INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
has fallen well short of the rosy visions proclaimed by its leaders
India should become the first major economy to industrialise without carbonizing, to paraphrase its Group of 20 sherpa Amitabh Kant
Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised to connect 500 gigawatts of clean energy by 2030, equivalent to all the generators in France, Germany
and Italy put together.
The picture on the ground has, until recently, been very different
A previous aspiration to hit 175 GW by 2022 came in 40 per cent below target, and had to be fudged to avoid embarrassment
Ill-advised tariffs on solar panels, combined with contractual and political support for fossil fuels and constant changes to the rules of
Coal, the dirtiest fuel and the most readily available alternative to renewables in India, took up the slack: Usage by power plants jumped
by 8.8 per cent in the latest fiscal year through March
Solar panels and wind turbines have been springing up in 2024 like seedlings after the breaking of a drought
In the eight months through August, 18.8 GW of new renewable generators were connected, more than in the whole of 2023
Over the full year, that figure will increase to around 34 GW, the International Energy Agency forecast last week, before nearly doubling to
Growth rates are set to overtake China in the second half of the decade and become the most rapid of any major nation, the IEA wrote.
The
trend looks set to extend into next year as well
Tenders for renewable projects, a useful leading indicator, showed 70 GW of announcements and 33 GW of awards in the first half of the year
alone, according to S&P Global Commodity Insights
Projects already in train would bring the total to 430 GW, renewable energy minister Pralhad Joshi told parliament in August
All but 76 GW of the total is either operating or under construction, sharply reducing the risk this is the same old case of over-promising
and under-delivering.
Solar module manufacturers, encouraged by those counterproductive tariffs, have been busy building out factories
By 2026, the country will be able to assembly 172 GW of panels per year, according to Mercom India Research, a renewables consultancy
the Reserve Bank of India kept rates on hold last week, an easing of its monetary policy stance opens the way to cuts by the end of the
year, which should also help: Finance costs have been one of the biggest factors holding back further renewable development in recent
declining for nearly two decades and China is likely to hit its peak this year
footprint over the decades ahead.
That might be excusable in moral terms: India has barely contributed to the global climate problem so
BloombergNEF estimates that an Indian power sector that was on track to install 506 GW of clean energy by the start of 2030 would see its
own carbon footprint begin to decline as soon as 2026, putting the world as a whole on track to net zero emissions
without belching carbon, it may be dealt a decisive blow
The centuries-old nexus between pollution and wealth is finally being broken.Disclaimer: This is a Bloomberg Opinion piece, and these are
the personal opinions of the writer
They do not reflect the views of www.business-standard.com or the Business Standard newspaperFirst Published: Oct 15 2024 | 7:41 AMIST
