India is rapidly moving towards becoming one of the largest green energy producers in the world. As of 31 October 2020, India’s total renewable energy installed capacity had reached over 89.63 GW, according to the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. The government said that during the last six years, India has witnessed the fastest rate of growth in renewable energy capacity addition among all large economies, with renewable energy capacity growing by 2.5 times and solar energy expanding by over 13 times. Renewable energy now constitutes over 24 per cent of the country’s installed power capacity and around 11.62 per cent of the electrical energy generation.
Also, if large hydro is included, the share of renewable energy in electric installed capacity would be over 36 per cent and over 26 per cent of the electric energy generation. Further, around 49.59 GW renewable energy capacity is under installation, and an additional 27.41 GW capacity has been tendered. This makes the total capacity that is already commissioned and in the pipeline about 166.63 GW.
The government apprised that on top of that, large hydropower, which has also been declared as renewable energy has about 45 GW hydro installed capacity and 13 GW capacity under installation, which brings India’s total renewable energy portfolio of installed and in pipeline projects to 221 GW. This is significantly higher than the Modi government’s target of installing a green energy capacity of 175 GW by 2020. Earlier in 2015, the government had committed to installing green energy capacity of 100 GW from solar, 60 GW from wind, 10 GW from biomass, and 5 GW from small hydropower for a healthy planet with a less carbon-intensive economy.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has recently invited foreign investors saying that there are huge renewable energy deployment plans for the next decade, which are likely to generate business prospects of the order of around $20 billion per year. Inviting the global investors, developers, and businesses to join India’s renewable energy journey, PM Modi had added that India has a very liberal foreign investment policy for renewables. The foreign investors can either invest on their own or they can collaborate with an Indian company. PM Modi had also announced that after the success of PLI in electronics manufacturing, the government has decided to give similar incentives to high-efficiency solar modules.
