GW at large-scale solar and 40 GW at small-scale solar. While India has made considerable progress in meeting these targets, with 22 GW of solar deployment in 2018, it has a long way to go. Given that solar deployment in India is now largely driven by states, this study strives to understand state-level drivers for solar deployment in India, so as to inform future policy making for reaching India's solar targets. Using econometric techniques – a time series cross sectional regression with fixed effects – over a panel dataset over 11 years (2009–2019) of Indian states, it explores policy, economic, and structural drivers of solar deployment. The key results indicate the importance of two policies – the Renewable Purchase Obligations and Solar Parks – in reaching India's solar target. It may be postulated that these learnings would also be useful for other developing countries with significant solar ambitions. Further, while no further evidence of policy effectiveness is found, more results are expected to emerge as access to more and better data becomes available.
Gireesh Shrimali; Navin Agarwal; Charles Donovan. Drivers of solar deployment in India: A state-level econometric analysis. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 2020, 133, 110137 .
AMA StyleGireesh Shrimali, Navin Agarwal, Charles Donovan. Drivers of solar deployment in India: A state-level econometric analysis. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews. 2020; 133 ():110137.
Chicago/Turabian StyleGireesh Shrimali; Navin Agarwal; Charles Donovan. 2020. "Drivers of solar deployment in India: A state-level econometric analysis." Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 133, no. : 110137.
This article examines the need for scaling up investments in rooftop solar projects in India’s micro, small, and medium enterprise (MSME) sector. In this context, the article identifies the third-party financing model as a key business model and notes two key barriers to financing these rooftop solar projects—payment delay and payment default. Arguably, these barriers can be addressed via a credit guarantee mechanism (CGM). Based on the methodology for expected loss sizing, a pilot CGM supporting installation of 400 MW of rooftop solar capacity would need a CGM sized at $22.36 million. The leverage for this CGM would be 8.94 and 13.77 for debt and total capital facilitation, respectively. The article recommends that the Indian government should launch a comprehensive CGM scheme as a public intervention, using suitable host financial institutions. The article also notes many avenues for improving on this work. TOPICS: Emerging markets, credit risk management Key Findings • Scaling investment in rooftop solar in the MSME sector in India would require addressing the twin barriers of payment delay and payment default. • In the near term these barriers can be addressed via a public funded credit guarantee mechanism (CGM). • An appropriately designed CGM can provide a leverage of 8.94 and 13.77 for debt and total capital, respectively.
Gireesh Shrimali. A Credit Guarantee Scheme for Rooftop Solar in India. The Journal of Structured Finance 2020, 26, 64 -82.
AMA StyleGireesh Shrimali. A Credit Guarantee Scheme for Rooftop Solar in India. The Journal of Structured Finance. 2020; 26 (2):64-82.
Chicago/Turabian StyleGireesh Shrimali. 2020. "A Credit Guarantee Scheme for Rooftop Solar in India." The Journal of Structured Finance 26, no. 2: 64-82.
As India implements its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC), via an ambitious renewable energy target of 175 GW of renewable energy by 2022, it is faced with an opportunity to further reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This opportunity is provided by the average cost of solar (and wind) energy falling below the variable cost of generating power from many existing coal plants. This indicates that, while other potential uses exist (e.g., making coal plants flexible), such expensive brownfield coal plants could potentially be economically retired today by simply switching to buying power from new solar plants. For example, by switching to a solar plant from a sample 5-year coal plant, the savings can be 33.90% in net present value terms. Further, while the savings on energy procurement is obvious, there could also be savings on committed contractual obligations on paying fixed costs, via a process called securitization. For example, using cashflow analysis, we show that retiring a sample 5-year old coal plant can save an additional 31.57% in value. We also discuss plausible regulatory changes, for which there are precedents in India and elsewhere, that would enable this cost-effective transition to a deeper penetration of renewable energy via retirement of expensive coal plants.
Gireesh Shrimali. Making India's power system clean: Retirement of expensive coal plants. Energy Policy 2020, 139, 111305 .
AMA StyleGireesh Shrimali. Making India's power system clean: Retirement of expensive coal plants. Energy Policy. 2020; 139 ():111305.
Chicago/Turabian StyleGireesh Shrimali. 2020. "Making India's power system clean: Retirement of expensive coal plants." Energy Policy 139, no. : 111305.
