Need of the hour

Rapid deployment and transition to renewable energy (RE) is critical for India to meet its rising energy demands while mitigating climate change. Thus, India during the 26^th Conference of Parties (COP26) committed to an ambitious goal of achieving 500 GW of RE by 2030 exceeding the target of 450 GW pledged during the Paris Agreement, of which ~420 GW of RE is expected to come from solar and wind alone.

The solar and wind energy projects require larger land areas, typically three to 12 times that of fossil fuel-based energy generation. Without careful planning, land-intensive RE projects could adversely impact local communities, food security, and biodiversity, and even cause greenhouse gas emissions that reduce their climate benefits. These conflicts could jeopardize investments and slow RE expansion. Thus, there are concerns over the expanded RE target because it may further fuel the rise in conflicts if projects are not sited responsibly.

Problematic land use pattern of solar energy project

Despite the scale of RE development that India is planning, there has been no assessment of how current development has impacted important land use. To address this outstanding need The Nature Conservancy (TNC) in collaboration with Microsoft conducted a retrospective analysis of land use pattern by existing solar projects across India using advanced remote sensing and AI technology. The study found that over 85% of solar projects were built on land cover types that could create potential biodiversity and food security conflicts - 67.6% of agricultural land and 18.7% of natural habitat - of which 38.6% of agricultural land may have had the potential to cultivate seasonal crops including Kharif, Rabi and Zaid and 28.95% of the land with plantation crop/orchards. The natural land cover types included sensitive ecosystems such as evergreen, deciduous, littoral swamp forest, and scrubland with potential biodiversity value.

The study found that 800 km² of agricultural land followed by 280 km² of natural land has been used to deploy ~45 GW of solar energy across India. Whereas only a small portion of degraded wastelands and converted land (189 km²) was used to deploy ~4.3 GW of solar energy. These findings from the study highlight that most of the solar energy development across India is targeted at agricultural land. If the same land use trend for solar energy development continues, 300 GW of solar energy target by 2030 may further divert thousands of square kilometers of India’s agricultural land and natural ecosystems for solar energy development.

Jeopardizing communities, biodiversity, and billions of dollars

The huge land footprint required to achieve the ambitious RE goal set by India is causing concerns over the environmental and socio-ecological risks of large-scale solar and wind energy projects. In India, wind and solar projects are considered “green” by most state regulatory agencies given emission reduction benefits. As a result, projects do not need an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) regardless of their size or location. But the Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has advocated that are being considered for such projects should not involve wetlands, agricultural land, ecologically sensitive areas, or areas with rich biodiversity.

Yet, many large-scale solar energy projects are being deployed on either natural ecosystems with high biodiversity value or land socioeconomically and culturally important for local communities leading to conflicts. In India, there are at least 15 reported cases of conflicts related to solar and wind energy projects since 2017. Such conflicts continue to rise in recent times affecting the livelihoods of thousands of people and billions of dollars in investment for RE developers.

For example, 600 km² and 950 km² of open land classified as wasteland by the government are identified for industrial-scale solar park development in Kutch, Gujarat, and the Jaisalmer region of Rajasthan respectively. However, scientist and conservationist have raised concerns that these open lands are biodiversity-rich ecosystems, and diverting these lands for RE development threaten critically endangered wildlife such as the Great Indian Bustard (GIB) and the livelihood of local pastoral and farming communities.

Opposition from the local communities to RE is also growing. In 2010, over 5000 acres of common land was acquired for a solar park in Charanka village, Gujarat, but was opposed by the local Maldhari community. The community members grazed their buffalos, cows, and goats on this open land. The associated loss of livelihood for this local community has led to a lot of negative publicity for the solar project including protests and petitions filed in courts.

Similarly, the solar energy project in Orans of Jaisalmer, Rajasthan was fiercely opposed by conservationists and the local community. As per the last count in 2018, there were only 150 GIBs in the country and 122 of them were in Jaisalmer. The large power lines built for the transmission of solar and wind energy projects in the Jaisalmer region threaten the survival of GIBs. With the rising number of GIB deaths due to power lines, in 2021 the apex court ordered power firms in Rajasthan to lay underground wiring for all power projects and install bird diverters on existing lines. However, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) filed an application to overturn the ruling, alleging that underground transmission makes RE projects financially unviable for developers, increasing project costs by four -20 times. Therefore, any RE project planned without considering socio-ecological and environmental risk end up in land conflicts, increasing project cost, risking investment, and delaying RE goals.

Written by Shivaprakash K N. Senior Applied Scientist at TNC India.