Energy use is a major source of global warming, which has the potential of making the earth uninhabitable. As we all aware of the threatening fact that reserves of all conventional forms of energy are fast depleting. Every day the human population across the world uses energy for leading a civilized life. These resources are the critical input of human development which comprises providing adequate food, shelter, clothing, water, sanitation, medication, schooling, transportation, industrial applications, access to information, etc. In short, energy affects all facets of activities related to everyday and modern life. Per capita, energy consumption is often considered an important indicator of development. As people and nation’s progress, consumption of energy will increase. World Energy Conservation Day is celebrated on 14th December globally to highlight the importance of energy consumption and its use in our day-to-day life, its scarcity and its impact on the sustainability of global ecosystems. It focuses our attention on significant issues facing the future of mankind with respect to energy. Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale. It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat. Although most renewable energy sources are sustainable, some are not. For example, some biomass sources are considered unsustainable at current rates of exploitation. Renewable energy often provides energy for electricity generation to a grid, air and water heating/cooling, and stand-alone power systems. Renewable energy technology projects are typically large-scale, but they are also suited to rural and remote areas and developing countries, where energy is often crucial in human development. Renewable energy is often deployed together with further electrification, which has several benefits: electricity can move heat or objects efficiently, and is clean at the point of consumption. In addition, electrification with renewable energy is more efficient and therefore leads to significant reductions in primary energy requirements. From 2011 to 2021, renewable energy has grown from 20% to 28% of global electricity supply. Fossil energy shrunk from 68% to 62%, and nuclear from 12% to 10%. The share of hydropower decreased from 16% to 15% while power from sun and wind increased from 2% to 10%. Biomass and geothermal energy grew from 2% to 3%. There are 3,146 gigawatts installed in 135 countries, while 156 countries have laws regulating the renewable energy sector. In 2021, India had a renewable energy capacity of 150 GW consisting of solar (48.55 GW), wind (40.03 GW), small hydro power (4.83 GW), bio-mass (10.62 GW), large hydro (46.51 GW), and nuclear (6.78 GW). India has committed for a goal of 500 GW renewable energy capacity by 2030.India is world’s 3rd largest consumer of electricity and world’s 3rd largest renewable energy producer with 40% of energy capacity installed in the year 2022 (160 GW of 400 GW) coming from renewable sources. Ernst & Young’s (EY) 2021 Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Index (RECAI) ranked India 3rd behind USA and China. India made commitment of producing 50% of its total electricity from non-fossil fuel sources by 2030. Solar, wind and run-of-the-river hydroelectricity are environment-friendly cheaper power sources they are used as “”must-run” sources in India to cater for the base load, and the polluting and foreign-import dependent coal-fired power is increasingly being moved from the “must-run base load” power generation to the load following power generation (mid-priced and mid-merit on-demand need-based intermittently-produced electricity) to meet the peaking demand only. Some of the daily peak demand in India is already met with the renewable peaking hydro power capacity. Solar and wind power with 4-hour battery storage systems, as a source of dispatchable generation compared with new coal and new gas plants, is already cost-competitive in India without subsidy.
Renewable energy generation in GWh:
Source 2020–2021 2021–2022
Large Hydro 150.305 151.695
Small Hydro 10.3 10.4
Solar 60.4 73.5
Wind 60.1 68.6
Bio mass 14.8 16.1
Other 1.6 2.3
Total 297.5 322.6
Total utility power 1,373 1,484
% Renewable power 21.67% 21.73%
Climate change, pollution, natural resource constraints and positive public sentiment are creating more demand for electricity procured from renewable sources. Though the deficiency of power in India is decreasing rapidly, still there are many people both in the rural and urban areas, who have improper and unreliable access to electricity. These people are forced to rely on alternatives like diesel generators. These alternatives pose harmful effects on the health and they are volatile in terms of their operating costs. In such a scenario, solar energy serves as an affordable source of electricity. Since rooftop solar panels harness the power of the sun. India ranks 3rd in renewable energy country attractive index in 2021 and 3rd largest energy consuming country in the world. Solar energy is environmentally-friendly. It doesn’t release any air toxic gases like CO2 during usage. Thus, solar energy in India is a blessing to the environment. Pollution that’s still going strong at alarming rates will drastically drop once more and more people will start using renewable energy. India has witnessed rapid growth in its renewable energy capacity. Solar energy in India has grown about 18 times in the last seven and a half years. Today, the Indian renewable sector ranks 4th on the list of the world’s most attractive renewable energy sectors.
Today more and more people are adopting eco-friendly items. The consumers, especially industrial and commercial consumers, are willing to make capital investments to contribute towards the preservation of the environment. Environment-friendly customers are even willing to pay higher than grid power. Being a civilized nation, we should focus on the attention of decision-makers (Government and Private sector) in directing resources towards energy generation through non-conventional sources on a larger scale. Renewable energy actually is the cheapest power option in most parts of the world today. Prices for renewable energy technologies are dropping rapidly. The cost of electricity from solar power fell by 85 percent between 2010 and 2020. Costs of onshore and offshore wind energy fell by 56 percent and 48 percent respectively. Falling prices make renewable energy more attractive all around – including to low- and middle-income countries, where most of the additional demand for new electricity will come from. With falling costs, there is a real opportunity for much of the new power supply over the coming years to be provided by low-carbon sources. Cheap electricity from renewable sources could provide 65 percent of the world’s total electricity supply by 2030. It could decarbonize 90 percent of the power sector by 2050, massively cutting carbon emissions and helping to mitigate climate change.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), about 99 percent of people in the world breathe air that exceeds air quality limits and threatens their health, and more than 13 million deaths around the world each year are due to avoidable environmental causes, including air pollution. The unhealthy levels of fine particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide originate mainly from the burning of fossil fuels. In 2018, air pollution from fossil fuels caused $2.9 trillion in health and economic costs, about $8 billion a day. Switching to clean sources of energy, such as wind and solar, thus helps address not only climate change but also air pollution and health. It’s time to stop burning our planet, and start investing in the abundant renewable energy all around us.”……………………ANTÓNIO GUTERRES,
(The author is a freelancer. The views, opinions, facts, assumptions, presumptions and conclusions expressed in this article are author’s own and aren’t necessarily in accord with the views of “Kashmir Horizon”.)
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