India's Green Energy Transition

Ashwini Vaishnaw, the Minister of Railways, has announced that the country would have its first hydrogen-powered passenger train by December 2023. The train will run on the Sonipat–Jind route in Haryana, which is 89 km. The announcement has created a buzz among researchers in the country.

But are we ready for the switch to green hydrogen in our trains? Let’s assess the economic and technical feasibility of the switch from diesel to hydrogen in passenger trains.

India is the third-largest energy producer in the world and one of the top energy consumers. To build a pathway to clean energy transition, the country has made remarkable strides by putting in place a number of measures that support renewable energy production and research.

The clean energy transition is a revolutionary idea, which should be ingrained in policy, planning, and implementation for the country to effectively achieve its energy goals.

At the recently concluded 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27), India submitted its long-term strategy to achieve zero emissions by 2070. A key feature of this strategy relates to increasing energy efficiency of industries and exploring decarbonisation options for hard-to-abate sectors, which draw roughly 50% of India’s natural gas, 25% of coal, and 20% of oil resources.

India continues to champion solar power in its future plans of a 500 GW non-fossil fuel energy installation target for 2030. One major challenge is the procurement of suitable land free of socioecological constraints for renewable energy capacity. An innovative solution is the integration of solar PV systems either along the side of roads or above (highway solar) or directly on their surface (on-road solar). These approaches have the potential to be utilized on all national highways and expressways.

India has set ambitious medium- and long-term renewable energy targets to counteract the adverse effects of climate change, one of them being the commitment to increase the share of its renewable power capacity to 50% by 2030.

To summarise, it will take more than a shiny day and a multitude of arrayed solar panels for India to be energy-independent without compromising on the quality of life.

In line with last year’s commitment to achieving net zero by 2070, India, at its pavilion at the 27th session of the Conference of Parties or COP27 is talking about a climate-friendly, sustainable lifestyle. As renewable energy (RE) plays a huge role in cutting down GHG emissions, the country has already pledged to have 500 GW of non-fossil-fuel-based capacity by 2030.

Traffic and transportation surveys are essential to gain a clearer perspective on issues such as gridlock at major junctions and lower-than-forecasted metro ridership. In fact, these surveys are important to identify the root causes and develop traffic mitigation measures.

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India’s energy sector will face two key challenges in the future. Firstly, there is the rising energy demand from a developing economy, whose priority remains bringing people out of poverty. For a country heavily dependent on fossil-fuel imports, there are high costs to meeting this demand. Secondly, India has set an ambitious target of becoming a net-zero economy by 2070. These are strong climate commitments and require the entire energy sector to reduce its overall emissions and mitigate the effects of the global climate crisis.