In this paper, we have examined scaling reliable electricity access in India from two perspectives. First, given past policies, we examine the ability of mini grids to achieve profitability at the unit level as well as potential for scaling. We find that many mini grid developers have shown profitable unit economics and are getting ready to scale; however, they face increased challenges given India's success with 100% electrification. Second, given the experience gained by mini grid operators, we explore collaborative business models that would allow for win-win situations going forward for both distribution utilities and private operators. We use a modification of the existing distribution franchisee model to allow the mini grids operations to manage not only metering and billing but also operation and maintenance as well as generation. We show that it is possible to create business models that not only are appealing from a financial perspective – i.e., in not only improving distribution utility margins but also in meeting private operator criteria of 12% internal rate of return – but also meet multiple policy objectives such as provision of 24-hour electricity reliably and meeting renewable power obligations. However, we also show that the eventual success of these models would critically depend on the distribution utilities and mini grid operators agreeing on elements of these business models, in particular equitable sharing of roles and responsibilities around generation, distribution, operations and maintenance, metering and billing, as well as financial value.
Gireesh Shrimali; Vivek Sen. Scaling reliable electricity access in India: A public-private partnership model. Energy for Sustainable Development 2020, 55, 69 -81.
AMA StyleGireesh Shrimali, Vivek Sen. Scaling reliable electricity access in India: A public-private partnership model. Energy for Sustainable Development. 2020; 55 ():69-81.
Chicago/Turabian StyleGireesh Shrimali; Vivek Sen. 2020. "Scaling reliable electricity access in India: A public-private partnership model." Energy for Sustainable Development 55, no. : 69-81.
India’s renewable energy target of 175 GW by 2022—including 100GW of solar and 60GW of wind—is an ambitious path to meeting increasing energy demands. Meeting this goal is not going to be easy; India faces a shortage of attractive capital to meet its renewable energy targets. Investors face two major risks to investing in India, including in renewable energy: currency risk and off-taker risk. Off-taker risk is a key contributor to the overall credit risk of power projects in India, adding as much as 1.07 percentage points of additional risk premium to the cost of debt for renewable energy projects. Mitigating the off-taker risk requires long-term structural fixes focused on addressing the systematic failures of the utilities sector. However, short-term solutions are still needed to mitigate the off-taker risk. One short-term solution to mitigate off-taker risk is a government-sponsored payment security mechanism that would provide assurance that the payments under power purchase agreements are made on time. In this article, the authors lay out a framework for designing a payment support mechanism for single off-takers, to effectively achieve target credit enhancement in the beneficiary projects. They find that, barring outliers, the average payment security support in their sample turns out to be 12 months, or 10%–20% of capital expenditure, which is significant. They also discuss avenues for future research.
Gireesh Shrimali; Vaibhav Pratap Singh; Vinit Atal. A Payment Security Mechanism for Off-Taker Risk in Renewable Energy Projects in India. The Journal of Structured Finance 2019, 25, 87 -99.
AMA StyleGireesh Shrimali, Vaibhav Pratap Singh, Vinit Atal. A Payment Security Mechanism for Off-Taker Risk in Renewable Energy Projects in India. The Journal of Structured Finance. 2019; 25 (2):87-99.
Chicago/Turabian StyleGireesh Shrimali; Vaibhav Pratap Singh; Vinit Atal. 2019. "A Payment Security Mechanism for Off-Taker Risk in Renewable Energy Projects in India." The Journal of Structured Finance 25, no. 2: 87-99.
Gireesh Shrimali. Do clean energy (equity) investments add value to a portfolio? Green Finance 2019, 1, 188 -204.
AMA StyleGireesh Shrimali. Do clean energy (equity) investments add value to a portfolio? Green Finance. 2019; 1 (2):188-204.
Chicago/Turabian StyleGireesh Shrimali. 2019. "Do clean energy (equity) investments add value to a portfolio?" Green Finance 1, no. 2: 188-204.
The Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM) is one of India’s key policy and scientific experiments. The programme is audacious in its goal, deterministic in its approach, disjointed in its design, and challenged in its governance. Yet it holds the promise of transforming the lives of millions of Indians. This paper provides an analysis of the JNNSM in the Indian institutional context—in particular, in the context of the power sector reforms. It highlights the barriers to development and diffusion that have been dismantled though the use of appropriate policy tools, and those that still remain. It identifies the policy implementation challenges likely to be encountered in the case of grid-connected, roof-top, and off-grid applications as well as in the areas of research, development and technology transfer. Finally, it discusses a series of high-level approaches based on global best practices to address these remaining challenges.
