A year-end review from India’s Ministry of New And Renewable Energy states the country has made major headway towards its ambitious renewables targets.
The Ministry says the country’s present installed wind power capacity is approximately 28.28 GW, putting it in fourth position globally after China, the USA and Germany.
With regard to solar power, 3,019 MW was installed in 2015-16 (India’s fiscal year runs April 1-March 31), exceeding its target by 116%. During the 2016-17 fiscal year, a total of 1,750 MW capacity was added up until the end of October. The cumulative total for solar power in the country at that point stood at 8,728 MW.
India has huge renewable energy potential, estimated at approximately 900 GW from commercially exploitable sources. The nation’s estimated wind power potential is around 102 GW ( 80 meter mast height), small hydro at 20 GW, bio-energy at 25 GW and 750GW potentially from solar power.
The Government has set a target of 175 GW of installed renewables capacity by the end of 2022. This includes 60 GW wind power, 100 GW solar power capacity, 10 GW sourced from biomass and 5 GW from small hydro power.
Of the solar power goal, 40 GW is to be in the form of grid connected solar rooftops.
With 46.33 GW installed renewable power capacity (all sources) as at the end of October, renewables now represent approximately 15% of India’s installed total installed capacity.
The Ministry’s year-end review can be viewed in full here.
In other recent related news from India, a new national electricity plan states the country will not require any additional coal-fired energy capacity in the next decade. This has raised further concerns about the economic viability of Adani Group’s massive coal mine in Queensland.
The plan (PDF) states the share of non-fossil fuel based installed capacity in India’s energy mix, consisting of nuclear, hydro and renewable sources, will increase to 46.8% by the end of 2021/22 fiscal year and 56.5% in 2026/27.
The plan forecasts renewable energy generation to contribute approximately 20.3% of India’s electricity requirements in 2021/22 and 24.2% in 2026/27.
