Achieving the 2030 target of 450 GW of renewable energy – A prescription for India
In order to meet its climate commitments, and to achieve energy security, India has ambitious renewable energy targets by 2030 [1]. India’s nationally determined contributions (NDC) at the Paris UNFCCC conference of parties (COP) in 2015, imply 350 GW of renewable energy capacity. Recently, in the Climate Week in New York in 2019, the aspirations have increased to 450 GW of renewable energy capacity [2].
India has made significant progress towards these targets. As of September 30, 2020, the renewable capacity stood at approximately 90 GW [3]. This includes 38 GW of wind energy and 36 GW of solar energy. While wind energy has been growing steadily since the early 2000s, the growth in solar energy has been achieved in the last decade.
However, India still has a long way to go! To get to the stated targets, it needs to install more than 250 GW of renewable energy capacity in 10 years, or 25-35GW of renewable energy capacity per year. This is more than twice of what India has been achieving in recent times [4], and is by no means going to be easy.
In particular, this would require concerted policy effort, including on the following: (1) demand creation for renewable energy; (2) revenue certainty for renewable energy power projects; (3) risk reduction for development, construction, and operation of these projects; and (4) system integration of variable and intermittent renewable energy supply.
