Climate Change Threatens India’s Solar And Wind Energy Potential: IITM Study

Pune-based Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) has revealed in its latest study that the renewable energy in India – specifically solar and wind – may see a downward trend due to the ravages of climate change. The study is titled as ‘Analysis of future wind and solar potential over India using climate models’ and published in the peer-reviewed journal Current Science.

In the new study, the IITM researchers employed the climate models which it calls ‘state-of-the-art’ devised by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The model analyses the wind and solar projections that are required to generate renewable energy in the Indian subcontinent.

The researchers have found in the study that the seasonal and annual wind speed will most probably decrease in entire North India while it will increase in the Southern parts of the country. The study finds that the southern coast of Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu will have better potential for wind energy in the new scenario where the climate is changing.

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IITM study held that renewable energy efficiency could be impacted by climate change in the Indo-Gangetic plains.

The study states, “Solar projections for the future indicate that solar radiation will decrease during all seasons over most of the Indian landmass. For future investments in the solar power sector, central and south-central India must be considered during pre-monsoon months, as the potential loss is minimal in these regions.”

The study also adds, “The present study shows that the renewable energy fields of solar and wind potential in India are likely to face a negative trend in the future… Expanded and more efficient networks of wind and solar farms are needed to increase renewable energy production.”

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Parthasarathi Mukhopadhyay, co-researcher in the study, said, “Our industry must adapt to the changing climate, and our technologies must keep pace. Such predictions should not be taken as facts, but as possibilities.”

The study is important at this juncture when the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has reiterated two of the INDC promises of India at the Glasgow Conference of UNFCCC: reducing the emissions of GDP by 45 per cent by 2030 from 2005 level and achieving 50 per cent electric power installed capacity from clean energy resources by the end of this decade.