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Date Published
07/2024
Authors
Nikit Abhyankar*, Tarannum Sahar, Amol Phadke
*corresponding author
Executive Summary
1. Power shortages likely: Due to rapid electricity demand growth, India will likely experience significant evening power shortages by 2027 (20-40 GW), even if all the thermal & hydro capacity currently under construction comes online as planned.
2. Storage deployment combined with solar can avoid shortages: Large-scale solar + storage deployment is the main option left to avoid power shortages, as they can be deployed much faster than new thermal and hydro assets. By 2027, 100-120 GW of new solar, out of which 50-100 GW co-located with 16-30 GW x 4-6 hours of storage, can avoid shortages.
3. Solar + Storage is highly economical: Recent gigawatt-scale solar + storage auction results, with a record low price of Rs 3.4/kWh, also show that such deployment will be highly economical.
4. Policy support needed to ensure fast deployment at scale: Fiscal incentives combined with mandates are likely required to ensure rapid storage deployment at scale to ensure security and reliability.
5. Significant RE and storage expansion in the long-run: India’s electricity demand will quadruple by 2047, necessitating a massive expansion of low-cost RE and storage to reduce consumer bills and sustainably power the rapid economic growth.