India’s nationwide lockdown from 24 March to 17 May to contain the spread of COVID-19 has had unexpected spin-offs — it reduced smog over the national capital of New Delhi by 50 per cent and helped increase generation of solar power, says a new study.
Ian Marius Peters, research scientist at the Helmholtz Institute Erlangen-Nürnberg for Renewable Energy*, US, and lead author of the study published 19 June in Joule, says: “If you improve the air quality you actually make the renewable energy sources, especially solar, work better. So, there’s a positive feedback loop there.”