India’s Renewable Capacity Crosses 80 GW Mark

India’s renewable energy capacity has crossed the 80 GW mark, which includes 29.55 GW of solar energy and 36.37 GW wind power, Parliament was informed.

India’s renewable energy capacity has crossed the 80 GW mark, which includes 29.55 GW of solar energy and 36.37 GW wind power, Parliament was informed. The government has set an ambitious target of having 175 GW of clean energy capacity by 2022, including 100 GW solar and 60 GW of wind energy. 

“The Government is regularly monitoring the progress being made to achieve the target of 175 GW by 2022. A total of 80.46 GW of renewable energy capacity has been installed in the country as on June 30, 2019, which includes 29.55 GW from solar and 36.37 GW from wind power,” Power and New & Renewable Energy Minister R K Singh said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

As per India’s submission to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change on Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC), a cumulative electric power capacity of 40 percent from non-fossil fuel-based energy resources is to be installed by 2030. Accordingly, the government has set a target of installing renewable energy capacity of 175 GW by the year 2022, the minister said. 

In a separate reply to the House, Singh said that solar power capacity addition was 5,525.98 MW in 2016-17, 9,362.63 MW in 2017-18 and 6,529.20 MW in 2018-19. 

In another reply, the ministry also told the House that a total of 42 solar power parks with an aggregate capacity of around 23.40 GW have been approved by the government so far to facilitate achievement of 100 GW target by March 2022. Out of approved capacity of 23.40 GW, power purchase agreements (PPAs) have been signed for around 9.20 GW and out of this, around 6.40 GW of capacity has been commissioned in various solar parks as on June 30, 2019, he said. 

Recently, we reported that the cumulative grid-connected installed solar power capacity in India is approaching the 30 GW mark sooner rather than later with the installed capacity at the end of May 2019, being 29,409 MW, RK Singh confirmed in a written response to the Parliament.