TNC India recommends low impact siting for renewables in India, Latin America, and Sub-Saharan Africa at COP28

Dubai: As world leaders, local weather champions and consultants collect to chart out a path to deal with local weather change and speed up renewable power (RE), The Nature Conservancy (TNC) India and the International Solar Alliance (ISA) held discussions on RE and environmental conservation. Held on the World Solar Day on December fifth, consultants from Brazil, Nigeria, India, and the USA deliberated methods to realize the said objective of tripling RE adoption to 11,000 GW whereas minimising harm finished to each the surroundings and communities on the bottom.

Among different points, the dialogue centred round TNC India’s homegrown Siteright software, a decision-support software that helps id land parcels the place photo voltaic and wind improvement has none or negligible socio-ecological conflicts, thereby supporting well timed challenge deployment and lowering challenge prices. It makes use of the perfect obtainable info to assist early screening and inform siting selections. TNC India whereas presenting the software to the CoP viewers emphasised that it ought to be one of many sources of data to be thought-about when taking siting selections for RE. The software is now being prolonged to cowl different components of the world corresponding to Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa, beginning with Brazil and Nigeria respectively.

“There shouldn’t be a struggle between gas for our use and gas as meals. We discovered the SiteRight software to be amazingly helpful and as we transfer forwards with deployment of photo voltaic power, we want to present this software to customers the world over,” mentioned Dr Ajay Mathur, Director General of ISA throughout in deal with. He added {that a} complete examine that particulars which vegetation could be grown beneath photovoltaics ought to be finished in order that the conflict between land for RE and meals could be minimized.

Dr Annapurna Vancheswaran, Managing Director of The Nature Conservancy India in the course of the inaugural session remarked, “we have to discover pathways to make sure that the unfold of RE is sustainable and helps defend each lands and waters of our planet. Therefore, low impact siting for RE initiatives turns into crucial as a result of clear power shouldn’t come at the price of biodiversity or meals safety.”

Giving a macro perspective from Nigeria, and sharing his enthusiasm for utilizing the SiteRight software, the place it will likely be obtainable quickly, Dr Joseph Daniel Onoja, Director General, Nigerian Conservation Foundation mentioned, “Solar power is barely 3 p.c of Nigeria’s power combine, so there may be a variety of potential to broaden it. This is the place the SiteRight software comes in because it tells us the place the brand new RE infrastructure can come that can have much less impact on biodiversity, the agricultural sector, and on people.”

Dr Onoja opined that utilizing different’s expertise Nigeria can study and inform forward in time what must be finished to attenuate the impact these infrastructures have on biodiversity and on individuals.

Brazil, an vital member of the ISA, has made massive strides in renewable power however wants a balancing act because it has massive land mass however equally vital biodiversity hotspots such because the Amazon rainforests.

“Brazil has one in every of most cost-effective renewable power in the world. The world common is $50/MW and in Brazil it’s $25-30/MW. Through BNDES, we offer incentives to RE suppliers. This together with a really steady regulatory framework. In reality, in Brazil, we’re going through disaster of low RE costs, as a result of now we have entry to a variety of RE sources,” knowledgeable Luciana Aparecida da Costa, Managing Director of Infrastructure, Energy Transition and Climate Change at BNDES in the course of the discussions. She added that BNDES’ learnings concerning the impact of RE initiatives on biodiversity and the surroundings through the years has resulted in an improved screening course of for commissioning wind and photo voltaic initiatives.

Dr Mathur urged that improvement banks such because the BNDES ought to make SiteRight a screening requirement for software for financing of photo voltaic and wind initiatives.

Bruce McKenney, Global Director, Renewable Energy, The Nature Conservancy remarked that as RE deployment strikes out of the straightforward locations to the tougher locations for deployment, individuals shouldn’t lose entry to land or sources including that proactive steps must be taken to determine pathways which might be going to be areas of least battle and low impact.