The government has indicated plans to scale up renewable energy targets from 175 GW to 227 GW by March 2022.
Reportedly, the 175 GW targets could be over achieved on the back of schemes such floating solar, manufacturing-linked solar and offshore wind power. The additional 52 GW capacity would require an investment of $50 billion over the next few years. Currently, the country has an installed capacity of about 75 GW of renewables and 40 GW is under tendering or construction.
The new targets would be 113.49 GW from 100 GW for solar segment, 66.65 MW for wind segment, 5.98 for small-hydro segment, 10.5 for biomass segment, and 31 MW for offshore wind and floating solar segment. Gas-based power plants will be utilised for grid stability.
The power demand is expected to rise further upon implementation of household and village electrification schemes, improvements in financial stability of discoms and the government’s plan to penalise discoms for load shedding. Therefore the new demand will pave the way for greater renewable energy capacity addition. Moreover, the draft national tariff policy has proposed mandatory renewable purchase obligation on states which will help prevent renewable energy curtailment.