energy sector
A big change is visible in the world of electricity because renewable energy is being promoted in the energy mix and people are adopting it rapidly. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), now the focus of the world’s energy system is shifting towards fast growing economies like India. IEA’s Global Energy Outlook predicts that South Asia, led by India, will be the largest region to increase energy demand in the coming years. These figures have come out at a time when the demand for green energy in the local market of India is increasing rapidly.
Although developed countries have already emitted a lot of carbon, India is currently the third largest polluter in the world. But, apart from this fact, India’s move towards green energy is not just because of global promise. The real reason is climate related threats and making the country a low-pollution economy. IEA data shows some trends that show India is on the right path towards becoming green.
Rapid pace of energy demand
India’s energy demand is contributing a rapidly increasing share to the world’s total demand. As China’s economy slows and stagnates, energy demand will be led by India, Indonesia and other emerging countries.
Parameters related to IEA’s current and projected policies also further strengthen this point. IEA Chief Energy Economist Tim Gould says that not only are we seeing a large expansion of renewable energy, but in our scenario India is the largest source of oil demand growth, the second largest source of electricity demand growth and the third largest source of natural gas demand growth in the world. If you look at the entire range of fuel and technology, to understand global trends you have to pay attention to what is happening in India and we are very alert about this.
Fastest growth of solar and wind energy
According to IEA data, the share of solar and wind in the energy mix may increase from 2% to 20% by 2050. While coal use will still remain a large share, solar panels and wind energy have seen the highest growth in India. According to the data, by 2035, one-fourth or more of the electricity in the country will come from only these two sources, which will make India at par with big economies like China, European Union and Australia.
Due to solar panels being cheap, their use has increased, but there are some problems with it. Gould says solar is important, but it can’t do it all. There has to be a balance in technology and it is important that we create such infrastructure and storage that we can get the full benefit of solar. In many markets where solar generation has increased significantly, power cuts have also had to be done. If you don’t have a strong grid, you could be wasting precious resources.
The production of both solar and wind fluctuates depending on the weather, clouds and time. Therefore, a good system of storage and back-up from other sources for supply is necessary. For this reason, sources like coal are not completely out of the energy system and in some circumstances play a new role in ensuring the supply of electricity.
Need to upgrade energy infra
With increasing dependence on solar and wind and the threat of severe weather like heatwaves, the load on India’s power grid is going to increase significantly. Tim Gold says that the demand for electricity around the world will increase faster than the total demand for energy. As people have more ACs, electric vehicles increase and high-tech sectors like data centers expand rapidly, electricity will become the fuel of the future.
To handle this big change in India, a network is needed which can easily deliver renewable energy to the people. Gold says that according to us, India will need about 2 lakh kilometers of new transmission lines in the next 10 years. It has been seen all over the world that investment in power generation increases, but infrastructure does not grow that fast. India has done good work in green corridors and transmission networks, but a lot remains to be done in such a fast growing economy.