One Sun, many hurdles: Why cross-border flow of green energy won't be easy

Establishing the cross-border flow of green energy under the One Sun declaration will involve many complexities

India has been the key driver of a transnational electricity grid that plans to enable free flow of renewable power among countries. The idea is based on the concept that the sun never sets and it is possible that one part of the world uses night-time power that is being generated elsewhere in the day time. This was the thinking behind the One Sun Declaration by the International Solar Alliance (ISA) along with the UK COP26 presidency last week. It aims to promote cross-border flow of green energy through an exclusive network of large generators, decentralised energy systems, storage, and transmission and distribution systems. This means not only combining ISA’s One Sun One World One Grid (OSOWOG) and the UK’s Green Grid Initiative, but also creating a world of electricity networks that will run parallel to conventional power.

According to Ajay Mathur, director general, ISA, grid connectivity is essential if renewable energy has to be widespread. “Globally, millions of trillions of joules of power are used annually, and to support this, networked cross-border grid systems will need to be put in place,” he said.

Besides India and the UK, Australia, France and the United States are members of the Green Grid Initiative that has been endorsed by several other countries such as Japan, Germany, South Sudan and Sri Lanka. The ISA is being partnered by the World Bank group besides other international financial and technical organisations, legislators, power system operators and knowledge leaders. The idea is to reduce reliance on non-renewable energy such as coal by enabling the purchase of affordable solar power from other countries.

The OSOWOG project will be implemented in three phases based on geopolitical strategy. Phase 1 will entail installing grid connectivity within the Asian continent, starting with India. The second phase moves on to Asia’s neighbour and Africa; and the third entails global interconnection from thereon. As a first step towards implementing this initiative, a consortium of consultants has been engaged to carry out the analysis and develop a road map. The technical study will be carried out in three phases for one year and is expected to cover South Asia, Southeast Asia, West Asia and Africa.

India currently has only localised transmission lines to carry renewable power from generation centres. The only pure green power lines are those where electricity is produced from renewable sources for captive use or for selling through distributed renewable energy (DREs) systems to nearby customers. Grid-level networks for green power currently do not exist in the country. Once connected to a long-distance grid network, it is impossible to distinguish whether the power is green or produced from coal.

India has cross-border trade in power with Nepal, Bangladesh and Bhutan for which existing transmission lines are used. Mathur, however, said a conventional grid cannot be used for a global connectivity system because it has limited capacity. The existing cross-border transmission lines could also feed in green power to begin with. But given the ability of renewable power to generate locally and at a smaller scale, countries that may have bordering areas with conducive geographical conditions could prefer to use power generated on their own land rather than buy from other countries. Nonetheless, it will be possible to transport solar power from Rajasthan to Bangladesh and even beyond through a grid just as it is currently possible to bring hydropower from Bhutan to the north Indian states.

Mathur said the purpose of transnational trade is not limited to maintaining and strengthening diplomatic relations, but also to bring in additional revenue, and the same reason applies to transnational electricity trade. “To create a strong system of sustainable electricity in the form of renewable energy, strong infrastructure is required, which consists of high cross-border connectivity. Cross-border trade of renewable electricity will help expedite the pace of energy transition towards a low-carbon future,” he added.

ISA aims to help mobilise $1 trillion of funding by 2030 for developing countries to expand their solar power grids, both in transmission and generation, and meet their energy needs. The first step, therefore, would be to build technological and business capabilities to have exclusive grids for green power within states and countries. This would, however, require the deployment of resources exclusively for renewable power, which may not be prudent for cash-strapped local and national governments especially since their priority is to strengthen the existing networks for increasing energy access. This is where institutional financing, both from philanthropists as well as multilateral agencies, can be crucial.

The falling cost of renewable power buoyed by large-scale technology applications and availability of capital makes it possible to increase the share of green power in the overall electricity usage, but it will require a viable scale to stand on its own when it comes to building transmission and distribution networks. Besides, addressing the intermittent nature of renewable power through battery storage and also building in for the outages caused by unfavourable weather conditions will be essential. This nonetheless will add costs into the systems requiring an even larger scale of trading for a sustainable business model.