According to a new study by the researchers at Pune’s Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) Climate Change will impact Maharashtra’s renewable energy potential over the next five decades.
With 10.78 GW of installed renewable energy capacity Maharashtra ranks among the top states. The state’s installed capacity of Wind power stand at 5.01 GW and solar power capacity of 2.75 GW contributes the most, that includes being second on the race on decentralised renewable energy (DRE).
According to the report, as of 30th June 2022, renewable energy contributes 24.36% percentage to Maharashtra’s power mix.
This has prompted the state to launch an ambitious initiative to build new solar plants throughout districts to produce 12 gigawatt (GW) of renewable energy over the course of the next six years with the goal of increasing the amount of available power and lowering power purchase costs in the future. Meanwhile, the state also accounts for 15% of the country’s wind energy potential.
Parthasarathi Mukhopadhyay, researcher with the IITM 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 efficiency of renewable energy may be impacted by climate change in Maharashtra and the neighbouring areas. The study emphasises the importance of being prepared for scenarios of this kind and addressing it.”
The study titled ‘Analysis of future wind and solar potential over India using climate models’ has been published in the peer-reviewed journal Current Science recently and has been authored by TS Anandh, Deepa Gopalakrihsnan and Parthasarathi Mukhopadhyay, researchers from IITM Pune under the Ministry of Earth Sciences as well as Centre For Prototype Climate Modelling, New York University, Abu Dhabi, UAE.
“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 efficiency of renewable energy may be impacted by climate change in Maharashtra and the neighbouring areas. The study emphasises the importance of being prepared for scenarios of this kind and addressing it,” said Mukhopadhyay.
The researchers also said that in the case of wind potential, Maharashtra and surrounding regions show a positive trend in most of the climate models. “The monsoon months are projected to be more windy and cloudy in the coming years. This region also records positive potential in the future but it is not to the same extent as the rest of central India,” added Mukhopadhyay.
Maharashtra has a reasonable wind potential of roughly 45 GW and 100 GW at 100m and 120m, respectively.
The forecasts for the future are important, since on August 3, India published a new set of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) for the international fight against climate change. According to the updated NDCs to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), India has set out on a mission to meet up to 50% of its energy needs from renewable sources by 2030.