India Needs Discoms To Achieve The 400GW RE Target Set By Modi

Last week the G20 summit ended at Rome with commitments from world leaders. Prime minister of India Mr. Narendra Modi made a tall claim for producing 500 GW of capacity though by 2030. His promise is that 50% of the capacity to be built from renewables will be accomplished by 2030. He did say so at the COP26 which is looking at participating nations to show some progress.

During his session, PM Modi also shared about Climate Change and Environment, where he proposed three actionable points before the G20 partners, including setting up of a Green Energy Projects Fund, to be used for countries where the peaking has not been reached yet.

The current capacity of renewable energy (RE) is just about 100 GW. This means India has to add another 400 GW by 2030. The big question is whether India is really ready to reach that commitment that has been made in such a huge forum by the country’s leader.

This news comes at a time when the India’s coal shortage and anxiety amongst state governments is mounting on daily basis. Pressure mounting on the Center over coal shortage has got the heads of states to come together in the government to draw up a detailed action plan to bridge the gap 400 GW.

As per the current estimates made by government agencies, India needs a stall up capacity to 40 GW of renewable energy (RE) per annum for the next 8 years. This is a tall order considering the current average of 8GW of RE per annum till 2020, except 12 GW in 2021.

This also helps to meet India’s commitment to the Paris Agreement and zero emission target towards 2030. Modelling studies have recently been initiated for the annual upgrade required. The new energy mix would be pure renewable energy (RE) led drive, excluding large hydro-power, the break-up of supply will be 280 GW from Solar Power, 140 GW from wind energy, and the remaining from other

hybrid energy sources. Estimates say that 44.7% of India’s electricity demand can be met by non-fossil fuels by 2030. Taking this up to 50% would bring in hydropower and nuclear power to the mix as well. The model becomes sustainable when discoms mandatorily buy up renewable energy generated, and big establishments use it up to a quantum.