Relevance: GS-3: Conservation, Environmental Pollution, and Degradation, Environmental Impact Assessment; Infrastructure: Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways, etc.

Key Phrases: climate change, increase in cloud cover, decrease in high-velocity winds, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), solar radiation, wind energy, solar energy, renewable energy, aerosol pollution,

Why in News?

• The looming climate change threat is likely to cast a shadow on the renewable energy ambitions of various States in the country due to the increase in cloud cover and decrease in high-velocity winds.

What does the study say?

• A recent study by the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Ministry of Earth Sciences, Pune, reveals that seasonal and annual wind speed is likely to decrease over North India and increase in South India.
• On the other hand, solar radiation is estimated to decrease (10–15 Wm–2) over the next 50 years during all seasons.
• As part of the study, the researchers have created climate simulations for the past 55 years and future projections for 55 years from six models for the analysis.
• The model indicates that the wind potential over the onshore regions shows an increasing trend, while offshore regions show a decreasing trend for the non-monsoon months.
• The southern coast of Odisha and the States of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu show promising potential for wind energy in the climate change scenario.
• The seasonal analysis indicates that the southern and north-western regions of the country will have higher wind speeds in the winter and monsoon months when the wind potential is maximum.
• Regional analysis of wind potential also indicates that the frequency of high energy producing wind speeds will decrease, whereas low energy producing wind speeds are likely to increase in the future.

Solar power to take a hit:

• Solar projections for the future indicate that solar radiation will decrease during all seasons over most of the active solar farming regions in the country, including in Kerala.
• For future investments in the solar power sector, central and south-central India must be considered during the pre-monsoon months, as the potential loss is minimal in these regions.
• Future projections also predict a shift in the frequency of solar radiation in the negative direction, implying that solar energy production will decrease in the immediate future. This can be attributed to the increase in total cloud cover.

Call for R&D Impetus:

• The aerosol pollution is going to increase in the atmosphere and pollution enhances the cloud lifetime, which would interfere with the incoming solar radiation.
• The projection indicates that there would be a reduction of solar radiation by 10% to 15% in the next 50 years.
• The research and development (R&D) should be targeted for reducing the possible impact of climate change on the renewable energy sector with enhanced efficiency of solar cells etc.
• To overcome the anticipated loss, more solar and wind farms and highly efficient technology than those available at present should be experimented with.
• This assumes significance against the backdrop of the Prime Minister’s announcement at CoP-26 (26th Conference of parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)).
• PM announced that the Union government is working towards achieving 500 GW of installed capacity from non-fossil fuels by 2030.

Conclusion:

• Given the results of the study, the industry has to look at increasing the efficiencies of wind and solar power technologies for better energy capture and counter the climate crisis otherwise climate change will have adverse effects on renewable energy production.
• If India does not act, though, its promise to the world of going net zero emissions by 2070 may be under threat.

Source: The Hindu

Mains Question:

Q. What are the possible impacts of climate change on India’s renewable energy production? What steps should the government take to mitigate this impact? Discuss.