Whose land is it anyway? Energy futures & land use in India

Abstract

Modelling studies which project pathways for the future of energy in India currently have several implicit assumptions with regards to the social, institutional, and political changes necessary for energy transitions. This paper focuses on the specific question of land use change required for realising ambitious clean energy targets. Demand for land is likely to be a critical question in India's energy future given the challenges with land acquisition in the country as a result of high population density and significant rights enjoyed by landowners. Yet, there is a lack of literature relevant to India which makes a quantitative assessment of the land use impacts of different types of low carbon technologies. I calculate and compare the land requirements in India of ground based solar photovoltaic (PV) power, nuclear power, and wind energy. All three types of technologies are expected to grow substantially as a share of India's electricity mix in the coming years. The analysis suggests that land demands of ground based solar PV are likely to be substantial compared to wind energy and nuclear power, and some policy suggestions are provided which may help mitigate that challenge.

Hitting the Target but Missing the Mark: Unintended Environmental Consequences of the Paris Climate Agreement

“…development is not required to undergo an environmental impact assessment (EIA) process (i.e., Mohan, 2017). Renewable development is categorized as "green" by state control boards which mean these projects, irrespective of their size, capacity or location, do not require EIA assessments.…”

Renewable Energy and Land Use in India: A Vision to Facilitate Sustainable Development

“…It is also clear that investments in energy conservation and improved efficiency can help reduce the new energy needed by India, reducing the area impacted by new energy development. Solutions to the challenge of land acquisition are less obvious given the high population density and strong rights afforded to private landowners in India [39]. Our results demonstrate that potential land-use conflicts from renewable energy in India have both challenges and opportunities.…”

“…For this level of development to be sustainable in India, the challenge is to co-develop environments that satisfy the increasing energy demand and reduce their impacts on both nature and people. Nevertheless, Indian society remains largely unaware of the significant footprint from future energy development and the urgent need to prepare for it [39,42,43]. Secondly, our research will help to identify areas where conservation values are most at risk as a result of the expansion of renewable energy development and where more detailed planning is urgently required.…”

“…Since there is a lack of a centralized regulatory framework or incentive structure, relying on farsighted developers to actively avoid a site with significant biodiversity or agricultural value is unlikely to achieve the desired results as past development patterns have demonstrated [42,43]. However, significant additional legislation restricting the production of renewable energy resources on private land based on wildlife concerns is unlikely given the present political climate [39]. Instead, improved incentives that provide a competitive advantage to developers that comply can be helpful for the adoption of low-impact development practices.…”

Nexus in the rural system: understanding the synergies and trade-offs among water, energy, food, land and labour

“…The majority of the rural population (≈ 3 billion population [75]) residing in developing countries depends on fuelwood for cooking, and this pattern will remain significant for the coming 30 years [76] [77]. Such fuelwood is basically sourced from either forests or open spaces.…”