वायु प्रदूषण ने 2023 में भारत की सौर ऊर्जा उत्पादन को 9.6% तक घटा दिया, अध्ययन कहता है

<p>Aerosols in the air reduced the amount of solar power generated in India by 9.6% in 2023, equivalent to around 15 terawatt-hours (TWh), according to a new analysis published in Nature Sustainability. The same study reported that the global average loss due to the same cause in 2023 was 5.8%.</p><p>Between 2017 and 2023, pollution-related electricity generation losses from existing installations averaged 74 TWh a year — roughly one third of the electricity generated every year by new solar capacity.</p><p>According to the study, India’s loss is one of the world’s highest, with the most electricity generation potential lost in the country’s heavily polluted north.</p><p>The researchers assembled what they called the first global facility-level database of solar photovoltaic generation and losses, totalling 1.4 lakh facilities worldwide. They analysed the numbers together with satellite data, atmospheric data, and machine-learning.</p><p>Aerosols are fine particles of sulphates and carbon, among other constituents. Major human sources of it include coal plants, road transport vehicles, and industries.</p><p>Smog — which is a mix of aerosols and gases — directly reduces the amount of sunlight reaching solar panels, thus undermining an important source of power meant to replace coal in India.</p><p>India’s neighbour with an even bigger appetite for power, China, lost the most power generation potential in 2023, 61.3 TWh, but which was lower than India’s as a fraction of the total generation (7.7%). In fact, China both illustrates the scale of the problem and a way through it.</p><p>China generated 793.5 TWh of solar electricity in 2023 and accounted for 54.9% of aerosol-related losses worldwide. Many of the country’s solar farms lie within 30 km of coal power plants, increasing the former’s exposure to pollution that blocks sunlight.</p><p>However, China reduced pollution-related loss of solar power by around 1.4% a year from 2013 to 2023 and at the same time it expanded coal power. It reduced the losses by retrofitting coal plants with high-efficiency filters that curtailed sulphur dioxide and particulate emissions.</p><p>A key technology in reducing these emissions is flue-gas desulphurisation (FGD), which removes sulphur dioxide from flue gas vented into the air.</p><p>India’s aerosol-induced losses in solar power production did not decline from 2013 to 2023, staying flat. In 2025, the Indian government also significantly weakened a target to install FGD units by limiting them to coal plants near major cities and, on a case by case basis, plants in critically polluted areas.</p>