Govt to Achieve Target of 100 GW of Solar Power by 2022: R K Singh

The government is confident of achieving the target of 100 GW of solar power capacity by 2022 says Power Minister.

The Union Government is confident of achieving the target of 100 Gigawatt (GW) of solar power capacity by 2022, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Power and Renewable Energy R K Singh said.

While speaking in the Lok Sabha during Question Hour, he said, “As against the target of installing 100 GW of solar power capacity as on December 15, a capacity of 16,676 MW has been installed with another 6,500 MW capacity under installation.”

The trajectory of bidding of the rest of solar power capacity has been finalised as 20,000 MW in 2017-18, 30,000 MW in 2018-19 and 30,000 MW in 2019-20.

“The government is confident of achieving the target of 100 GW of solar power capacity by 2022,” Singh said.

Since the country does not have enough manufacturing capacity at present for solar cells and modules to meet the full demand, “both imported and indigenous solar cells and modules are being utilised for achieving the targets,” he said.

It is pertinent to mention that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set a national target of installing 175 gigawatts of clean power by 2022, an almost fivefold increase from the current installed capacity. This would comprise 100 GW of solar, 60 GW of wind, 10 GW of biomass and 5 GW of small hydropower capacity coming from units of up to 25 MW capacity.

Source: PTI