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    2030 renewable energy target: Panel to be set up soon for ‘Mission 500GW’

    Synopsis

    India's current capacity is at just about 101 GW in 2021. This means another 400GW of RE by has to be added by 2030 to meet the commitment. Modi had announced India's intent to achieve 500GW of its installed capacity through non-fossil fuels and 50 per cent of its energy requirement from renewables by 2030, at COP26.

    Untitled-6Agencies
    The 500GW mission is no mean target as RE capacity has to be raised by nearly 30-40GW per annum over the next nine years -- that is by 2030.
    A 'Mission 500GW' action plan will be drawn up soon by the government to take forward the announcement made by Prime Minister Modi at the COP26 climate conference at Glasgow last month.

    ET gathers that a joint committee of the ministry of power and ministry of new and renewable energy will soon be set up to draw a detailed action plan to take up India's renewable energy (RE) capacity to 500GW by 2030.

    Officials said that issues of transmission, the various types of technology to be used, the energy mix for the 500GW target and storage requirements will also be assessed by this panel. It will also look into the regulatory framework required for the scale-up of RE and to draw in the crucial foreign investment into the sector.

    India's current capacity is at just about 101 GW in 2021. This means another 400GW of RE by has to be added by 2030 to meet the commitment.

    Modi had announced India's intent to achieve 500GW of its installed capacity through non-fossil fuels and 50% of its energy requirement from renewables by 2030, at COP26.

    India had earlier expressed a 450GW RE ambition. With 50GW to add on, the 500GW mission is no mean target as RE capacity has to be raised by nearly 30-40GW per annum over the next nine years -- that is by 2030.

    India's current trajectory shows that it has added 8GW of RE per annum on an average except for 2020 when it added 12GW. A 40GW addition per annum, therefore, will be a tall order -- more so, given that this has to be done excluding the contribution from the large hydro power projects. So far, an ambiguity has been maintained on India's 450GW RE target, allowing elbow room for the country to keep to about 390GW of RE and add on 60GW of large hydro energy.

    The post COP26 commitment now will require a purely RE led 500GW drive, officials told ET. The committee will flesh out the mechanics for the same.

    The new matrix is expected to rely considerably on the Central Electricity Authority's Report on Optimal Generation Capacity Mix for 2029-30. This indicated that of the earlier 450GW Renewable energy target, 280GW would come from solar power and 140GW from wind energy. The remaining was to come from other hybrid energy sources. It is here that the proposed mix of hydrogen as well as biofuel may come in.



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