Electric Vehicles Powered by Renewable Energy

Climate change is more than just a topic for corporates this decade. The subject is finding its place in our daily routine. Various industries are entering the sustainability domain with an aspirational and value-added quotient. India, a signatory of the Paris Agreement, has set its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). One of the goals of our NDCs is to achieve about 50 percent cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-fossil fuel-based energy resources by 2030. 

With our growing population, India is exponentially adding more vehicles to the roads every year. The projection says that by 2030 our vehicle fleet will touch 20 crores. According to statistics, the electricity and transport sectors are amongst the country's top two contributors to Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. Hence, many corporates are leading the race of sustainable future and are banking on the opportunity of power-generation in the most sustainable way. 

One pivotal solution to this effect is electric vehicles (EVs) running on renewable energy, such as solar power, which reduces the burden on electricity generation through fossil fuels and gives way to green and clean energy. Many power-generating industries these days focus on providing solar-powered EV charging stations. EV charging stations in office campuses, parks, and malls offer a double-incentive solution to vehicle emissions and electricity-generating power grids. Solar-powered EV stations provide a sustainable ecosystem for EVs to be successful in the Indian market.

Power-generating companies are diversifying and are expanding to market-driven initiatives of sustainable options. Tata Power Solar, Visaka Industries, ReNew Power, and Fortum Charge & Drive are some early starters to provide a holistic, sustainable solution in the mobility sector. Some EV charging stations have also turned this into a GHG emission reduction project, turning their efforts into commercially projected carbon credits.

Sustainability (relying on EVs) within a sustainable solution (renewable charging stations) can contribute to India's ambitious NDC targets. The Product Carbon Foot printing (PCF) of the EVs charged through renewable energy is going to be the game-changer for the vehicle manufacturers as these PCF and life cycle analyses encompass not only the product manufacturing but the use and end-of-life phase as well while studying the emissions made in the environment as wells as wholesome environmental performance on all the ecological strata of, biotic and abiotic.  The PCF values would give tangible, measurable values of how this ecosystem of EVs is contributing to sustainability.