India’s RE Generation Capacity Sees 72% Growth in 6 Years: RK Singh

The installed capacity of renewable energy generation in the country has grown 72% from 80 GW to 138.9 GW during the past six years, according to RK Singh.

The installed capacity of renewable energy generation in the country has grown 72 percent from 80 gigawatts (GW) to 138.9 GW during the past six years, according to new and renewable energy minister RK Singh.

The minister also added that the foreign direct investments of USD 6.1 billion flew into the Indian clean energy sector — including solar, wind, biomass, large hydro and nuclear — in the five year period 2014-19.

“Globally, India stands third in terms of renewable power, fourth in terms of wind power and fifth in terms of solar power installed capacity. For the period 2014-2019, clean energy investments in India were about USD 75 billion,” Singh said in a written reply in Parliament last week.

Of the renewable energy sources, excluding large hydro above 25 MW, the installed capacity of solar energy capacity registered the highest growth. It grew from 2.6 GW in March 2014 to 34.4 GW in February this year.

As part of its Intended Nationally Determined Contributions, as per the Paris Climate Agreement, India has committed to install around 40 percent of its power generation capacity based on non-fossil fuel resources by 2030.

Singh also said an additional 62.4 GW clean energy capacity is currently under various stages of implementation and 34.07 GW is under various stages of bidding. Most of the clean energy projects, except nuclear power and some large hydro, are set-up in the country by the private sector.

Recently, the minister also said that as on February 29, 2020, a cumulative grid-connected solar power capacity of 35.07 GW had been installed in the country. And an additional capacity 21.35 GW was at various stages of implementation with 31.27 GW at various stages of tendering. This apart, tender s for installing 20 GW have been planned till June 2021 so as to achieve the target of 100 GW.

Answering a question raised in the Rajya Sabha, Singh said that deployment of solar energy definitely reduces dependence on oil imports and the government has set a target of installing 100 GW of solar capacity by December 2022.