Green energy technologies in India

Gunin Borah

(The writer is from the Faculty of Geography, Biswanath College, Chariali and can be reached at Email ID: borah.gunin@gmail.com)

In the past three decades, research and development in green energy have exploded, yielding hundreds of promising new technologies that can recycle, that can reduce our dependence on coal, oil and natural gasses. This demand the necessity to develop technological innovations and responsible practices that are more environment friendly, to address the challenges arising from the over-exploitation of resources and the environment.

India ranks third in the renewable energy country attractive index in 2021 and the third largest energy-consuming country in the world. The country has set an ambitious target to achieve a capacity of 175 GW worth of renewable energy by the end of 2022, which expands to 500 GW by the year 2030. This is the world's largest expansion of renewable energy resources.

The Government of India has set targets to reduce India's total projected Carbon emission by 1 billion tonnes by the year 2030, reduce the carbon intensity of the nation's economy by less than 45 per cent at the end of the decade, achieve net-zero Carbon emission by 2070, and expands India's green energy installed capacity to 500 GW by the year 2030.

The primary objective for deploying green energy or renewable energy in India is to advance economic development, improve energy security, improve access to energy and mitigate climate change. Sustainable development is possible by the use of sustainable energy and by ensuring access to affordable, reliable sustainable and modern energy for the citizen.

According to the World Resource Institute Report (2018), India is responsible for nearly 6.67 per cent of total global Carbon emissions ranked fourth next to China, the USA and the EU. Climate change might also change the ecological balance in the world. India is one of the largest Coal consumers in the world and imports fossil fuels. Nearly 74 per cent of the energy demand is supplied by Coal and Oil. Therefore, there is an urgent need to find alternative sources for generating electricity. In this way, the country will have a rapid and global transition to renewable energy technologies to achieve sustainable growth and avoid the effect of climate change.

In recent years, the country has developed a sustainable path for its energy supply. Awareness of saving energy has been promoted among citizens to increase the use of solar, wind, biomass, waste and small hydropower, energies. It is evident that clean energy is less harmful and often cheaper. India is aiming to attain 175 GW of renewable energies, which would consist of 100-GW Solar (power) energy, 10-GW Bio-power, 60 GW of wind power, and 5 GW from small Hydro-power plants by this year (2022). A recent estimate shows that in 2047, Solar potential will be more than 750 GW and wind potential will be 410 GW.

The size and growth of a country's population significantly affect the demand for energy. With 1.383 billion (2020) citizens, India ranks second among the most populous countries in the world. The yearly growth rate is 1.18 per cent and represents almost 17.74 per cent of the world population. The country is expected to have more than 1.658 billion people by the end of 2050. Each year, India adds a higher number of people to the world than any other nation and the specific population of some states in India is equal to the population of many countries.

The country intends to reach 225 GW of renewable power capacity by 2022, exceeding the target of 175 GW pledged during the Paris Agreements (2016). The energy sector in India is the fourth most attractive renewable energy market in the world.

The state-wise installed capacity of cumulative renewable energy, out of the total installed capacity of 74,081.66MW, where Karnataka ranked first with 12,953.24 MW (17.48%), Tamilnadu second with 11,934.38MW (16%), Maharashtra third with 9238.78 MW (12.53%), Gujarat fourth with 8106.41 MW (10.64%) and Rajasthan fifth with 7573.86 MW (10.22%). These five states cover almost 66.99% of the installed capacity of total renewable energy. Other prominent states are Andhra Pradesh (9.82%), Madhya Pradesh (5.82%), Telangana (5.14%), and Uttar Pradesh ((3.87%). These nine states cover almost 91.65% of the total renewable energy.

India is the world's third-largest consumer of electricity, and the world's third largest renewable energy producer with 38 per cent of energy capacity installed in the year 2020 coming from renewable resources. Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Index (RECAI) ranked India third behind the US and China. In the year 2021, India had a renewable energy capacity of 150 GW, consisting of solar power (48.55GW), wind power (40.03%), and small hydro-power ((4.83GW), biomass (10.62GW) large hydro (46.51GW) and nuclear power (6.78 GW). India has committed to a goal of 450 GW of renewable energy capacity by the year 2030.

India is a densely populated country and has high solar insolation, an ideal combination for using solar power in India. Announced in Nov 2009 the Government of India proposed to launch its National Solar Mission under a national action plan on climate change. In 2020, three of the world's top 5 largest solar parks were in India including the world's largest 2255 MW solar park in Rajasthan, the world's second-largest solar park of 2000 MW in Karnataka and a 100-MW solar park in Andhra Pradesh. The National Solar Mission aims to achieve a target of 100-GW power capacity by this year, 2022.

There are various types of renewable sources of energy available, which can be used based on geographical location and suitability. These green energy resources are available in different parts of the country as follows. India ranks 5th globally for installed hydroelectric power capacity. As of March 2020 India's installed utility-scale hydroelectric capacity was 45,699 MW or 12.35% of its total utility power generation capacity.

The additional smaller hydro-power units with a total capacity of 4,380 MW have been installed. Small Hydro-power is defined to be generated at capacities up to 25 MW and comes under the Ministry of new and Renewable Energy. While large hydropower defines above 25 MW, comes under the Ministry of Power.

India is an environment for biomass production given its tropical location, with sunshine and rains. Biomass involves the burning of organic materials to produce electricity, it is a much cleaner, more energy efficient process. The country's vast agricultural potential provides agro-residues, which can be used to meet energy needs, both heat and power applications. It is estimated that the potential for biomass energy in India includes 16,000 MW from biomass energy and a further 3,500 MW from bio-gasses cogeneration. Biomass materials that can be used for power generation include bio-gasses, rice husk, straw, cotton stalk, soya husk, oiled cakes, coffee waste, jute waste, groundnut shells and saw-dust etc.

In 2020, India has set a target to produce 1.5 crores (15 million) tonnes of biogas, and bio-CNG by installing 5,000 large-scale commercial-type biogas plants, which can produce 12.5 tonnes of Bio-CNG each plant. The number of small family types of biogas plants reached 3.98 million all over India.

The development of wind power in India began in the year the 1990s and has significantly increased in the last few years. Wind power has led India to become the country with the 4th largest installed Wind power capacity in the world. As of June 2018, the installed capacity of Wind power in India was 34,293 MW, mainly spread across Tamilnadu (7,269.50MW) Rajasthan (2,784.40 MW), Karnataka (2,318.20 MW), Andhra Pradesh (746.00 MW) and Madhya Pradesh (423.40 MW). Wind power accounts for 10 per cent of India's total installed power capacity. India has set an ambitious target to generate 60,000 MW of electricity from wind power by the end of 2022.

Every year about 5.5 crores (55 million) tonnes of municipal solid waste (MSW) and 3800 crores (38 billion) litres of sewage are generated in urban areas of India. In addition, large quantities of solid waste and liquid waste are generated by the industries. Waste power generation in India is expected to increase rapidly in future. It is estimated that the amount of waste generated in India will increase at a per capita rate of approximately 1 to 1.33 per cent annually. This has significant impacts on the amount of land that is and will be needed for disposal and environmental consequences of increased municipal solid waste generation level.

Another form of hydro-energy is provided by the surge of ocean water during the rise and fall of tides. Tidal energy production is still in its infancy. The amount of power production so far has been small and there are very few commercial-sized tidal power plants operating in coastal states of India. Energy from the tides could be harvested for the coastal towns and cities of India along the Eastern and Western coasts.

Geothermal energy is heat that is generated from within the Earth. The heat can be captured and used directly for heat, or the steam can be used to heat structures such as buildings, parking lots, and sidewalks. Many countries have developed methods of trapping geothermal energy.

The Government of India wants to develop a 'Green City' in every state of the country, powered by renewable energy. The Green City will mainstream environmentally friendly power through solar rooftop systems on all its houses, solar parks, and electric mobility-enabled public transport systems. The government is committed to increased use of clean energy sources and is already undertaking various large-scale sustainable power projects and promoting green energy heavily. In addition, renewable energy has the potential to create many employment opportunities at all levels, especially in rural areas of India.