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This paper reviews and assesses India's energy policy in the context of its commitment to achieve the target of net-zero carbon emissions by 2070. It emphasizes the central role of green electrification, particularly through the expansion of solar power capacity. It discusses policies outside the energy sector that need to be part of a strategy of achieving this target, including the use of information technology, infrastructure development, and transportation. Furthermore, it examines possible policy options for accelerating the target date to 2050, especially with the use of carbon capture to manage the transition from the current heavy use of coal. The paper also discusses the possible financial and growth implications of various strategy options, arguing that feasible external financing commitments can allow India to achieve net-zero goals without sacrificing economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Access to inexpensive, safe, consistent, and clean energy is a critical necessity for all to achieve the SDGs. India's renewable energy (RE) currently accounts for more than a third of the 482 GW of installed capacity and more than 40 percent of power production (including large-scale hydropower). Reforms such as the establishment of a single national power grid have improved access to electricity for people, and the ambitious development of renewable energy, which is the world's third-largest energy generator and third-largest electricity user, has helped in achieving these aims. As a result, the expansion of national targets signifies and reflects the country's optimism and goal for the forthcoming generation. Standardization of the guidelines and development of the stable grid and transmission networks will only enable the country to achieve the ambitious target of 500 GW of green and clean energy by 2030. This paper highlights the important development in the power sector regarding the energy security of India. As well as specifically examining the initiative of NSMs for achieving the 2030 targets, the key challenges, and the way forward to increase the cumulative installed capacity, comprehensive studies of various policies and government initiatives are also discussed. Furthermore, the key challenges usually faced by the developers in the industry, along with the steep decline and rise in the tariffs of solar projects and the previous trends in capacity installation, are also pointed out. This research work also highlights the potential key challenges to achieving the targets, and will thus provide a focus for power developers, policy makers, researchers, and industry practitioners and help with their planning. In the current scenario, the supply of food and the clean energy nexus are required to meet the demands of people's livelihoods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By considering the weight penalty of batteries on payload and total vehicle weight, this paper shows that almost all forms of land-based transport may be served by battery electric vehicles (BEV) with acceptable cost and driving range. Only long-distance road freight is unsuitable for battery electrification. The paper models the future Indian electricity grid supplied entirely by low-carbon forms of generation to quantify the additional solar PV power required to supply energy for transport. Hydrogen produced by water electrolysis for use as a fuel for road freight provides an inter-seasonal energy store that accommodates variations in renewable energy supply. The advantages and disadvantages are considered of midday electric vehicle charging vs. overnight charging considering the temporal variations in supply of renewable energy and demand for transport services. There appears to be little to choose between these two options in terms of total system costs. The result is an energy scenario for decarbonized surface transport in India, based on renewable energy, that is possible, realistically achievable, and affordable in a time frame of year 2050. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Solar energy is going to be a major component of global energy generation. Loss due to dust deposition has raised a great concern to the investors in this field. Pre-estimation of this reduced generation and hence the economic loss will help the operators' readiness for efficient and enhanced economic energy management of the system. In an earlier article, a physics–based model is proposed for assessment of dust accumulation under various climatic conditions which is validated by data of a single location. In this paper, the universality of this model is established and is used to demonstrate the effect of generation loss due to dust deposition and of cleaning. Variation in the soiling pattern due to climatic covariates has also been studied. Generation loss is calculated for Solar Photovoltaic power plants of different capacities at various locations in India. Finally this model has also been extended to predict the generation accounting for the soiling loss in Photovoltaic system. All the calculated and predicted results are validated with the measured values of the above plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Roadmaps for India's energy future foresee that coal power will continue to play a considerable role until the middle of the 21st century. Among other options, carbon capture and storage (CCS) is being considered as a potential technology for decarbonising the power sector. Consequently, it is important to quantify the relative benefits and trade-offs of coal-CCS in comparison to its competing renewable power sources from multiple sustainability perspectives. In this paper, we assess coal-CCS pathways in India up to 2050 and compare coal-CCS with conventional coal, solar PV and wind power sources through an integrated assessment approach coupled with a nexus perspective (energy-cost-climate-water nexus). Our levelized costs assessment reveals that coal-CCS is expensive and significant cost reductions would be needed for CCS to compete in the Indian power market. In addition, although carbon pricing could make coal-CCS competitive in relation to conventional coal power plants, it cannot influence the lack of competitiveness of coal-CCS with respect to renewables. From a climate perspective, CCS can significantly reduce the life cycle GHG emissions of conventional coal power plants, but renewables are better positioned than coal-CCS if the goal is ambitious climate change mitigation. Our water footprint assessment reveals that coal-CCS consumes an enormous volume of water resources in comparison to conventional coal and, in particular, to renewables. To conclude, our findings highlight that coal-CCS not only suffers from typical new technology development related challenges—such as a lack of technical potential assessments and necessary support infrastructure, and high costs—but also from severe resource constraints (especially water) in an era of global warming and the competition from outperforming renewable power sources. Our study, therefore, adds a considerable level of techno-economic and environmental nexus specificity to the current debate about coal-based large-scale CCS and the low carbon energy transition in emerging and developing economies in the Global South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Various statistics indicate that many of the parts of India, especially rural and island areas have either partial or no access to electricity. The main reason for this scenario is the immense expanse of which the power producing stations and the distribution hubs are located from these rural and distant areas. This emphasizes the significance of subsidiarity of power generation by means of renewable energy resources. Although in current energy production scenario electricity supply is principally by AC current, a large variety of the everyday utility devices like cell phone chargers, computers, laptop chargers etc. all work internally with DC power. The count of intermediate energy transfer steps are significantly abridged by providing DC power to mentioned devices. The paper also states other works that prove the increase in overall system efficiency and thereby cost reduction. With an abundance of solar power at disposal and major modification in the area of power electronic conversion devices, this article suggests a DC grid that can be used for a household in a distant or rural area to power the aforementioned, utilizing Solar PV. A system was designed for a household which is not connected to the main grid and was successfully simulated for several loads totaling to 250 W with the help of an isolated flyback converter at the front end and suitable power electronic conversion devices at each load points. Maximum abstraction of operational energy from renewable sources at a residential and commercial level is intended with the suggested direct current systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]