In India, making the desert profitable thanks to solar energy

India is currently the third largest carbon emitter in the world. About 70% of its electricity comes from coal-fired power stations.

But Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced Monday that the country will increase, by 2030, its share of renewable energy from 100 gigawatts (GW) currently to 500 GW, more than all of its current electricity production. By this date, 50% of the country's energy will have to be clean, he promised, while affirming that India was aiming for carbon neutrality by 2070.

With an area equivalent to the Republic of San Marino, the Bhadla farm is located in the desert state of Rajasthan. With 325 days of sunshine per year, it is the perfect place to start this Indian energy revolution.

The project is presented by its promoters as a model of high technology, innovation and public-private collaboration.

In Rajasthan, "we have huge spaces where no grass grows. Now we can no longer see the ground: we only see solar panels. It's a gigantic transformation", welcomes Subodh Agarwal, one of the responsible for the energy policy of the "desert state" as Rajasthan is nicknamed.

"Solar state"

Over the next decade, "it will be a different Rajasthan. It will be the solar state of Rajasthan," he enthuses.

The construction of Bhadla, in the middle of the desert, had minimal impact on human habitat and agriculture. A few hundred people watch over the installations, but robots remove dust and sand from the 10 million photovoltaic panels.

Other mega-projects are underway. In Gujarat, Narendra Modi launched last year, in another desert, the construction of a renewable energy park the size of Singapore. Several of India's biggest fortunes, such as Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani, the two richest men in Asia, are beginning to invest heavily in the sector.

It is urgent: according to a report published in 2019, 21 of the 30 cities with the most polluted air in the world are in India. And the country of 1,3 billion people with rampant urbanization is increasingly greedy for energy.

Over the next 20 years, India will need to add capacity equivalent to that of Europe to its current power generation system to meet the skyrocketing domestic demand, estimates the International Energy Agency (IEA ). And if India's renewable energy capacities have increased fivefold over the past decade, they will have to be further quintupled to reach the target of 500 GW in 2030.

Vinay Rustagi, director of the renewable energy consultancy firm Bridge to India, is skeptical. According to him, the Indian government seeks above all "to show the world that we are on the right track".

“Unfortunately, I believe that there is no way for us to achieve this goal,” he regrets.

Reshaping the energy system

Because even though installing solar panels is relatively cheap, fundamentally overhauling India's energy system will still require a lot of time and effort, experts warn.

Thus, for the time being, around 80% of the panels are imported from China, the national production capacities being very insufficient.

And if giant solar energy projects like Bhadla's are presented as successes, they could eventually run up against land acquisition problems, and more lawsuits from expropriated landowners.

Some experts therefore believe that the future of solar energy in India will rather go through the multiplication of small production units.

Like the ones that the doctor and farmer Amit Singh installed in his village of Bhaloji, in Rajasthan.

As the village was hit with repeated power cuts and water shortages, Dr Singh had an idea. "I have always seen the sun and its rays, and I asked myself: why not control it to generate electricity?" he tells AFP.

He started by installing photovoltaic panels on the roof of his dispensary, which covered half of the establishment's electricity needs. He then spent his savings to install a one megawatt power plant on his small family farm.

This mini solar power plant cost 35 million rupees (400.000 euros). An investment that will prove profitable within a reasonable period of time since each month, it brings in 400.000 rupees (4.600 euros) in sales to the Indian electricity network. "I feel like I'm contributing to the development of my village," said Mr. Singh.

Arunabha Ghosh, an expert in climate policy with the Energy, Environment and Water Council, believes it is essential to bring down the costs of this type of small installation.

"When a farmer is able to generate electricity using a solar power station near his farm and to pump water, when a country dweller can run a textile factory using solar panels placed on the roof, so we can bring the energy transition closer to the people, ”he said.