The goal of this case study is to determine whether India is capable of meeting its whole energy demand with renewable energy by 2050 and would India be capable of exporting part of this produced energy to European nations. For solving the question few major aspects are taken into consideration. The starting point is an overview of India’s current consumption and energy requirements. Following that, the foundations for a possible transformation of the Indian energy system to a complete covering by renewable energies are researched. The study considers various factors such as risks, present policies, and the future expansion of energy needs. India’s NDC goals are analyzed, and projections and plans are put together to determine its capabilities. Finally, the topic of synthetic fuels and the necessary infrastructure for their export are evaluated. With the gathered information an assumption is made what will be the minimum amount of energy required to be generated from renewable sources if India wants to cover its whole demand, taking major factors like enough energy for all Indian citizens into consideration.
Introduction
India’s top priority is the need for clean energy to meet the worldwide duty under INDC (Intended Nationally Determined Contribution) to reach the objective of lessening GDP outflow power by 35%. The decrease is to be made by 2030 considering 2005 as a piece of base information. With a forceful pursue of INDC targets in renewable energy capacity addition, India can have over half of the power generated from an inexhaustible source, driving the worldwide sustainable power source generation in 2050. India is looking at a gigantic charge of its energy concentrated divisions, most of which is believed to be provided by 2050 from sustainable sources like sun-based and wind. Progressing endeavors towards greening the passenger and cargo transportation by railroads and an aspiring arrangement to electrify the whole road transportation by 2030 demonstrate that the second most energy escalated segment – transportation is also focused upon. A huge pipeline is said to be built to reach the transportation target of 100GW by 2022. [1]
Because India is an enormous nation by territory, it has a gigantic ability to create renewable energy when contrasted with the European nations. However, a country as large as India, with such a huge population, has a significant energy demand for self-sufficiency. Aside from that, India has committed to doing its fair share to limit global warming to 2°C. As a result, it is pointless to think that India will just start exporting renewable energy. In light of the foregoing, it is far more reasonable to expect that India would profit the most from its vast resources by first becoming a 100% renewable nation in terms of energy, and then exporting any surpluses in renewable energy production as a second step.
Current Scenario
India is the third-largest energy-consuming country in the world. Since the year 2000, India’s energy consumption has increased with coal, oil, and solid biomass still meeting 80% of demand. India will soon become the most populated nation in the world and therefore to fulfil rising electricity demand over the next two decades, India will need to expand its current power grid to the size of the European Union. [2]
Currently, about 25% of the populace does not have any approach to power and an enormous extent of the populace, particularly in provincial zones, depends on non-business biomass like kindling for their cooking needs, which ultimately causes health issues because of poor air quality. [3] India’s transport sector is a rapidly developing area and contributes 6.4% to the GDP of the nation. The part is to a great extent oil-ward and records for 13% of the nation’s energy-related CO2 emanations. Unrefined petroleum imports have been expanding consistently making India the third-biggest oil consumer all around. Almost 80% of India’s present raw petroleum utilization originates from imports raising difficulties of national energy security. [4]
The energy intensity of Indian manufacturing industries is considered among the most elevated sector around the globe and represents huge energy utilization. Subsequently, diminishing the energy intensity of Indian assembling enterprises is a very important challenge. The five biggest energy utilizing manufacturing or production industries in India are aluminum, cement, iron and steel industries, textile industries, and fertilizer industries. According to the information from the PROWESS database of the Centre for Monitoring the Indian Economy for the period 2005–2014, the aluminum industry is the most energy-intensive industry followed by the iron and steel industry. These businesses represent over 60% of the energy devoured inside the modern parts. [5] According to a report published by the Niti Ayog in 2017, the Indian industry sector has been a significant driver of development, accounting for 45% to 50% of overall commercial energy consumption. The implementation of electronics engineering technologies and Best Operating Practices is a priority for large companies. There is a huge opportunity for energy efficiency in SMEs (small and medium enterprises), especially in terms of overcoming financial and technological barriers. There is also a need for a focused RDD&D program in energy-intensive SME sectors, as well as appropriate business models for up-scaling these SME’s. [6]
The Transformation: Risk and Political Structure
India is a nation with a population of nearly 1.3 billion people which causes more need for industries and transport and ultimately more demand for electricity and other energy (fuels, gases). But with a large population and hence with large consumption of energy comes the adverse effects that can lead to tremendous damage and harm to our environment or vice versa. These factors could be pollution and deforestation (caused due to population) and drought, floods, Tsunami, earthquakes, cyclones (natural disasters). On the other hand, pollution causes distress to the population by various diseases like plague, asthma, or other respiratory-related illnesses. To control these effects and climate change, the Indian government is taking various steps for the improvement of the nation’s state, making renewable energy a sector that will help us in achieving a win-win scenario.
