Solar could supply half of India’s clean energy aims

U.S.-based researchers have modeled the costs of achieving 200 GW, 400 GW and 600 GW of renewable-energy capacity in India within this decade. They said PV should account for no more than half of all generating capacity and have urged policymakers to shift their focus to wind power.

Image: qkcreativity92, pixabay

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From pv magazine India

A new study by U.S. researchers has shown that India needs to be considerably more ambitious than its renewable-energy target of 450 GW of capacity by 2030.

The report showed that 600 GW of solar and wind capacity could keep Indian power-sector emissions at 2018 levels. The cost of doing so would be comparable to a fossil fuel-dominated grid, while almost doubling electricity supply, the researchers claimed. In carbon-mitigation and customer price terms, the most cost-effective approaches would entail a broad balance of solar and wind power or a power mix concentrated more on the latter, the study also showed.

Researchers from the University of California and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory studied a range of energy demand and cost scenarios, operational strategies, and battery storage investments. They also looked at differing clean- energy mixes, weather patterns, and energy infrastructure networks.

The results of the study, recently published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, indicated that renewables would not completely eliminate the need for fossil-fuel generation, but would better position the nation to exploit clean power.

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