^b Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research – UfZ, Leipzig,04318, Germany

---

Abstract:With an ambitious target of 175 GW of renewable energy by 2022, India wishes to move towards the path of sustainable growth and reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases. As the nation targets to reduce its emission intensity per unit GDP by 33 to 35 percent in 2030, decarbonization of electricity generation through clean energy technology would lead to a sustainable electricity supply, thereby mitigating climate change impacts. The extension of renewables is critical to achieve sustainable economic growth while managing cost implications. In this paper, a bottom up unit commitment model is used to model the different energy mix scenarios with a varied share of renewable energy. For this analysis, a state of India is chosen as a case study. After optimizing the power system, the emissions resulting per kWh were calculated for all the technologies. The objective of the paper is to evaluate the amount of carbon mitigation through increased renewable energy generation. It is observed that there was a 20% reduction in CO₂ equivalent emissions as compared to the goal scenario where the solar capacity was increased to around 40%, which could have an impact on stabilizing or even reducing GHG emissions.

---