India’s cross border electricity trade between south Asian and southeast Asian countries could be a green alternative to China’s coal heavy BRI  30 May 2019: BIMSTEC countries gathered at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s swearing in ceremony could benefit from India’s rapid renewable energy capacity increase. According to a new paper by CarbonCopy, annual electricity trade potential between South Asian and Southeast Asian countries could be between 65000MW to 95000MW by 2045. The paper references estimates made by IRADe and World bank. According to Integrated Research and Action for Development (IRADe), electricity trade between south Asian countries could reach 60,000MW by 2045 if south Asian economies continue to grow at 6.5 percent. Another World bank study puts the figure to be over 95,000MW. The report states Cross Border Electricity Trade (CBET) could be the vehicle through which India supplies 100% renewable energy to its neighbours. India has a target of installing 175 GW of wind and solar energy by 2022. If achieved, that would be close to 50% of India’s current total installed power capacity. And with more than 40GW worth of existing coal fired power plant under financial stress in India, the current fiscal year (FY19) has seen India’s renewable energy ambition increase even further to 275GW by 2027. According to Global Energy Monitor (GEM), in 2018 India permitted less than 3GW of coal fired power plant for construction, compared to an annual average of 31GW from 2008 to 2012 and 13GW from 2013 to 2017. For the second year in a row, India added more solar and wind power capacity in 2018 than thermal power capacity. India’s cross border electricity trade between south Asian and southeast Asian countries could be a green alternative to China’s coal heavy Belt and Road Initiative. While there are other initiatives aimed at increasing connectivity and building energy infrastructure within the south Asian region, namely, China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), these initiatives are not committed to 100% renewable energy and therefore not clearly aligned to Paris agreement or United nations sustainable development goals. UN Chief, Antonio Guterres reportedly said he wants countries to…