The majority of India’s planned renewable energy infrastructure will be exposed to escalating climate hazards, putting about $55 billion of physical assets at risk of damage by the end of this decade, according to a new study.
Some 239 gigawatts of proposed solar, wind and hydropower capacity across 10 Indian states — about 90% of the total — face high or critical vulnerabilities to compounding weather events like tornadoes, wildfires and extreme floods, Zurich Insurance Group AG said in an assessment published Thursday.
Also Read | El Niño is set to further disrupt India's $300 billion farm supply chain
“It hits the balance sheet,” Mark Fletcher, head of Zurich Resilience Solutions for Asia Pacific, said in an interview. “If your solar panel is less efficient, you’re generating less revenue. If your wind farm is blown down and you have four or five turbines damaged, you have a business interruption on the revenue side, but you also have a direct cost to fix that.”
