90% of India’s planned renewable projects face climate risk. Here’s how to build them safer

Most of India’s planned renewable energy projects could face serious climate risks by 2030, according to a Zurich Group report. However, because many of these projects are still in the planning or construction stage, there is still time to make them more resilient before they are completed.The report studied 871 planned renewable energy sites across ten states, with a combined capacity of about 267 GW. It found that 90 per cent of these sites face high or critical physical climate risk by 2030, while “66 per cent are rated critical by 2030.”“That is not a reason for alarm; it is a reason to act now,” the report added, noting that many of these projects are still at the planning or construction stage, when resilience measures can be incorporated at the lowest cost.Solar projects account for the biggest share of the planned capacity. Of the sites assessed, 593 are solar projects with a combined capacity of 182,286 MW, making up “nearly 70 per cent of total assessed capacity.”The remaining pipeline includes 230 wind projects with a capacity of 44,177 MW and 48 hydropower projects adding 40,188 MW. While hydropower accounts for the fewest sites, the report said it “carries disproportionately high financial exposure due to the capital intensity of this type of civil infrastructure.”The study identifies tornadoes, wildfires, floods and hailstorms as the principal hazards affecting renewable energy assets. In the case of solar farms, “hail creates both direct visible damage — shattering glass layers — and hidden defects that degrade performance over time and only appear later through reduced output.”For wind energy projects, the report points to “extreme wind events, flooding and the wider consequences of intensifying monsoon and cyclone patterns.” Hydropower projects, meanwhile, “increasingly depends on recognising that historical hydrology is a weak guide to future performance.”To reduce future losses, Zurich recommends mandatory climate risk screening during the planning stage, prioritising stress tests for the most vulnerable assets, integrating hazard-specific resilience into procurement, viewing system resilience as part of asset resilience, and using resilience quantification to unlock capital.According to the report, “an indicative resilience investment of around 2 per cent of CAPEX could reduce severe-loss exposure by as much as 75 per cent,” resulting in “an avoided-loss multiple of approximately 38x.”A case study cited in the report showed that a 2.5 GW solar project without resilience measures faced a Value at Risk of “approximately USD 178.5 million.” Adding a hail-storm tracker reduced the projected loss to USD 43 million, despite requiring an additional investment of around USD 34 million, or “a 30 per cent increase relative to a fixed-tilt system.”“Resilience, embedded at the design stage, is not an additional cost. It is a practical enabler of bankable, insurable and sustainable energy infrastructure,” Zurich said.