In India, the environmental shift has altered precipitation patterns, affected networks, and even created illnesses. Air pollution has also been an undeniable concern, with 15 of the world’s 20 worst cities being located in India. With increasing domestic and international pressures to act, India’s financial plan for 2020-’21 positioned it as a leader among countries pursuing transformation at a strategic level. [7] The Indian government is taking significant steps toward achieving its environmental goals. Environment Education, Awareness, and Training Schemes are being implemented by the Ministry of Environment, Forestry, and Climate Change to promote ecological awareness among all segments of the public and to prepare individuals’ interests for environmental protection. Around a hundred thousand schools have been designated as Eco-clubs under the Ministry’s National Green Corps (NGC) initiative, where nearly three million students are actively participating in various condition assurance and preservation activities, including concerns related to air pollution. [8]
Other than the environmental hazards there are various sectors where efficient policy development is required in India to achieve a clean energy transition. To lessen India’s energy dependence, substantial changes are necessary. India is currently the world leader in energy output, yet it is still heavily reliant on imports. These imports mainly consist of crude oil. India is one of the biggest importers of crude oil. During 2018, India devoured 204.92 million tons of oil-based commodities and 58.64 billion cubic meters of petroleum gas while the local creation of raw petroleum and flammable gas nearly deteriorated. “The import dependency of unrefined petroleum and LNG throughout the year was 82.59% and 45.89%, respectively which is definitely going to rise in the approaching years.” [9] The government, on the other hand, is attempting to minimize its reliance by supporting a green agenda. By 2022, the Indian government hopes to generate 175 GW of renewable energy, with 100 GW coming from sun-based sources, 10 GW from bio-based sources, 60 GW from wind, and 5 GW from small hydropower facilities. India’s current aspirational fuel ethanol blend objective is E10 by 2022, but there is no near-term biodiesel blend aim. By 2030, India’s National Biofuel Policy 2018 aims to attain an E20 national average for gasoline and a B5 national average for diesel. [10]
Though India has optimistic goals still the nation lacks with its policies or operating mechanisms. The political control of the power segment isn’t strict, resulting in uncertainties, so this segment is just slowly getting appealing for private investors. At the central government level, five services are responsible, which makes it hard to force an unmistakable segment strategy and results in protracted procedures. In any event now in the new government, the three most significant services have been joined under one minister. The power division is on a fundamental level open for private financial specialists. In any case, numerous financial specialists are hindered by the previously mentioned issues and by the large bulky Indian organization. Against this setting, it isn’t astounding that the portion of the private area in the introduced power generation limit adds up to date to a minor 35 %. [11]
The Green Transition
Growing carbon emissions and climate change have brought every nation to think twice about their environmental protection steps. India is working hard to deploy a large number of renewables within the nation. Its NDC commitment and financing schemes are forcing India to move faster towards getting a renewable nation. India’s NDCs have gotten high endorsement appraisals in the worldwide field. Environmental groups, for example, Climate Action Tracker and Climate Transparency, have set India at a higher position on their scale in terms of performance when compared to its G20 peers. India’s NDCs are seen as predictable with a 2-degree pathway. Likewise, India is near 1.5-degree pathways if certain conditions are met. [12]
On 15th August 2021, the Honourable Prime Minister of India announced National Hydrogen Mission to reduce carbon emission and promote the use of green energy technologies. The goal of the mission is also to increase the production of green Hydrogen in India and align India with current international technological development trends and practices, policies, and legislatures. For the research and development of hydrogen technologies, the Indian government has allotted a total amount of INR 250,000,000 in their union budget for the fiscal year 2021-22. [13]
