At the COP26 meeting in Glasgow 2021, Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, made a series of pledges that, if kept, will make his country a green-energy powerhouse. The most eye-catching was the promise that India would achieve “net-zero” emissions of greenhouse gases (ghgs) by 2070—meaning that any emissions that had not been eliminated by then would be offset in some way.
2 goals for 2030 underpin this:
slash emissions by a billion tonnes from their current trajectory
increase non-fossil power generation (which includes nuclear and hydro as well as wind and solar) more than three-fold, from roughly 150gw to 500gw
Here are some of the problems currently facing India:
Currently India is the 2nd largest user of coal (after China). Almost 3/4 of electricity currently comes from goal and there are 39 new coal-fired power plants under construction.
India spent more than 4% of gdp on imports of fossil fuels last year, a particularly vexing sum for a country with a persistent current-account deficit.
India’s entire generation capacity, both clean and dirty, is currently only 400gw. So Mr Modi wants to build a whole second grid’s-worth of green power in just eight years. To reach that goal, India will need to invest some $500bn in clean energy and improvements to the grid.
The World Health Organisation reckons that in 93% of the country, the level of air pollution is well above its guidelines. A study published in 2019 by the Lancet, a British medical journal, found that more than 1m Indians die each year as a result of the foul air.
Some positive progress:
Renewable power is growing very fast in India:
Solar generation capacity has increased 50-fold since 2012, to nearly 50gw at the end of last year.
In the first half of 2022 another 7.4gw of solar was added.
When it comes to building new generating capacity, renewables have already supplanted coal.
India’s sunny climate and low labour costs make it one of the cheapest places in the world to produce solar power - cheaper than coal or gas fired power station.
Power from windmills in India is also less expensive than burning fossil fuels
The focus of a lot of the investment is green hydrogen, which, it is hoped, will allow big industries such as steelmaking and fertilisers to decarbonise. India produces almost none of it at the moment, although it does consume some 7m tonnes a year of ordinary hydrogen, made using fossil fuels. Investors think it will be a good place to make the green sort, since the process requires a lot of clean power, which India’s solar industry can provide cheaply
India aims to be the first country to produce green hydrogen for $1/kg by 2032 (current cost is more than 4$/kg)
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