Three Trends That Will Power Up India's Green Transition

India's energy ambitions are as vast as its landscape. Prime Minister Modi's bold 500 GW renewable energy target by 2030, nearly threefold the 175 GW installed today, signals a dramatic shift from coal-fuelled growth to a future powered by sunshine. But this renewable revolution won't be driven by wind farms and solar panels alone. Three critical trends are reshaping the energy landscape, promising to ensure reliable, equitable, and sustainable power for the world's second-most populous nation.

*The Rise of RTC (Round-the-Clock) Power
IRENA's Renewable Capacity Statistics 2023 report revealed a remarkable shift. An impressive 83 per cent of all new power capacity added last year was from renewable sources.

Evacuation of this copious amount of green power, however, involves two fundamental aspects. Firstly, it involves the physical transfer of green electrons originating from renewable rich locations like Bikaner (Rajasthan), Khavda (Gujarat) and Gadag (Karnataka) into the grid so that it can be consumed in the load centres like Maharashtra, UP, West Bengal. This process primarily revolves around the building of large cross-country transmission lines. If we go by the IEA report, the world will need more than 80 million km of grids by 2040, equivalent of the entire existing global grid, to achieve climate goals.

The second piece is how do you actually integrate that power? Because green power is intermittent. And yet renewable energy ambitions, like that of India’s, are no longer content with intermittency. The days of solar sunsets and wind lulls have been replaced with a sense of urgency for RTC. Round-the-Clock, however, necessitates the implementation of smart grids as well as storage technologies. Achieving a consistent 24*7 green power requires an integration of an array of technological solutions, including multi-location, wind, solar as well as other technologies like hydro, pump hydro, batteries, and even a modest utilisation of gas. The convergence of all these solutions will help deliver 24*7 power. To some extent developers are attempting to enhance green energy availability for longer duration by combining wind and solar in multiple locations.

From Discoms to decarbonising giants, RTC green power is in demand. The appetite of the Distribution companies, for firm, predictable renewable power, "load-matched" to demand, is growing. Nor are they alone. The C&I segment too, which consumes 70GW, out of the total 220 GW energy consumption in the country, is going full throttle on decarbonisation. Their furnaces, smelters, and glass factories, once fuelled by fossil fuel, is now looking towards flat renewable energy to keep their vital operations running. That is also probably the reason why experts predict that by 2030, RTC projects will make up nearly a quarter of India's renewable capacity, a stark contrast to the traditional single-source wind and solar farms.

*The Storage Angle
Now that we have established the need for RTC, it brings us to our next piece – storage. India’s energy storage boom is being fuelled by two powerful engines: declining battery prices and the rise of pumped hydro projects.

Battery costs, which have long been a challenge for clean energy, are on a downward spiral. Rising production capacity across the globe, coupled with falling raw material prices, is making these energy sponges increasingly affordable. Take the case of lithium-ion batteries, the workhorses of electric vehicles. In just five years, their price has halved. BloombergNEF’s annual battery price survey finds a 14 per cent drop from 2022 to 2023, to a record low of $139/kWh. This freefall is projected to continue, with estimates suggesting a further 40 per cents drop by 2025.

While batteries can sprint, for longer-duration storage, India is turning to pumped hydro, a proven technology. Imagine two reservoirs at different elevations, connected by a tunnel and turbines. Surplus energy pumps water uphill, storing it as potential energy. When needed, the turbines spin into action, generating electricity.

The draft National Electricity Plan (NEP) published by the Central Electricity Authority indicates that 18.8 GW of Pumped Storage Projects (PSPs) and 51.5 GW of five-hour Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) are required to integrate the planned renewable energy capacity addition till 2032. Pumped Storage Projects provide the necessary scale of storage and have a long service life of more than 40-50 years. This also results in a low cost of delivered energy over the life of the projects. They are non-polluting and are more environmentally friendly and speak volumes about its commitment to reliable clean energy.

*Keeping The Human Quotient Strong
India's renewable sprint must not leave communities behind. As vast solar, wind farms and transmission towers come up, it is evident that all this development will require large areas of land. But land is scarce and precious, and for the clean power infrastructure developers they are forever encountering NIMBY (Not in My Back Yard) ‒ a term that got coined to refer to opposition from communities, Indigenous groups, conservation groups and even local public and regulatory authorities. It is here that the importance of stakeholder management comes into play.

Consider the story of the Sarna community in Jharkhand. Our transmission line passed through the indigenous Sarna community, which has worked tirelessly to preserve their small tracts of land. The oldest tree in the village was considered divine and came in the way of the project route. Responsible development needed a collaborative approach. After working with the community leaders for alternative solutions, rituals were carried out to ensure that their tradition got the deserved respect. This greatly addressed their concerns; the entire process was transparent and the community ownership model helped turn the tide. The Sarna community were not just the landowners, but active participants in the project.
The author is Managing Director, Sterlite Power & Chairman, Serentica Renewables