The private sector companies are also participating in the development of green infrastructure in India. Tata Power Company Limited, which is India’s biggest private segment power creating enterprise with an introduced production unit of more than 2977 MW. The Company is a pioneer in the Indian force division. It has investments in hydro, solar-based, and wind, operating within the areas of energy production, transmission, and retail. As of now, Tata Power’s wind turbines are (mainly) spread across the three states of Maharashtra (100MW), Gujarat (50 MW), and Karnataka (50 MW). The Company has submitted a request for more than 150 MW plants to be set up in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. The Company is actualizing a 3 MW sun-powered photovoltaic plant at Mulshi which will be one of the biggest grid-bound plants in Maharashtra. The Company has likewise applied for a portion of 25 MW sun-based ability to be set up in Gujarat under the new approach of the Government of Gujarat. [14] A company like Adani took India’s solar energy production to a whole new level with the latest target and plan. Under the Indian government’s Atma Nirbhar Bharat (Self-dependent India) scheme Adani Green Energy Limited (AGEL, NSE: ADANIGREEN) has won the first of its kind manufacturing linked sun-based agreement (Tender) from the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI). As a piece of the award, AGEL will create 8 GW of sun-oriented tasks alongside a responsibility that will see Adani Solar set up 2 GW of extra sun-oriented cell and module producing units. Currently, this award is the biggest of its sort, on the planet and it will involve a solitary venture of Rs. 45,000 crores (the 6 billion US dollar) and will make 400,000 immediate and indirect employments. [15]
The Technology
To achieve the clean energy transition in India and also export the surplus technologies to the European nations a huge infrastructure development is required. The electricity produced from renewable energy sources are continuous sources and therefore they can either be transported directly to grids or must be stored somewhere. Grids can be used to transport electricity but only up to a certain extent as there are grid losses involved when transporting electricity. But a problem with electrical energy arises when it comes to storage. The only way to store electricity is using batteries. Batteries are one option for the storage of electrical energy but they are not the best or most efficient, and optimal (pocket-friendly) solution for the transport of this energy, therefore wind and solar energy faces the issue as they require continuous distribution when proper storage is not available. Therefore, the best possible way of transportation of energy produced by renewable energy technologies is in the form of renewable fuels.
There are various ways of conversion of green electricity into usable fuels that can be easily stored and transported using tanks and pipelines. The various renewable fuels are Hydrogen, Methanol, and Syngas.
Hydrogen can be produced in various ways. The most eco-friendly way of creating hydrogen is by using renewable electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen in a special device called an electrolyzer.[16] Another method of hydrogen consists of thermal procedures. Steam reforming, a high-temperature process in which steam reacts with a hydrocarbon fuel to produce hydrogen, is a popular thermal technique for hydrogen production. Flammable gas, diesel, inexhaustible fluid fills, gasifier coal, and gasified biomass are all examples of hydrocarbon fuels that can be converted to hydrogen. About 95% of all hydrogen is now produced by steam converting petroleum gas. [17] The second type of fuel is methanol and syngas. Methanol is a clear liquid chemical that is water-soluble and readily biodegradable. Methanol has the particular preferred position of “polygeneration” as methanol can be produced using any asset that can be changed over into synthetic gas. Utilizing developed gasification advances, synthetic gas can be delivered from whatever is or ever was a plant. This incorporates biomass, rural and lumber squander, civil solid waste, and a few different feedstocks. Synthetic gas can likewise be created by joining waste CO2 from assembling or power plants with hydrogen delivered from the electrolysis of water utilizing inexhaustible power to create electrofuels. Methanol can be made from little scope units creating a couple of hundred gallons or liters for every day to world-scale, “mega methanol” plants making 5000 metric tons (1.6 million gallons) every day. [18]
The produced renewable fuels can be transported easily from one place to another. For shorter distances pipelines can be proved to be the best possible solution for the transportation of renewable fuels. But the problem with pipelines for transporting at large distances or intercontinental transfer is the costs involved, the energy loss, and the geopolitical situations which makes it difficult for pipelines as a preferred mode of energy transfer. Therefore transporting green fuels using cargo ships and storage tanks is the best method that could be used for the transportation of renewable fuels at larger distances. This process will be similar to the current transportation infrastructure involved with fossil fuels.
