India to achieve 50% clean energy target before deadline

India will easily achieve the target of 50 per cent share of energy consumption from non-fossil fuels, and 500 gigawatt (GW) renewable energy capacity before the 2030 deadline, said Union Minister for Power and New and Renewable Energy R K Singh, on Wednesday. He was speaking at the Sydney Energy Forum on ‘Decarbonization, Energy Security and the Scale and Pace of the Transition’.

India achieved its nationally determined contribution (NDC) commitment of 40 per cent non-fossil-based installed power capacity nine years ahead of the target year. The country is now heading towards achieving 500 GW energy from non-fossil fuel sources by 2030, he said.

At the COP26 Climate Conference in Glasgow last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi raised the NDC target of non-fossil energy capacity from the earlier 450 GW to 500 GW by 2030.

“We will achieve that. It is not too much (of) a tall order. We have established a renewable energy (RE) capacity of 149 GW (including large hydro projects) and 63 GW RE capacity under construction. We are already at 212 GW. So, getting to further let us say 300 GW by 2030 or in a decade…I don’t think that is difficult,” he said.

India is set to add 27,000 circuit kilometres of inter-state power transmission networks by 2024, as it has already added 6,500 circuit kilometres lines so far.

The power transmission network expansion has been planned, keeping in mind the goal of having 500 GW of non-fossil fuel-based electricity generation capacity in the county. Energy experts are of the view that transmission links to evacuate power from projects, especially renewables, should be set up much before the generation capacity is added.