The government has so far received bids for the addition of 21 GW of renewable energy capacity so far in the current financial year under its plan to achieve the target of adding 50 GW of RE capacity by the end of the year, Bhupinder Singh Bhalla, Secretary, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy told FE.
“Our target for this year is to add 50 GW of RE capacity. We have so far received bids for 21 GW (of RE capacity) and we are on track to achieve the remaining target (bids for 30 GW) in the second half of the current fiscal,” Bhalla told FE on the sidelines of 6th assembly of International Solar Alliance.
The government, earlier this year, had announced that it would invite bids for 50 GW of renewable energy capacity annually for the next five years from FY24 to FY28 in order to achieve its target of tripling renewable energy capacity to 500 GW by 2030.
These annual bids will also include setting up of wind power capacity of at least 10 GW per annum. However, the government is targeting for a larger share of solar energy capacity addition among all the other renewable energy sources options.
In the first half of the current financial year, India has added 6.6 GW of RE capacity, as per the data available from the Central Electricity Authority. The RE capacity addition was slow during the first half of the current financial year mostly because the projects were delayed due to supply-chain challenges.
India has multiplied its solar capacity by about 35 times in the past seven to eight years and its RE capacity is around 43% of the total installed capacity, power minister R. K. Singh said today while addressing the press in the 6th assembly of ISA.
“Our nationally determined contribution (under the Paris Agreement) was that by 2030 we will have 40% of our installed capacity from non-fossil sources which we achieved 9 years in advance,” the minister said.
The government hopes to add at least 25 GW of RE capacity in the current financial year, Bhalla had told FE earlier. In the last fiscal, the government had added around 15 GW of RE capacity.
India meets around 23% of its total power requirement through REs and as much as 74% from thermal power sources. The target is to increase the share of RE in the energy mix to 40% by 2030.
The government has projected the RE installed capacity at 596 GW by 2032 in its National Electricity Plan released in May. It has also envisaged an investment of $410 billion for power capacity addition during 2022-2032. However, the International Energy Agency estimates an investment of $160 billion each year till 2030 for the country to reach its target of net zero emissions by 2070.