India's Green Energy Transition

Uttar Pradesh, the fourth largest state in terms of land area, is the most populated state in India, accounting for over 16% of the country’s total population. As of January 2023, the installed capacity for power generation in Uttar Pradesh was about 31.4 GW, with thermal energy accounting for the majority (82% of the total installed capacity), followed by solar energy (8%) and biomass (7%).

Over the past decade, digitalisation has been expedited across all industries. This has enabled businesses to store, manage, and remotely retrieve large amounts of both critical and non-critical data. In addition, improvements in the precision of global navigation systems, expansion of trade and commerce, increased access to quality education, and other data-intensive procedures have contributed to an elevated quality of life and heightened productivity.

With an increasing number of countries setting strong net-zero targets, there is a global push for the gradual discontinuation of fossil-fuel usage and the large-scale adoption of renewable energy (RE). In this context, green hydrogen is seen as the fuel of the future, with various governments and energy companies betting on it.

In recent years, blockchain technology has made significant strides across various industries, from finance to supply chain management.

Recent studies show that 67% of public transport commuters in India shifted to private vehicle ownership after the initial Covid-19 crisis (during 2021-22). Around 96% of these new vehicles were internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs) and will be in use for at least a decade, creating around 18.8 MtCO2 emissions annually.
Our analysis infers that if all of the newly added vehicles in India (during 2021-22) were electric vehicles (EVs), around 9.5 MtCO2 of emissions could have been avoided annually.

In India, a functioning hydrogen economy is expected to bolster the energy portfolio in a sustainable way with the support of conducive policies (National Green Hydrogen Mission) from the Government.

Novel and viable alternatives are warranted to achieve the 500 GW renewable energy target for 2030. Agrivoltaics (agriPV) is one such promising technology for optimising land usage by combining agriculture with PV.

Rooftop solar is expected to play a major role in India’s 280 GW solar target for 2030. However, only ~8 GW of the 40 GW target for 2022 has been achieved so far. The residential sector accounts for less than 20% of this installed capacity, despite being offered incentives such as net metering and a 20%–40% capital subsidy.

Of India’s nearly 62 GW installed solar capacity, about 50 GW is ground-mounted photovoltaic (PV) plants. Recent trends show that obtaining land parcels for large solar projects is becoming increasingly difficult. Innovative and viable alternatives are needed to reach the 450 GW renewable energy (RE) target for 2030. Among the buzzwords circulating in the upper echelons of policy and decision-making is ‘agrivoltaics’. The concept aims to optimise land usage by combining agriculture with PV (agriPV).

With India’s commitment to achieving net zero by 2070, one of the milestones is attaining 500 GW capacity from non-fossil fuel-based sources by 2030. India has made significant progress in this regard, with installed renewable energy (RE) capacity reaching 120,900 MW as of 30 December 2022 (solar power: 63,302 MW; wind power: 41,930 MW). However, more than 300 GW needs to be added to achieve the target by 2030.