Using modeling scenarios to examine financial and carbon costs to operate India's electricity grid in 2030, researchers found that the lowest cost targets for both consumers and emissions are majority wind or equal wind-solar targets, and installing renewable energy plants to provide 600 gigawatts of power would require building new coal plants, even though it would reduce the use of coal plants; the findings suggest that battery storage could avoid the need to build new coal plants while meeting electricity demands, according to the authors.
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Article #20-08128:
"Least-cost targets and avoided fossil fuel capacity in India's pursuit of renewable energy," by Ranjit Deshmukh, Amol Phadke, and Duncan S. Callaway.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Ranjit Deshmukh,
University of California, Santa Barbara, CA;
tel: 510-393-8532;
email: <rdeshmukh@ucsb.edu>