Towards a Zero-Carbon Electricity System for India in 2050: IDEEA Model-Based Scenarios Integrating Wind and Solar Complementarity and Geospatial Endowments

Oleg Lugovoy, Varun Jyothiprakash, Sourish Chatterjee, Samridh Sharma, Arijit Mukherjee, Abhishek Das, Shreya Some, Disha L. Dinesha, Nandini Das, Parthaa Bosu, Shyamasree Dasgupta, Lavanya Padhi, Biswanath Roy, Biswajit Thakur, Anupam Debsarkar, P. Balachandra and Joyashree Roy
Additional contact information
Oleg Lugovoy: Environmental Defense Fund, New York, NY 10010, USA
Varun Jyothiprakash: Indian Institute of Science Bangalore, Bangalore 560012, India
Sourish Chatterjee: Global Change Programme, Jadavpur University, Kolkata 700032, India
Samridh Sharma: Indian Institute of Science Bangalore, Bangalore 560012, India
Arijit Mukherjee: Global Change Programme, Jadavpur University, Kolkata 700032, India
Abhishek Das: Indian Institute of Science Bangalore, Bangalore 560012, India
Shreya Some: Global Change Programme, Jadavpur University, Kolkata 700032, India
Disha L. Dinesha: Indian Institute of Science Bangalore, Bangalore 560012, India
Nandini Das: Global Change Programme, Jadavpur University, Kolkata 700032, India
Parthaa Bosu: Environmental Defense Fund, New York, NY 10010, USA
Shyamasree Dasgupta: Indian Institute of Technology Mandi, Mandi 175005, India
Lavanya Padhi: Environmental Defense Fund, New York, NY 10010, USA
Biswanath Roy: Global Change Programme, Jadavpur University, Kolkata 700032, India
Biswajit Thakur: Global Change Programme, Jadavpur University, Kolkata 700032, India
Anupam Debsarkar: Global Change Programme, Jadavpur University, Kolkata 700032, India

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 21, 1-57

Abstract: This study evaluated a potential transition of India’s power sector to 100% wind and solar energy sources. Applying a macro-energy IDEEA (Indian Zero Carbon Energy Pathways) model to 32 regions and 114 locations of potential installation of wind energy and 60 locations of solar energy, we evaluated a 100% renewable power system in India as a concept. We considered 153 scenarios with varying sets of generating and balancing technologies to evaluate each intermittent energy source separately and their complementarity. Our analysis confirms the potential technical feasibility and long-term reliability of a 100% renewable system for India, even with solar and wind energy only. Such a dual energy source system can potentially deliver fivefold the annual demand of 2019. The robust, reliable supply can be achieved in the long term, as verified by 41 years of weather data. The required expansion of energy storage and the grid will depend on the wind and solar energy structure and the types of generating technologies. Solar energy mostly requires intraday balancing that can be achieved through storage or demand-side flexibility. Wind energy is more seasonal and spatially scattered, and benefits from the long-distance grid expansion for balancing. The complementarity of the two resources on a spatial scale reduces requirements for energy storage. The demand-side flexibility is the key in developing low-cost supply with minimum curtailments. This can be potentially achieved with the proposed two-level electricity market where electricity prices reflect variability of the supply. A modelled experiment with price signals demonstrates how balancing capacity depends on the price levels of guaranteed and flexible types of loads, and therefore, can be defined by the market.

Keywords: decarbonisation; high-renewable power systems; net-zero emissions; energy models; IDEEA model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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