The Council on Energy, Environment and Water presents a first-of-its-kind roadmap to India's renewable energy and green hydrogen potential, and the challenges ahead
India’s current RE potential stands at around 150 GW. The country has the target to have 500 GW of non-fossil-fuel capacity by 2030, and reach net-zero by 2070.
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India has a potential of generating 24,000 GW of renewable energy (RE) without any constraints, says a new study by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW). The country needs less than one-third of non-fossil-fuel potential—up to 7,000 GW—to reach its net-zero targets by 2070, which includes solar capacity of over 5,600 GW and wind capacity of around 1,800 GW. However, deployment beyond 1,500 GW could face multiple constraints and will require strategic land use, improved water management and a resilient grid, adds the study.
India’s current RE potential stands at around 150 GW. The country has the target to have 500 GW of non-fossil-fuel capacity by 2030, and reach net-zero by 2070. “The 500 GW target is laudable, but we are looking at it rather myopically. One might say, let’s do what is possible immediately, and then think about the long-term, but that could have implications and we could be sub-optimal in how we plan our longer-term energy needs,” Hemant Mallya, fellow, CEEW, tells Forbes India.
He explains that one of the intents of the study was to determine how much each of the constraints around land scarcity, water availability and management, population density and climate risks will limit India’s ability to deploy RE, and how these barriers can be addressed. For instance, while most of the land in the country has been digitised, there are features of the land parcel, like ownership rights and usage, which are not understood and documented. These could give rise to conflicts and delays that can affect RE deployment.
States with high unconstrained RE potential include Rajasthan (6,464 GW), Madhya Pradesh (2,978 GW), Maharashtra (2,409 GW) and Ladakh (625 GW), which have low-cost solar potential, while Karnataka (293 GW), Gujarat (212 GW) and Maharashtra (184 GW) offer considerable wind potential.