India’s Renewable Energy Capacity Crosses 80-GW Mark, Says Government

India’s renewable energy capacity has crossed the 80-gigawatt mark, which includes 29.55 GW of solar power and 36.37 GW wind power, Union Minister RK Singh told the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.

The government has set an ambitious target of 175 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2022, including 100 GW of solar power and 60 GW of wind power capacities.

“The Government is regularly monitoring the progress being made to achieve the target of 175 GW by 2022,” Singh, the minister for power and new and renewable energy, said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

According to India’s submission to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change on Intended Nationally Determined Contribution, a cumulative energy capacity of 40 percent from non-fossil fuel-based energy resources is to be installed by 2030. Accordingly, the government has set a target of installing renewable energy capacity of 175 GW by the year 2022, the minister said.

According to Singh, total solar power capacity addition was 5,525.98 MW in 2016-17, 9,362.63 MW in 2017-18 and 6,529.20 MW in 2018-19.

A total of 42 solar power parks with an aggregate capacity of around 23.40 GW have been approved by the government so far. Out of approved capacity, power purchase agreements have been signed for 9.20 GW and out of this, around 6.40 GW of capacity has been commissioned in various solar parks as on June 30, 2019, Singh said.

However, availability of land and power evacuation are the two main constraints in setting up of solar parks, the minister said.

To address these issues, a new mode (Mode-7) has been introduced in the solar park scheme, allowing state-run Solar Energy Corporation of India to act as the solar power park developer.

The SECI, with the assistance of the states, will make land available to successful bidders for setting up renewable energy projects and also get the external power evacuation infrastructure of the parks developed through external transmission development agencies like Central Transmission Unit, State Transmission Units.