India’s renewable energy capacity crosses 80GW-mark, says R K Singh

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New Delhi: India’s renewable energy capacity has crossed the 80GW-mark, which includes 29.55 GW of solar energy and 36.37 GW wind power, Parliament was informed Tuesday. The government has set an ambitious target of having 175 GW of clean energy capacity by 2022, including 100 GW solar and 60 GW of wind energy.

“The Government is regularly monitoring the progress being made to achieve the target of 175 GW by 2022. A total of 80.46 GW of renewable energy capacity has been installed in the country as on June 30, 2019 which includes 29.55 GW from Solar & 36.37 GW from Wind power,” Power and New & Renewable Energy Minister R K Singh said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

As per India’s submission to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change on Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC), a cumulative electric power capacity of 40 per cent 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.

In a separate reply to the House, Singh said that 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. In another reply, the ministry also told the House that a total of 42 solar power parks with an aggregate capacity of around 23.40 GW have been approved by the government so far to facilitate achievement of 100 GW target by March, 2022. Out of approved capacity of 23.40 GW, power purchase agreements (PPAs) have been signed for around 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, he said.

The minister also informed the House that availability of land and power evacuation are two main constraints in setting up of solar parks. To address these issues, a new mode (Mode-7) has been introduced in the Solar Park scheme, allowing Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) to act as the Solar Power Park Developer (SPPD). 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 (ETDA) like Central Transmission Unit (CTU), State Transmission Units (STUs), he added.