Quantifying renewable energy potential and realised capacity in India: opportunities and challenges

Hunt, K. M. R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1480-3755 and Bloomfield, H. C. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5616-1503 (2024) Quantifying renewable energy potential and realised capacity in India: opportunities and challenges. Meteorological Applications, 31 (3). e2196. ISSN 1469-8080 doi: 10.1002/met.2196

Abstract/Summary

As both the population and economic output of India continue to grow, so does its demand for electricity. Coupled with an increasing determination to transition to net zero, India has responded to this rising demand by rapidly expanding its installed renewable capacity — an increase of 60% in the last five years has been driven largely by a quintupling of installed solar capacity. In this study, we use broad variety of data sources to quantify potential and realised capacity over India from 1979 to 2022. For potential capacity, we identify spatiotemporal patterns in solar, wind, hydro, and wave power. We show that solar capacity factor is relatively homogeneous across India, except over the Western Himalaya, and is highest during the pre-monsoon. Wind capacity factor is highest during the summer monsoon, and has high values off the southern coast, along the Western Ghats, and in Gujarat. We argue that wave power could be a useful source of renewable energy for the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, who are not connected to the main Indian power grid. Using gridded estimates of existing installed capacity combined with our historical capacity factor dataset, we create a simple but effective renewable production model. We use this model to identify weaknesses in the existing grid — particularly a lack of complementarity between wind and solar production in north India, and vulnerability to highly deficit generation in the winter. We discuss potential avenues for future renewable investment to counter existing seasonality problems, principally offshore wind and high-altitude solar.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/115715
Item Type	Article
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Science > School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences > NCAS Science > School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences > Department of Meteorology
Uncontrolled Keywords	renewable energy; India; climate; model
Publisher	Royal Meteorological Society
Download/View statistics	View download statistics for this item