This is how India
could kickstart a green energy revolution
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/03/india-green-energy-revolution-co2-emissions/
Solar energy currently accounts for just 4% of India’s power
generation.
Image: REUTERS/Amit Dave
09 Mar 2021
Douglas Broom
Senior Writer, Formative Content
*India is set to become the world’s third biggest economy by
2030.
*Currently, over 80% of its electricity comes from burning
coal, oil and biomass.
*The country now needs a massive expansion of renewable
energy to power its growth, says the International Energy Agency.
*Progress has been made, with a successful campaign to switch
to efficient LED lighting in most houses.
India is the world’s sixth largest economy. By 2030, it’s
predicted to have moved up to number three. But a new report says that unless
there is a green energy revolution, India will also become a major source of
global CO2 emissions.
Already the world’s third largest producer of CO2,India accounted for 7% of the global total in 2018. Although its emissions are lower
than China (28% of global emissions) and the United States (15%), it remains
heavily reliant on coal to generate electricity.
India is the world's third largest emitter of CO2.
Image: Union of Concerned Scientists
Over 80% of its electricity comes from burning coal, oil and
biomass, according to a new report from the International Energy Agency(IEA).
Energy use has doubled since 2000, and power generation
currently accounts for more than half of the country’s CO2 emissions. The IEA
predicts that the growth in India’s demand for energy will outpace any other
nation until at least 2040.
And it’s not just economic growth that’s driving India’s
energy demand. The IEA says the country will be home to 270 million more people
over the next 20 years. Housing this growing population will increase demand on
carbon-intensive industries like cement and steel.
More solar needed
Solar energy currently accounts for just 4% of India’s power
generation. The IEA says India will need to spend $1.4 trillion over the next
20 years to make its energy supply sustainable – that’s 70% more than provided
in current government policy planning.
Domestic oil and gas supplies will be unable to keep pace
with growing demand and the report warns that price and market volatility could
cause India problems unless it switches to a green energy future.
Big infrastructure and machinery investments will be needed
to deliver India’s rapid economic growth and the IEA says this must be
sustainable, otherwise the new equipment could account for 60% of all emissions
by the late 2030s.
Remarkable progress
Despite the challenges, India’s achievements to date have
been impressive, says the IEA, citing a successful campaign to promote the use
of highly efficient LED lighting by most households.
“India has made remarkable progress in recent years, bringing
electricity connections to hundreds of millions of people and impressively
scaling up the use of renewable energy, particularly solar,” said IEA Executive
Director Dr Fatih Birol.
Despite the growth of renewable energy, many consumers still
face unreliable electricity supplies and over 600 million people still use
firewood for cooking. The IEA says reliable power supplies are also key to
reducing India’s chronic levels of air pollution.
Opportunity for a new energy future.
Image: IEA
A potential world leader
“India will soon become the world’s most populous country,
adding the equivalent of a city the size of Los Angeles to its urban population
each year,” the report says. “To meet growth in electricity demand over the
next 20 years, India will need to add a power system the size of the European
Union to what it has now.”
The report expects India to emerge as a leader in renewable
energy technology and it predicts that one in seven of the dollars spent
globally on solar PV, wind turbine and lithium-ion battery storage will be
going to Indian companies by 2040.
In the World Economic Forum’s Energy Transition Index 2020,
India, which was ranked 74th out of the 115 nations studied, was singled out as
one of only 11 nations to have made “consistent and measurable progress on
their energy transition over the past six years”.