New Delhi: Addressing the conference on “Aatmairbhar Bharat – Self Reliance for Renewable Energy Manufacturing”, the Union Minister of Power and New and Renewable Energy, RK Singh stated that India had emerged as world leader in the Energy Transition. He said that India had one of the fastest rates of growth of Renewable Energy capacity in the world.
Singh further added that India had pledged in COP-21 in Paris that by 2030; 40% of its power generation capacity will be from non-fossil fuel sources and had already reached at 38.5% and if the capacity under installation is added, it comes to 48.5%. The Minister said that India proposes to continue to be a world leader in the coming years as well and it has set a target of 450 GW of Renewable Energy capacity by 2030.
The Minister pointed out that India had achieved universal access by connecting every village and every hamlet under Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gram Jyoti Yojana Scheme and connecting every household under Saubhagya Scheme. It was the fastest and the largest expansion of access in the world. This had also resulted in the demand for electricity going up rapidly.
He informed that India has already touched 200 GW of demand even when the effects of COVID-19 was still there. The demand had crossed what it was during pre-COVID time and it is expected that electricity demand will continue to rise. This gives us the space for adding more Renewable Energy capacity.
The Government proposes to come out with Rules and Regulations providing for easier Open Access for those industries which want to become green i.e. which want to rely on green energy for their functioning. Industry will be able to either set up green energy manufacturing capacity itself or through a developer and draw power from it through open access. The surcharge on open access will also be rationalized so as to ensure that open access is not saddled with unfair levies, he added.
