India Attains COP21 Goal: 40% Pwr Gen Capacity Now Non-Fossil Based

India has achieved the target of 40% of its installed electricity generation capacity being from non-fossil energy sources, an official statement said on Thursday.

At the end of October this year, the Ministry of Power (MoP) reiterated India’s commitment to achieve more than 40 percent cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-fossil-fuel energy resources by 2030. MoP said, government has identified new areas to achieve higher levels of penetration of Renewable energy by proposing certain Amendments to Energy Conservation Act, 2001.

The objective of this amendment is to enhance demand for renewable energy at the end-use sectors such as Industry, buildings and transport. The Ministry these prepared amendments after consultations with stakeholders. The proposal includes defining minimum share of renewable energy in the overall consumption by the industrial units or any establishment.

The proposed amendments will facilitate the development of carbon market in India and prescribe minimum consumption of renewable energy either as direct consumption or indirect use through grid so as to help reduce fossil fuel based energy consumption and carbon emission to the atmosphere, MoP said.

Now, a month later, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), has announced, “At COP 21, as part of its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), India had committed to achieving 40% of its installed electricity capacity from non-fossil energy sources by 2030. The country has achieved this target in November 2021 itself.”

According to the statement, the country’s installed renewable energy (RE) capacity stands at 150.05 GW, while its nuclear energy-based installed electricity capacity is 6.78 GW.

This brings the total non-fossil fuels based installed energy capacity to 156.83 GW — which is 40.1 per cent of the total installed electricity capacity of 390.8 GW, in line with the Prime Minister’s announcement at the recently concluded COP26 climate change conference.

The government is committed to achieving 500 GW of installed electricity capacity from non-fossil fuel sources by 2030, the statement added.