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Opinions on Saturday, December 26, 2020
Columnist: energyworld.com
2020-12-26
As of September 30, 2020, India’s renewable energy capacity reached 90 GW
While much of the world is seeing power, demand is sinking thanks to the economic and industrial slowdown fueled by the novel coronavirus pandemic, India has made great strides in connecting more people to the grid than ever before.
Historically, much of the rural population of the Indian subcontinent had no access to electricity, but the government has made electrification of all of India a major priority in the last year and a half.
In order to power the 1.353 billion living in India (a conservative estimate that’s two years old, by the way) while still meeting New Delhi’s climate commitments, the country has set some extremely ambitious renewable energy targets. .
In 2015, as part of the Paris climate accord, India pledged to achieve 350 Gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy capacity by just 2030, and much more recently, at Climate Week 2019 in New York, India upped its bid. initial to 450 GW for the next ten years.
While these targets are ambitious to say the least, India’s Secretary of Energy Sanjiv Nandan Sahai declared this week that his country is on track to meet its lofty renewable energy commitments.
As of September 30, 2020, India’s renewable energy capacity reached 90 GW, mainly coming from wind and solar energy (wind represents 38 GW and solar 36 GW). Wind power has been growing in India for twenty years, while the nation has only increased its solar capacity for half that time.
This means that, despite the optimistic assertions of the Secretary of Energy, India has a long way to go to meet its climate targets, and 2030 is just around the corner.
To be able to install the shortfall of 250 GW of renewable energy capacity before that deadline, India needs to install 25 to 35 GW of renewable energy capacity each year, which is more than double the current rate. “This would require a concerted political effort, including the following:
Creation of demand for renewable energy;
Income certainty for renewable energy projects;
Risk reduction for the development, construction and operation of these projects; and
Integration of the variable and intermittent renewable energy supply system ”.
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