India's Green Energy Transition

India’s plans to add more than 200GW of solar PV capacity will include significant contribution of agriPV. Given the criticality of agriculture to the Indian economy and the diversity in crop production, there is need to understand in practical terms the impact of deploying agriPV on productivity, farmers incomes, linkages to foreign trade, domestic demand among other issues. This granular assessment must form the basis for developing clear guidelines, in consultation with stakeholders, on defining agriPV and parameters such as acceptable yield restriction.

Wind energy systems are expected to play a crucial role in meeting India’s ambitious goal of 450 GW of renewable energy installed capacity by 2030, which includes 140 GW of wind energy. In addition to large wind turbines, small wind turbines with less than 50 kW capacity can contribute to this goal. Further, small wind turbines generate decentralised power and reduce energy bills for consumers and power purchase costs for distribution companies, as well as help manage peak demand periods.

India’s energy demand is expected to grow at about 3% per annum till 2040, which necessitates the development of more clean power sources to fulfil this demand. India aims to meet 50% of the nation’s energy requirement through green energy sources by installing 500 GW of non-fossil fuel-based energy sources. In this context, the Indian power sector has introduced various policies to encourage investors and developers to establish more renewable energy plants.

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.