The G.O.I on Thursday earlier this week reported that a total of 47.86 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy capacity has been installed in the nation, in the past six years from March 2014 to October 2019. Power and New & Renewable Energy Minister R K Singh verified the same in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha.
Crux of the Matter
As per government data, India added 98 gigawatts of power generation capacity. 52% of this was based on renewable energy technologies dominated by solar power, which saw the addition of 30 gigawatts of new projects.
Over the last five years, solar power capacity in India has increased 10 times to 33.7 gigawatts as of 31 December 2019.
In 12 of the 18 quarters ending December 2019, capacity added through renewable energy technologies exceeded that based on fossil fuels (coal, diesel, and gas) witnessed the addition of 42 gigawatts of new capacity.
Diesel-fired capacity declined from 1,200 megawatts to 510 megawatts during the aforementioned period. Power generation capacity based on biomass and biofuel cogeneration doubled from 4.4 gigawatts to 9.8 gigawatts during the same time.
This has come out as a major achievement for the country which otherwise used non-renewable energy sources for two-thirds of its electricity generation capacity.
Curiopedia
Renewable energy in India : India is one of the countries with the largest production of energy from renewable sources. As of 2019, 35% of India’s installed electricity generation capacity is from renewable sources, generating 17% of total electricity in the country. In the Paris, Agreement India has committed to an Intended Nationally Determined Contributions target of achieving 40% of its total electricity generation from non-fossil fuel sources by 2030. The country is aiming for even more ambitious target of 57% of the total electricity capacity from renewable sources by 2027 in the Central Electricity Authority’s strategy blueprint. According to 2027 blueprint, India aims to have 275 GW from renewable energy, 72 GW of hydroelectricity, 15 GW of nuclear energy and nearly 100 GW from “other zero emission” sources. In the quarter ending September 2019, India’s total renewable electricity capacity (including large hydro) was 130.68 GW. This represents 35.7% of the total installed electricity generation capacity in the country, which is around 366 GW. More Info
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