Gireesh Shrimali; Sunali Rohra. India’s solar mission: A review. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 2012, 16, 6317 -6332.
AMA StyleGireesh Shrimali, Sunali Rohra. India’s solar mission: A review. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews. 2012; 16 (8):6317-6332.
Chicago/Turabian StyleGireesh Shrimali; Sunali Rohra. 2012. "India’s solar mission: A review." Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 16, no. 8: 6317-6332.
Andrea Sarzynski; Jeremy Larrieu; Gireesh Shrimali. The impact of state financial incentives on market deployment of solar technology. Energy Policy 2012, 46, 550 -557.
AMA StyleAndrea Sarzynski, Jeremy Larrieu, Gireesh Shrimali. The impact of state financial incentives on market deployment of solar technology. Energy Policy. 2012; 46 ():550-557.
Chicago/Turabian StyleAndrea Sarzynski; Jeremy Larrieu; Gireesh Shrimali. 2012. "The impact of state financial incentives on market deployment of solar technology." Energy Policy 46, no. : 550-557.
Gireesh Shrimali. Existence of Market Equilibria for Grid Computing. Applied Mathematics 2012, 03, 1763 -1778.
AMA StyleGireesh Shrimali. Existence of Market Equilibria for Grid Computing. Applied Mathematics. 2012; 03 (11):1763-1778.
Chicago/Turabian StyleGireesh Shrimali. 2012. "Existence of Market Equilibria for Grid Computing." Applied Mathematics 03, no. 11: 1763-1778.
Burning of biomass for cooking is associated with health problems and climate change impacts. Many previous efforts to disseminate improved stoves – primarily by governments and NGOs – have not been successful. Based on interviews with 12 organizations selling improved biomass stoves, we assess the results to date and future prospects of commercial stove operations in India. Specifically, we consider how the ability of these businesses to achieve scale and become self-sustaining has been influenced by six elements of their respective business models: design, customers targeted, financing, marketing, channel strategy, and organizational characteristics. The two companies with the most stoves in the field shared in common generous enterprise financing, a sophisticated approach to developing a sales channel, and many person-years of management experience in marketing and operations. And yet the financial sustainability of improved stove sales to households remains far from assured. The only company in our sample with demonstrated profitability is a family-owned business selling to commercial rather than household customers. The stove sales leader is itself now turning to the commercial segment to maintain flagging cash flow, casting doubt on the likelihood of large positive impacts on health from sales to households in the near term.
Gireesh Shrimali; Xander Slaski; Mark C. Thurber; Hisham Zerriffi. Improved stoves in India: A study of sustainable business models. Energy Policy 2011, 39, 7543 -7556.
AMA StyleGireesh Shrimali, Xander Slaski, Mark C. Thurber, Hisham Zerriffi. Improved stoves in India: A study of sustainable business models. Energy Policy. 2011; 39 (12):7543-7556.
Chicago/Turabian StyleGireesh Shrimali; Xander Slaski; Mark C. Thurber; Hisham Zerriffi. 2011. "Improved stoves in India: A study of sustainable business models." Energy Policy 39, no. 12: 7543-7556.
Gireesh Shrimali; Joshua Kniefel. Are government policies effective in promoting deployment of renewable electricity resources? Energy Policy 2011, 39, 4726 -4741.
AMA StyleGireesh Shrimali, Joshua Kniefel. Are government policies effective in promoting deployment of renewable electricity resources? Energy Policy. 2011; 39 (9):4726-4741.
Chicago/Turabian StyleGireesh Shrimali; Joshua Kniefel. 2011. "Are government policies effective in promoting deployment of renewable electricity resources?" Energy Policy 39, no. 9: 4726-4741.
We look at non-cooperative resource sharing (a generalization of paid peering) among Internet Service Providers (ISPs), where individually rational providers who not only compete for customers but also participate in resource sharing, in order to utilize underlying complementarities in cost structures. In particular, we are interested in the following question: would simple, easy-to-implement access pricing mechanisms guarantee ex-ante participation in resource sharing even by providers who, subsequent to deciding participation, engage in competition for customers, set access prices and make routing decisions? We first show that, in presence of linear access pricing, participation in the sharing arrangement is possible, but not guaranteed. We then show that a two-part tariff guarantees participation in the sharing agreement—this is not obvious given that resource sharing alters customer bases. We also show that our mechanism is robust to providers mis-reporting their types. Next, we show that, though both providers choose strictly positive customer bases, one of the them has no incentive to utilize the resources of the other and effectively acts as a resource supplier, whereas the other provider utilizes both resources. Finally, we show the robustness of our results to different cost structure and game forms, and provide some policy implications. Our results have significant implications not only for policy design since they suggest that paid peering should be encouraged but also for design of realistic traffic engineering protocols.
