India On Its Way to Surpass Its 2022 Renewable Energy Target

India RE Target And Action Plan

India had already installed around 16 GW of solar capacity by October 2017. It also announced an aggressive auction plan to boost further installations in the coming years. Nearly 17 GW of solar power capacity is expected to be auctioned by March 2018, and 30 GW of capacity will be auctioned each in FY2018-19 and FY2019-20.

Bids will be invited mostly for ground-mounted solar power projects and few floating solar power projects as well. Other than these auctions, many large-scale solar power projects are still under construction. The Minister for New & Renewable Energy Mr. RK Singh is, therefore, confident that India will not only meet but also surpass its 100 GW of solar installation target by 2022.

Also, read Indian Large Scale Solar Prices Remain Low Despite Rising Uncertainty Over Solar Panel Prices

There is progress on the wind energy front too. India had an operational wind energy capacity of 32.7 GW at the end of September 2017. About 4 GW of wind power is expected to be auctioned by March 2018. Nearly 4.5 GW has already been auctioned by December 2017. An additional 10 GW of capacity will be auctioned in FY2018-19 and FY2019-20 each. Wind power tariffs touched a record low of INR 2.43 per unit at an auction conducted by Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Ltd. in December 2017.

According to the RPO trajectory projected by the Centre, states shall procure 11.50% of their electricity demand from clean energy sources in 2016-17, 14.25% in 2017-18 and 17% in 2018-19.