What's New

In India, the economic growth in the last two decades has led to an increased emphasis on the importance of electricity and that the energy demand of the nation with a population of 1.21 billion is going to grow at a robust pace. Successive Indian governments have set a target of 8% GDP growth Y-O-Y till 2031 (Source: Report on Integrated Energy Policy 2006, Kirit Parikh) to help India realize its potential of a global superpower. At present, the power requirements of the country are being met predominantly from three sources viz., Thermal (coal based), Hydro and Nuclear power generation. Power generation capacity in India has risen at the rate of around 5% per annum over the last 25 years. India is world's 4th largest energy consumer, accounting for 3.4% of global energy consumption (Source: US EIA, 2011 Report). Due to India’s economic rise and infrastructural development, the demand for energy and consequently the installed generation capacity has grown considerably over the past 30 years.

With the recently declared Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC’s) by India at COP 21 - The Climate Change Summit in 2015, it has been decided to meet 40% of the Country’s energy demand by 2030 from renewable sources. The path has thus been set for India to undergo a suitable transformation and undertake that giant leap. In order to bring down the dependence of finite fossil fuel for power generation, it is necessary to look into the viability of generating power locally using renewable energy sources. Government of India has separately set up a Ministry called MNRE - Ministry of New Renewable Energy for the promotion of Power Generation through Renewable Energy. The Ministry has been facilitating the implementation of broad spectrum programs such as harnessing renewable power and providing renewable energy to rural areas. Hence, to achieve this transition from fossil fuel based generation to renewable based generation, the current government has launched a unique program of having an installed base of 175 GW of renewable generation capacity by 2022, out of which 100GW is expected to come from Solar, 60 GW from wind, 10 GW from Biomass and 5 GW from small hydro.