Deserts

Currently, coal generates 70% of India’s electricity, but Prime Minister Narendra Modi has promised that by 2030, India will create more energy from solar and other renewables than its whole grid. “First, India’s non-fossil energy capacity will be increased to 500 gigawatts… Second, by 2030, renewable energy will account for half of our total energy consumption “Modi made his remarks at the COP26 climate meeting in Glasgow.

Officials believe the arid state of Rajasthan, where Bhadla Park covers an area nearly the size of San Marino, has 325 bright days each year, making it ideal for the solar power revolution. Authorities have taken advantage of the sparsely populated area, stating that residents have been displaced to a minimum. Robots remove dust and grit from an estimated 10 million solar panels today, while a few hundred humans keep an eye on them. This quest for a more environmentally friendly future is driven by necessity. India, with 1.3 billion people and on track to overtake China as the world’s most populous country, has a voracious thirst for energy, but it is also at the forefront of climate change.

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), it will need to build a power infrastructure the size of Europe’s in the next two decades to meet the demand for its growing population, but it will also need to address harmful air quality in its major cities. “India is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to climate change,” Arunabha Ghosh, a climate policy expert with the Council on Energy, Environment, and Water, told AFP. “That is why it has this enormous focus on renewables to decarbonize the power sector while simultaneously reducing air pollution.”

According to experts, the United Kingdom, which is the world’s third-largest carbon emitter, is still a long way from fulfilling its green goals, with coal expected to remain a key source of energy in the future years. -‘Extremely large change’ – Although India’s green energy sector has risen fivefold in just over a decade, to 100GW this year, it must now continue to grow at the same rate to meet the country’s 2030 targets. “I believe this is more of an aspirational objective… to show the world that we are moving in the right direction,” renewable energy consultant Vinay Rustagi told AFP.

“However, given numerous demand and supply difficulties, it would be a huge stretch and appear exceedingly implausible,” Rustagi said. Bhadla Solar Park, one of the world’s largest, is cited by proponents as an example of how innovation, technology, and public and private funding can propel rapid change. “We have vast swaths of land where there isn’t a single blade of grass. You can no longer see the ground. All you see are solar panels. It’s a massive transition “Rajasthan’s additional chief secretary for energy, Subodh Agarwal, told AFP.

Authorities are enticing renewable energy companies to locate in the “desert state” region. Demand, according to Agarwal, has “increased” since 2019. “Rajasthan will be different this time. It will be the state of the sun “He predicted for the next ten years. According to forecasts from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), coal-fired power for electricity generation could reach a peak by 2024 if the current trend continues. Solar power currently accounts for 4% of total electricity generation. Based on present policy, the IEA predicted that solar and coal will converge at roughly 30% apiece by 2040, before Modi’s announcement.

India’s billionaires, notably Asia’s two wealthiest men, Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani, have pledged massive investments, while Modi is constructing a renewable energy park the size of Singapore in his home state of Gujarat. – Show me your cash – However, analysts warn that redesigning an entire power network requires time and money. Around 80% of solar panels in India are still imported from China, the world’s largest manufacturer. Gyanesh Chaudhary, CEO of Indian solar panel producer Vikram Solar, maintained that there should already be “more than 30” domestic companies like his. “That is the type of demand (and ecology) that India would require… It should’ve happened a long time ago.”

Inadequate policies, financing constraints, cheaper panels from China, and infrastructure and energy storage difficulties, according to experts, have stifled domestic progress. “A lot of these plants are located at quite vast distances from power stations, so you have to think about linking them,” said Apurba Mitra, India’s climate policy chief at the World Resources Institute. Modi, who stated at COP26 that India would be carbon neutral by 2070, made it plain that such pledges would necessitate funding from wealthy, historical polluters. “India expects wealthy countries to give $1 trillion in climate funding as soon as possible.”

“Today, we must track climate financing progress in the same way that we track climate mitigation progress,” he told the more than 120 leaders who attended the crucial meetings. – Changing people’s lives – Amit Singh, a farmer, and doctor had run out of water and was experiencing frequent power outages on his three-acre family farmland in Rajasthan’s Bhaloji hamlet. “I’ve always wondered why not harness the sun and its rays to generate electricity?” he asked. Singh began by installing rooftop panels at his little hospital, which provided half of the institution’s energy requirements. He subsequently put his family’s money into a government-backed project on his property.

Singh sells electricity to the grid for 400,000 rupees per month after investing 35 million rupees in the mini-solar farm. “It’s the ultimate source of energy that would otherwise be wasted… I feel like I’m helping my village thrive,” he continued. Cost-cutting, according to Ghosh, is crucial. “We can bring the energy transition closer to the people when a farmer can generate power from their solar plant near their land and pump out water,” he continued.

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