Zurich report: 90% of India's green energy projects face climate risk

A Zurich Group report warns that 90% of India's planned renewable energy sites, including solar, wind, and hydro, face high or critical climate risk by 2030. The report calls for immediate action to build resilience into these projects.

India can act now, while many of these assets are still in planning or construction, and resilience can still be built in at the lowest cost, Zurich Group said in a report, warning that 90 per cent of the country's planned renewable energy sites face high or critical physical climate risk by 2030.

The analysis of 871 sites across ten states, with a combined planned capacity of about 267 GW, found that "66 per cent are rated critical by 2030." "That is not a reason for alarm; it is a reason to act now," the report said.

Renewable Energy Breakdown and Risks

Solar dominates the pipeline, accounting for 593 sites and 182,286 MW, or "nearly 70 per cent of total assessed capacity." Wind makes up 230 sites and 44,177 MW, while hydropower, though only 48 sites, contributes 40,188 MW and "carries disproportionately high financial exposure due to the capital intensity of this type of civil infrastructure."

Zurich identified tornado, wildfire, flood and hail as the main hazards. For solar, "hail creates both direct visible damage -- shattering glass layers -- and hidden defects that degrade performance over time and only appear later through reduced output."

Wind projects face "extreme wind events, flooding and the wider consequences of intensifying monsoon and cyclone patterns," while hydropower "increasingly depends on recognising that historical hydrology is a weak guide to future performance."

Zurich's 5-Step Recommendation for Resilience

The report outlined five steps: make climate risk screening mandatory at planning, stress-test the highest-risk assets first, build hazard-specific resilience into procurement, treat system resilience as part of asset resilience, and use resilience quantification to unlock capital.

The Financial Case for Resilience

It estimated that "an indicative resilience investment of around 2 per cent of CAPEX could reduce severe-loss exposure by as much as 75 per cent," corresponding to "an avoided-loss multiple of approximately 38x."

Case Study: Solar Project Resilience

A case study of a 2.5 GW solar project showed that without resilience measures, Value at Risk was "approximately USD 178.5 million," but with a hail-storm tracker, the loss was reduced to USD 43 million." The incremental cost was about 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.

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