India all set to breach renewable energy projection of 65% for 2030, says power minister RK Singh

The union minister for power & new and renewable energy Raj Kumar Singh has reiterated that having achieved the target of deriving 40 per cent of its electricity from non-fossil fuels in 2021, the country was now all set to breach the current projection of 65 per cent for 2030.

“I will tell you right now that 65 per cent is an understatement as. Our established capacity today is 170-odd GW of non-fossil. We have about another 80 GW under construction. That makes it 250 GW,” he said.

The minister further added that upcoming green hydrogen projects will also play a major role in helping the country far exceed its renewable energy goals.

“We had asked the industry how much green hydrogen capacity they would be setting up and got a figure of 25 million tonnes (MT). But we had not included a few industries at that time. So, it’s not going to be 25 MT but anywhere between 30-35 MT. Every 1 MT of green hydrogen requires 20 GW of renewable energy,” he informed.

Singh made these observations while addressing the third edition of the industry chamber CII’s in association with the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, ‘Pathways for Global Partnership in Green Energy’ in New Delhi on Monday.

The minister said that the government had also significantly revised its target for reducing emission intensity.

“As far as our reduction of emission intensity is concerned, we had pledged that we will reduce it to 33 per cent by 2030. We are already at around 31 per cent. So, we have upped our ambition and will be reducing our emission intensity by 45 per cent,” he declared.

Touching upon the hurdles being faced by the country’s fledgling solar cells and modules manufacturing industry on account of disturbances caused to global supply chains by geopolitical events, the minister said that the government had taken decisive steps to address the issue. This included encouraging the production of high-efficiency cells and modules in the next Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for the sector as low-efficiency cells and modules had to be phased out.

“Those who are making low-efficiency cells and modules must try and transition very quickly because we are going to rule out low-efficiency cells and modules. We will give you a window so that you get the time to replace them with high-efficiency cells and modules,” the minister stated.

This was imperative as new technology would drive down the cost of renewable energy as well as make India an alternative equipment manufacturer for the world.

Addressing polysilicon manufacturers in the audience, the minister said the government was committed to helping them reduce the cost of the energy-intensive manufacturing process by giving them deemed distributor licenses as well as the permission to set up their captive power plants. Polysilicon is used in making photovoltaic (PV) cells that convert Sun’s energy into electricity.

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