An analysis on Variable Renewable Energy and the importance of Hybrid systems in India

The global energy sector today is in transition into clean and renewable energy, due to increasing concern over climatechange and pollution. While most of ‘developed’ countries have a saturated electricity demand, India, along with several other ‘developing’ countries, has been consistently facing the challenge of rapid increase in electricity demand while managing to sustain its economic growth. Along with the goal for battling energy related emissions, renewable energy capacity expansion has always been India’s best solution to the rapidly increasing electricity demand[1].After the agreement at the Climate Change Conference COP 21, Paris,2015, India is determinedto reduce its carbon intensityby 33 percent from its 2005 levels by the year 2030 (a). On this regard an ambitious planto integrate 175 GW of Solar Photo-Voltaic (PV) (100 GW) and wind (75 GW) power capacities by the year 2027is already set in motion(b). However, such a strategy involving a high penetration of Variable Renewable Energy (VRE) like solar PV and wind, leads to severe complications, due to their unpredictable nature in availability and reliability. The most suitable option for sustainable VRE integration is to include Large-scale Energy Storage (LES) capacities, which involves building highly capital-intensive infrastructure. Considering the fact that the Indian energy sector is already in heavy financial debt [2], such capital intensive expansion would just elevate the already available debt. So, an intelligent solution is necessary for the sustained operation of the new Indian power system.This study involves the analysis of the several possible VRE hybrid systems in the country, effectively targeting the sustainable addition of such a large capacity of VRE within such a short duration. As the addition of solar PV and wind capacities have already started, further is the stress to implement a sustainable strategy. Several studies [3]suggest that a hybrid system of VRE and ‘Dispatch-able’ Renewable Energy (DRE) technologies have proven to be sustainable, however, inthe scope ofthis study other possibilities like VRE+ Electro mobility, VRE + Smart grids and VRE + Clean conventional technologies are considered, and in the end a validated comparison has also been made to provide a possible solution

An analysis on Variable Renewable Energy and the importance of Hybrid systems in India.
Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318562221_An_analysis_on_Variable_Renewable_Energy_and_the_importance_of_Hybrid_systems_in_India [accessed Sep 12, 2017].