India’s RE Capacity Stands At 114 GW Till June, 61 GW Short Of 2022 Target

The Members of Parliament were separately informed by the Ministers of New and Renewable Energy in the Parliament on July 19 that India’s renewable energy capacity (excluding large hydro) stood at 114.07 GW till June-end this year, while 60.66 GW of projects are under various stages of development. India has set a target of having 175 GW of renewable energy capacity, including 100 GW of solar and 60 GW of wind energy, by 2022.

Writing his reply to a question from an MP in Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for New and Renewable Energy Bhagwanth Khuba said, “Against the target of achieving 175 GW of Renewable Energy (excluding Large Hydro) installed capacity by 2022, a total of 114.07 GW renewable energy capacity (excluding large hydro) has been installed in the country as on June 30, 2022,”. His reply reads further that capacity of 60.66 GW is under various stages of implementation, while 23.14 GW capacity is under various stages of bidding.

In another reply, Minister of New and Renewable Energy R K Singh said the share of renewable energy (including large hydro) in the total installed electricity generation capacity in the country was 39.85 per cent as on June 30, 2022. Replying to another question, he further added, “Under Component-B of PM-KUSUM Scheme, Government has allocated over 3.59 lakh standalone solar pumps to various States. Out of this, over 1.23 lakh standalone solar pumps have been installed as on June 30, 2022. Under the scheme, standalone solar pumps up to 10 HP capacity have been installed. However, central financial assistance is restricted to 7.5 HP pump capacity,”.

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy is working towards achieving 500 GW of installed electricity capacity from non-fossil sources by 2030. The various agencies across the world have been doing researches about the bottlenecks holding India’s adoption to renewable energy or the signs of progress at different stages. There are conflicting independent reports about the 2030 RE targets. India will need $223 billion of investment to meet its goal of wind and solar capacity installations by 2030, according to a new report by research company BloombergNEF (BNEF) published in June. The report ‘Financing India’s 2030 Renewables Ambition’, published in association with the Power Foundation of India, found that corporate commitments from Indian companies could help India achieve 86 per cent of its 2030 goals of building 500GW of cumulative non-fossil power generation capacity, a statement issued by BNEF said. GlobalData published a report last week that the current market scenario and growth trend may pull India to fall short of the 2030 target by more than 104GW.

If India is to to reach its net-zero emissions by 2070, it needs a shift in its energy mix toward renewable energy, enabled by supportive government policies, private sector participation and low cost capital, Moody’s Investors Service said in a report on June 13.