RK Singh Confident India Will Have 450 GW RE by 2030

India will have around 60% of its installed electricity generation capacity from clean sources by 2030 reaching 450 GW RE capacity, RK Singh has said.

India will have around 60 percent of its installed electricity generation capacity from clean energy sources by 2030, Power and New & Renewable Energy Minister R K Singh has said. The minister also exuded confidence that the renewable energy (RE) capacity would touch 450 GW by 2030, with an additional 60 GW of hydropower capacity.

In September last year at the United Nations Climate Action Summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced increasing the renewable energy target to 450 GW by 2030 from 175 GW by 2022.

Speaking at a webinar hosted by The Energy Resource Institute (TERI), Singh said “I would say that by 2030, 60 percent of our capacity will be from renewables, and that is on a conservative scale.”

The minister explained that by 2030, 450 GW of power generation capacity would come from renewables like solar and wind. Besides which, 60 GW would come from hydro-electric power, he said.

About the progress on clean energy, he said that India’s clean energy capacity including under development projects and hydro electric power is around 190 GW, which is more than the targeted 175 GW by 2022.

During the webinar, the minister launched a report, titled ‘Renewable Power Pathways: Modelling the Integration of Wind and Solar in India by 2030’. The minister also launched a report titled ‘Bending the Curve: 2025 Forecasts for Electricity Demand by Sector and State in the Light of the COVID Epidemic’. The two reports have been prepared by Energy Transitions Commission (ETC) India, which is a research platform based at the TERI headquarters in New Delhi.

Recently, the minister had said that zero dependence on fossil fuel is required to fully realise the vision behind the Aatmanirbhar Bharat initiative. Adding that once renewable energy and balancing power become cost-effective, thermal electricity and fossil fuel will be a thing of the past in India’s energy mix.

“The vision for a truly Aatmanirbhar Bharat is zero-dependence on fossil fuel imports,” Singh said in his address at the CII Digital Conference on Aatmanirbhar Bharat on Renewable Energy Manufacturing.

“India is constantly thinking innovation in bringing out bids. It came out with a bid on Renewable Energy & storage. The Government is also exploring other bid options such as – round-the-clock grid energy, balance by thermal, balance by hydro, etc. The end objective is to increase demand for storage and bring down prices,” he said in a statement issued by industry body CII.