India must rapidly scale solar to reach renewable targets: study

According to a Tuesday analysis, India must boost its solar energy capacity by 36% annually for at least the ensuing five years in order to achieve its energy mix objectives.

According to the analysis by UK-based energy think group Ember, it also urgently requires infrastructure upgrades and greater storage space to handle the intermittent nature of renewable energy sources.

However, there are encouraging indicators in the most populated nation on earth, which depends largely on coal combustion to produce its electricity.

According to Ember, investments in the renewables sector are rising, and this year, India put into service a record amount of solar power.

The National Electricity Plan (NEP) of India, which was released earlier this year, serves as the report’s beginning point.

The document, covering the decade to 2032, projects India will continue to rely on coal, but with renewables making up an ever-greater share of its power generation mix.

While solar accounted for just five percent of India’s total electricity generation in financial year 2022, the NEP projects it will make up 25 percent within a decade.

But achieving that will require a massive ramp-up of capacity every year for at least the next half-decade.

And India needs better storage solutions to address the variable supply of sources like solar and wind.

Failure to do so could cause power cuts, and “put pressure on state and national planners to hastily plan for increasing the coal capacity, which could result in future lock-ins,” the report warned.

India, this year’s G20 host, has seen its per capita coal emissions rise 29 percent in the last seven years and has shied away from any policy to phase down coal.