- Total investment in fossil-fuel power fell by around 55.22% in a net-zero emission scenario compared to an economics-led transition.
- The investment levels required were 1.7 times higher for an annual average of $438 billion to achieve net-zero emissions.
India has a $12.7 trillion investment opportunity in clean power technology, with enhanced government support and private sector investment leading to faster implementation.
BloombergNEF reported that the total investment in fossil-fuel power dropped by approximately 55.22% from $317 billion in an economics-led transition scenario to $142 billion in a net-zero emission scenario. The report mentioned that maximising the deployment of solar and wind, supplemented by additions of nuclear energy storage, and carbon capture and storage (CCS) for thermal power plants, is the cheapest way for India to increase electricity access while decarbonising its power supply.
“India needs to double down on increasing flexibility in the grid to integrate the large capacities of variable wind and solar,” said Rohit Gadre, India research senior associate at BNEF. “Our modelling shows that multiple solutions can co-exist, including batteries, pumped hydro storage, and peaker gas plants.”
The report outlined two scenarios — an economics-led transition (ETS), consistent with a global temperature rise of 2.6 degrees Celsius by 2050, where the country can progress toward energy independence and decarbonisation but cannot achieve either goal by 2050, and a net-zero scenario (NZS) where wind and solar power capacity expanded to become the dominant sources of electricity, aided by nuclear, hydro, biomass, hydrogen-fired thermal plants, and CCS.
In the first scenario, energy supply and demand investment reached $7.6 trillion over 2022-2050, an annual average of $262 billion. To achieve net-zero emissions, the investment levels required were 1.7 times higher for an annual average of $438 billion (equal to about 5% of expected gross domestic product) and a total of $12.7 trillion by 2050.
The report said that India needed $870 billion in investment for CCS and $3.9 trillion to deploy EVs to abate emissions from the remaining use of fossil fuels in the NZS. EV sales accounted for the largest share of investment for energy demand in both scenarios.
A proactive approach to clean technology deployment could enable India to outperform its nationally determined contributions, indicating the nation’s capacity to transcend its emission reduction commitments.
