India Expected To Spend $385 Bn To Reach RE Target: Moody’s

Moody's Report Calls For Sustainable Financing To Shift Towards RE

Moody’s Ratings, a bond credit rating business of Moody’s Corporation, in its recent report, highlighted that India is expected to invest $385 billion to meet its target of 500 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy by 2030. But coal will remain a key source of electricity generation for the next decade, said Moody’s Ratings.

India, one of the major greenhouse gas emitters plans to ramp up non-fossil fuel capacity set by 50 GW each year to help meet its 500 GW target. It missed its target of 175 GW by 2022.

Moody’s, however, estimates an annual capacity addition of around 44 GW will help achieve that target. To achieve this goal, India is expected to spend $190 billion to $215 billion on capacity over the next six to seven years. It also plans to add another $150 billion to $170 billion for transmission and distribution, as per the credit ratings agency estimates.

“The sizable pipelines of announced projects will likely keep financial leverage of rated renewable power companies high over the next two to three years, a credit negative, but the leverage of government related issuers is likely to remain moderate over the same period,” Moody’s said.

India’s policy support has boosted the renewable energy share to around 43% in its power capacity mix in fiscal 2023-24, attracting private sector investments. Adani Green Energy aims to generate 45 GW of renewable power by 2030 as it strives to become the country’s first integrated renewable energy player.

Moody suggested the use of continued policy backing to facilitate progress toward India’s 2030 transition and 2070 net-zero targets. Its report emphasizes that, even though renewable energy, specifically solar energy has witnessed a steady growth, coal to play a significant role in electricity generation for the next eight to ten years. “We expect India to add 40GW-50GW of coal-based capacity over the next five to six years to help meet power demand, which is likely to grow by 5%-6% annually over this period”