Gireesh Shrimali. Competitive resource sharing by Internet Service Providers. NETNOMICS: Economic Research and Electronic Networking 2010, 11, 149 -179.
AMA StyleGireesh Shrimali. Competitive resource sharing by Internet Service Providers. NETNOMICS: Economic Research and Electronic Networking. 2010; 11 (2):149-179.
Chicago/Turabian StyleGireesh Shrimali. 2010. "Competitive resource sharing by Internet Service Providers." NETNOMICS: Economic Research and Electronic Networking 11, no. 2: 149-179.
Gireesh Shrimali. Surplus extraction by network providers: Implications for net neutrality and innovation. Telecommunications Policy 2008, 32, 545 -558.
AMA StyleGireesh Shrimali. Surplus extraction by network providers: Implications for net neutrality and innovation. Telecommunications Policy. 2008; 32 (8):545-558.
Chicago/Turabian StyleGireesh Shrimali. 2008. "Surplus extraction by network providers: Implications for net neutrality and innovation." Telecommunications Policy 32, no. 8: 545-558.
Gireesh Shrimali; Sunil Kumar. Bill-and-Keep peering. Telecommunications Policy 2008, 32, 19 -32.
AMA StyleGireesh Shrimali, Sunil Kumar. Bill-and-Keep peering. Telecommunications Policy. 2008; 32 (1):19-32.
Chicago/Turabian StyleGireesh Shrimali; Sunil Kumar. 2008. "Bill-and-Keep peering." Telecommunications Policy 32, no. 1: 19-32.
We analyze “Bill-and-Keep” peering between two providers, where no money exchanges hands. We assume that each provider incurs costs from its traffic traversing its as well as the peer’s links, and compute the traffic levels in Nash equilibrium. We show that Nash strategies are not blind, i.e., they are neither pure hot-potato nor pure cold-potato strategies. Rather, the Nash strategies involve strategically splitting traffic between a provider’s own links and its peer’s. We derive necessary and sufficient conditions for both the providers to be better (or worse) off in Nash equilibrium compared to the blind strategies. We also analyze society’s performance as a whole and derive necessary and sufficient conditions for the society to be better (or worse) off. In particular we establish that, under Bill-and-Keep peering, while it is not possible for two asymmetric providers to be both worse off, it is certainly possible for both to be better off.
Gireesh Shrimali; Sunil Kumar. Can “Bill-and-Keep” Peering Be Mutually Beneficial? Computer Vision 2005, 3828, 738 -747.
AMA StyleGireesh Shrimali, Sunil Kumar. Can “Bill-and-Keep” Peering Be Mutually Beneficial? Computer Vision. 2005; 3828 ():738-747.
Chicago/Turabian StyleGireesh Shrimali; Sunil Kumar. 2005. "Can “Bill-and-Keep” Peering Be Mutually Beneficial?" Computer Vision 3828, no. : 738-747.
The authors combine the techniques of interval tree search, look-ahead and redundant arithmetic to design high-speed architectures for arithmetic decoders. The decoder can be modeled as a FSM (finite state machine), enabling the application of the look-ahead technique to achieve higher speeds. The look-ahead approach leads to slight degradation in performance (in terms of the adder/subtractor delay in the coder/decoder due to increased word lengths). The performance of the decoder is improved by using redundant arithmetic. The tree search method combined with redundant arithmetic and look-ahead leads to desired speedups without any degradation in performance.
G. Shrimali; K.K. Parhi. High-speed arithmetic coder/decoder architectures. IEEE International Conference on Acoustics Speech and Signal Processing 1993, 1, 361 -364 vol.1.
AMA StyleG. Shrimali, K.K. Parhi. High-speed arithmetic coder/decoder architectures. IEEE International Conference on Acoustics Speech and Signal Processing. 1993; 1 ():361-364 vol.1.
Chicago/Turabian StyleG. Shrimali; K.K. Parhi. 1993. "High-speed arithmetic coder/decoder architectures." IEEE International Conference on Acoustics Speech and Signal Processing 1, no. : 361-364 vol.1.