The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has said that India is set to achieve 450 GW of renewable energy installed capacity by 2030. Earlier this month, the MNRE, in partnership with FICCI, organised a series of events, from October 6-8 during the Climate and Biodiversity Week at Expo 2020 Dubai.
The events covered themes like 'India's Renewable Energy Achievements and Ambitions; Emerging Areas and Opportunities for Renewable Energy in India. The events were anchored by the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) and the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA).
An event on the theme of 'One Sun One World One Grid (OSOWOG)' was also organised by the International Solar Alliance promoting interconnectivity across borders to harness solar energy without intermittency.
Addressing the MNRE-FICCI SECI event, RK Singh, Minister of Power, New and Renewable Energy, emphasized that the world is on the cusp of transformation, and immediate corrective steps are needed to mitigate climate change.
He highlighted that energy transition needs to be the first step in this direction. He said that India is already ahead of what "we pledged in our Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs)" and added that, "already 39 percent of our installed capacity is from non-fossil based sources. By 2022 we will reach our target of 40 percent".
"India is set to achieve 450 GW of renewable energy installed capacity by 2030," an MNRE statement said.
Highlighting that transmission is a challenge and getting it into place is a work in progress, the minister said, "We are launching the Green Corridor Phase 2 and we are generally expanding transmission to put in place systems for renewable power evacuation from sites where irradiation is high, or wind speed is high."
Singh also said that, intermittency of renewable power is another challenge for the entire world, highlighting that battery storage per unit is currently high and needs to come down.
There is a Production Linked Incentive for battery storage already in place and demand needs to be encouraged to bring down the prices of storage, Singh added.
