For Net-zero by 2050, India Needs 2.5 Percent of Its Land for Clean Energy Installation

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To achieve the net-zero target by 2050 through large-scale adoption of renewable energy projects, India needs at least 65,000 square kilometres of land for installing solar and wind power projects across the country. The study by Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) notes the potential for land-use conflict to arise over renewable energy installations, even in sparsely populated areas. It recommended minimising total land use requirements for renewable energy by promotion of offshore wind, rooftop solar, and solar on (mostly artificial) water bodies. The report suggested to the Indian government and the state governments to develop a framework that optimises decisions about land use for renewable energy in the coming decades rather than proceeding with such decisions on an ad-hoc basis. If India were to implement a net-zero target by 2050, an area of atleast about 65,000 square kilometres – equivalent to about half the size of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu – is required for large-scale installation of solar and wind power, a latest report has found. The study by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) estimated that solar and wind power infrastructure could together occupy 65,000 to 95,000 sq. km. of land, which is 1.97-2.88 percent of India’s total landmass of 3.28 million sq. km. To put it in perspective, 95,000 sq. km. of land is equivalent to the size of Bihar, a state in eastern India. The IEEFA report said that “whether or not India commits to a formal mid-century net-zero emissions goal this year, it will continue adding very substantial solar and wind generation capacity over the next three decades.” It emphasised that part of this capacity “will replace thermal generation, but some will be required to meet population and economic growth.” India has ambitious energy transition targets to push for large scale adoption of clean energy. It plans to install a capacity of 175 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy by 2022 and 450 GW by 2030. However, as the rooftop solar sector has failed to take off, the focus of the Indian government has been on large solar and wind power projects – a move against which experts are expressing concerns due to its potential impact on the affected communities and biodiversity. Pranab Ranjan Choudhury, who is the convener of the Centre for Land Governance, a think-tank working on land issues, said that the minimum land required for renewable energy projects, according to the IEEFA estimate, is more than the geographical area of at least 20 Indian states and union territories (on the individual level and not when put together). He stressed that solutions have to be explored which avoid uses and users in terrestrial ecosystems (offshore options). Or they should be choices that integrate energy production into existing land use rationale, as recommended by the IEEFA study. “A uniformly distributed, decentralised and integrated system of renewable energy production involving smallholder farmers and producers can be an alternative system that must be explored, while also factoring adequately potential ecological and societal costs and benefits,” Choudhury noted. The report also called for optimising the identification and assessment of land for renewable generation by developing clear environmental and social criteria for rating potential sites, comprehensive assessments and ranking of potential sites against these criteria in advance and independent of tenders or project proposals, incentivising the selection of the highest-ranked locations in tenders, limiting undue regional concentration and supporting widely distributed renewable generation at a range of scales. It is crucial because India recently achieved an installed capacity of 100 GW of renewable power and the experience so far and the near future plans show that these clean energy projects are concentrated in some regions of the country.