A Spatial Investigation of the Feasibility of Solar Resource Energy Potential in Planning the Solar Cities of India
India is experiencing large-scale urbanization, and the key component leading to such demographic growth and increasing GDP in these urban spaces is an uninterrupted energy supply. The energy generated from nonconventional energy resources consequently le
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Abstract India is experiencing large-scale urbanization, and the key component leading to such demographic growth and increasing GDP in these urban spaces is an uninterrupted energy supply. The energy generated from nonconventional energy resources consequently leads to resource scarcity and environment pollution. The renewable energy generation and its optimum utilization is the key to the sustainable growth of cities and its hinterland. Although India is in the fifth position among the leading countries to harness renewable energy, in order to suffice the growing energy requirements, it will still require thrice the energy than the total energy consumed today. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has undertaken the “Development of Solar Cities” program to boost renewable energy usage in urban sectors. Around 60 cities are participating in this program. However, the viability of the program in these cities still needs to be established. The current study, therefore, focuses on identifying solar hotspots of India and how the spatial distribution of solar energy resources accentuates or hinders the performance of the solar cities. A technoeconomic feasibility study has been conducted using solar resource datasets derived from high-resolution satellites. Further, the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method was applied to identify the cities with the maximum potential to successfully fulfil the ambitious solar city project. The statistical analysis reveals that cities lying in western India are best for harnessing solar energy in large scale. The power will be generated through Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) systems or in residential and commercial sectors using Solar Photovoltaic (SPV) systems. The study explores the feasibility of site selection for the ambitious solar city project, focusing on existing policies, technology, and economic capacity of the selected cities to meet the project targets. Keywords Urbanization · Energy consumption · Renewable energy · Solar city · Renewable energy funding
K. Roychowdhury (*) · R. Bhanja Department of Geography, Presidency University, Kolkata, West Bengal, India e-mail: [email protected] © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 P. Kumar et al. (eds.), Remote Sensing and GIScience, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55092-9_10
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1 Introduction Cities are moving forward to achieve the global goals of combating climate change and adapting all possible measures for a sustainable low carbon future. India, too, has undertaken a giant leap in achieving a massive project of installing 175 GW of renewable energy by 2020, where 100 GW of power will be generated from solar energy, 60 GW from wind energy, 10 GW from biopower, and 5 GW from small hydropower plants (Press Information Bureau 2018). In order to accomplish such ambitious goals, the country’s energy systems are being subjected to sustainable transformations. India
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