New research carried out by the Lappeenranta University of Technology (LUT) in Finland has found that India will have the capacity to operate on a fully renewable electricity system by 2050.

Conducted as part of the Finnish Solar Revolution research project and the Neo-Carbon Energy research project, the report simulation suggested India could meet electricity demand using solar energy and batteries.

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The simulation also incorporated the use of seawater desalination and synthetic natural gas solutions.

LUT professor Christian Breyer said: “Given India’s burgeoning electricity demand, the persistent supply demand gap, and summer shortages and outages, solar photovoltaic (PV) prosumers will have a crucial role in enabling the country’s transition to a fully sustainable energy system.”

“The new system could deliver electricity at INR3,640 (€52) per megawatt-hour (MWh) in 2050.”

The new research has also revealed that a solarpower-based renewable energy system would be cheaper than India’s current system, which is mainly dependent on coal.

The new system could deliver electricity at INR3,640 (€52) per megawatt-hour (MWh) in 2050, when only the power sector is taken into account. If the demand for seawater desalination and industrial gas sectors are taken into account, the cost is expected to be INR3,220 (€46) per MWh. The cost of India’s current power generation system is €57 per MWh.

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To achieve its renewable energy goals, India is required to invest around €3,380bn in solar and wind energy technologies, reflecting an increase in demand from 1,720 million MWh in 2015 to around 6,200 million MWh in 2050.