India’s total installed solar power capacity will need to increase to 5630 gigawatt (GW) by 2070 in order to achieve net zero emissions, according to a new report released Tuesday by independent think tank Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW).
Consequently, the total corresponding land requirement for India’s power generation assets, especially solar, would be approximately 4.6 perecnt, says the report – titled ‘Implications of a Net-zero Target for India’s Sectoral Energy Transitions and Climate Policy’.
In a first such assessment of different scenarios to achieve net zero emissions, CEEW has said that India would also need to develop the requisite recycling capacities to handle the solar PV waste generated. At present, India has 100 GW of installed renewable energy capacity, of which solar comprises 40 GW, and it aims to enhance the RE capacity to 450 GW by 2030.
The report further highlighted that in order to achieve net-zero by 2070, usage of coal, especially for power generation, would need to peak by 2040 and drop by 99 percent between 2040 and 2060. Further, consumption of crude oil, across sectors, would need to peak by 2050 and fall substantially by 90 percent between 2050 and 2070. Green hydrogen could contribute 19 percent of the total energy needs of the industrial sector. These insights assume that hydrogen will play an integral part in this transition, while Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technology would play a negligible role.
The recent IPCC report released earlier this year has underscored the importance of achieving net-zero globally to limit the total rise in temperatures to 1.5-2 degrees in the coming decades.