Association Webinars: Energy Transitions in India



  

 

Being home to 1.4 billion people, India’s predicted economic growth in years 2021 will be in the double digits, as predicted by the World Bank. As the most populous democracy in the world, the country is facing a challenge of achieving its Paris Agreement goals, while at the same time maintaining its growth momentum. Coal phase out is looming large as the potential necessary step to meeting the country’s climate pledges. The data for March 2020 show that India had the third largest coal generating capacity in the world, with many more new coal plants in the construction pipeline. The speakers will discuss the economic, social, and political challenges of an Indian coal exit, highlighting the stranded asset risk associated with these plants. At the same time, coal exit can be supported by a large-scale build out of renewable energy capacity. The webinar will address the biggest challenges for India given its ambitious target of installing 450GW of renewables by 2030. Finally, the speakers will discuss the potential for the emerging technologies, such as green hydrogen, electric vehicles, and grid modernization.

Moderator:

Anna (Ebers) Broughel is an energy economist at the engineering firm Tetra Tech, an international engineering consulting company. She fell in love with India when she visited New Delhi in 2005, to attend an IT course offered by the Tata Consultancy Services. Since then, she has researched energy access issues in both developing countries and the US. Prior to joining Tetra Tech, she worked at the U.S. Department of Energy as a Science and Technology Fellow. She completed her post-doctoral training at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland and at the University of Maryland, College Park. She holds a PhD in economics and policy from the State University of New York in association with Syracuse University, where she was a Fulbright scholar. Currently, she serves as a council member for the U.S. Association for Energy Economics and is a non-resident fellow at the University of Texas at Austin.

Speakers:

Johannes Urpelainen is the Director and Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz Professor of Energy, Resources and Environment at Johns Hopkins SAIS and the Founding Director of the Initiative for Sustainable Energy Policy (ISEP). He received his PhD in Political Science from the University of Michigan in 2009 and spent the next eight years at Columbia University. Johannes is the award-winning author of four books and over a hundred refereed articles on environmental politics, energy policy, and global governance. He teaches action-oriented classes on energy and environmental policy to equip the next generation of global leaders with deep knowledge, advanced analytical skills — and a passion for transformational social change. As one of the world’s top energy policy experts, Johannes frequently advises governments, international organizations, and the private sector on energy and environment. In his spare time, Johannes reads biographies and tries to improve his Hindi.

Kashish Shah is an Energy Finance Analyst with the Institute for Energy Economics & Financial Analysis (IEEFA). He specialises in financing, policy and technology matters of the Indian electricity market. He has a master’s degree in economics from the University of Sydney and an engineering degree from NMIMS University in Mumbai. Previously, Kashish has worked in the Global Analytics Division of the Royal Bank of Scotland with a focus on regulatory policies. He has research experiences in India’s public sector in his work for a member of the Indian Parliament and a University of Sydney-based research group.

Swetha RaviKumar Bhagwat is the Head of FSR Energy at the Florence School of Regulation. She is responsible for FSR Global Initiative that develops research, training and a policy dialogue with the countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. While being passionate about emerging energy technologies like hydrogen and grid integration, she also heads the FSR’s program on Universal Access to Energy, which provides research and training in energy regulation related to energy access. In the past, she has worked at the Dutch Development Bank, Fraunhofer ISE, as well as Indian organizations dedicated to technology, industry and research promotion.

Student Representative:

Joshua Averbach is a student at the University of Maryland pursuing a Master’s of Public Policy and planning to start law school in the Fall of 2022. He has an interest in environmental policy and law, and he has investigated India’s energy transition as part of his Energy Policy class this semester.

 

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