India: A 100% renewable nation
Predicting the future is a difficult task and after the current crisis of the coronavirus, it has become more difficult to analyze the exact energy need and requirements by any country. Hence, to answer this question a comparison has been made between the goals set by MNRE and the report published by Lappeenranta University of Technology, Finland. These comparisons and predictions do not provide a 100% guarantee on future energy production needs but still provides some estimated information to ease future prediction and forecasts. According to MNRE, the nation has an expected sustainable power source capability of around 900 GW (by 2030) from financially exploitable sources (1000 GW when enormous hydropower is incorporated). It is enriched with awesome sun-based energy potential. Most regions get on normal between 4-7 kWh/m2/day of solar irradiation. Assuming 3% of the nation’s no man’s land is accessible for it, there is a solar-powered capacity of 750 GW. [19] The wind potential is progressively separated. The National Wind Resource Assessment program observed 794 destinations with statures going from 20-120 meters. At a hub height of 80 meters, there is in any event 102.8 GW of potential at locales with a wind power density exceeding 200 W/m2. Whereas some other examinations show extensive increasing potential, extending from 300 GW to as much as 1000 GW. India has a tremendous 7,600 km coastline and initial studies have shown potential for conveying seaward wind power projects in its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). [19] Now taking the report “The demand for storage technologies in energy transition pathways towards 100% renewable India” published by the Lappeenranta University of Technology (LUT), Finland into consideration. According to this report, the sun-oriented PV plants will grow rapidly after 2025, and wind power has been growing step by step after 2015. Installed capacities of renewables develop at a steady rate for all the years.[20] There were 2 scenarios discussed in this study i.e. Countrywide and integrated. For the purpose of comparison and get a better perspective the integrated scenario i.e. one with additional energy production and installed capacity is considered.
(Source: Ashish Gulagi et al. / Energy Procedia)
Now comparing the data in the above figure with MNRE’s prediction, a similarity can be observed i.e. the energy production by the year 2030 in India would be almost equal or between 900 to 1000 GW. The prediction made by LUT’s report is a bit higher than the prediction made by MNRE. Therefore, after this comparison, an argument can be drawn that the minimum installed capacity of 5000 GW from renewable energy sources is required by India by the year 2050 if India wants to achieve its renewable energy goals. This data just provides an assumption as there are various factors like overpopulation, growing industrial demands, and an increase in the use of electricity that may affect the needs and requirements in the future.
To finally conclude the study it can be said that India needs almost 5000 GW of installed capacity to cover it is overall demands and to export its surpluses to European nations. The energy that will be transported to Europe would be in form of renewable fuels and the mode of transport to export these green fuels to Europe would be using cargo ships. Hence it can be concluded that India has the potential and capability considering its geography and natural resources to become a self-dependent nation and would certainly be a possible export nation for renewable fuels if it meets its targets and requirements.
References
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[2] India Energy Outlook 2021, IEA; 2021
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[15] Adanigreen. Adani Green Energy wins the world’s largest solar award; Leapfrogs towards goal of 25 GW of installed capacity by 2025; 2020; Available from: https://www.adani.com/Newsroom/Media-Release/Adani-Green-Energy-wins-the-worlds-largest-solar-award. (data accessed on: October 12, 2020)
[16] IRENA, Hydrogen From Renewable Power; 2020.
[17] Energy.gov. Hydrogen Fuel Basics, Date N.A; Available from: https://www.energy.gov/eere/fuelcells/hydrogen-fuel-basics. (data accessed on: October 12, 2020)
[18] Klein, Tammy. Future-Fuel-Strategies-Methanol-Automotive-Fuel-Primer; FuturefuelStrategies, USA, 2020
[19] IRENA. REmap: Renewable Energy Prospects for India, Abu Dhabi, 2017.
[20] Gulagi A, Bogdanov D, Breyer C. The Demand For Storage Technologies In Energy Transition Pathways Towards 100% Renewable Energy For India. Energy Procedia, Finland, 2017;135:37–50.
