India would be able to cut electricity costs, meet its doubling power demand and reduce emissions if it meets its target of installing 500 gigawatts of renewable energy by 2030, and without having to shut down polluting coal- and gas-based power plants, says a new US study released on Thursday.
But there are conditions to this optimistic projection. The costs of battery storage and wind and solar energy technologies should continue to fall as they have over the past decade and should be accompanied by complementary flexible resources, such as efficient energy storage, agricultural load shifting, and hydropower, and optimally utilising the existing thermal power assets in the country.
The study by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LNBL), which is a US department of energy’s office of science lab managed by University of California, projects that if India achieves the target of installing 500 GW of renewable electricity capacity by 2030, it could reduce electricity costs by 8-10%, provided the renewable energy and battery storage prices continue to decline.
