At the 2015 UN Climate summit in Paris, India set itself the bold target of increasing its solar power capacity to 100 GW by 2022. In this seminar, Dr Shrimali discusses the feasibility of this ambition and the opportunities it offers.
Abstract
At the 2015 UN Climate summit in Paris (COP21), Prime Minister Modi committed India to dramatically increasing its deployment of solar power to 100 GW by 2022. This study assesses the feasibility of this ambition and the opportunities it presents, reaching three important conclusions. First, for solar power to succeed, it will also need to deliver an array of domestic co-benefits—from improving power reliability and access to electricity to cutting air pollution and energy imports—thereby building significant political support and investment to dramatically ramp up solar deployment. Second, three very different segments of the solar industry—utility-scale, distributed, and off-grid solar—will be required to deliver both climate results and domestic co-benefits to India. Third, the Indian national and state governments, with the support of countries and institutions around the world, can advance the development of these diverse segments of solar by pursuing four building blocks of a successful solar strategy: reform the utility sector; harmonize federal and state policies; secure substantial and cost-effective financing; and foster the diffusion of technology and standards from abroad.
Biography
Dr Gireesh Shrimali is Director, Climate Policy Initiative, India; and a Fellow at the Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance at Stanford University. His current research focus is on renewable energy policy and finance in developing countries; in particular, on analytical frameworks for the identification of effective policies as well as on instruments for the provision of low-cost, long-term capital. His work has included topics such as analysis of India’s solar policies, the impact of federal and state policies on the development and deployment of renewable energy in the U.S., and business models for off-grid energy in developing countries. Dr Shrimali was recently selected to be an advisor to a NITI Aayog Expert Group on rooftop solar power. Previously, he taught at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey; and at the Indian School of Business at Hyderabad. He holds a PhD from Stanford University, an MS from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, and a BTech from the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi.