India’s government will install 250GW of renewable energy capacity by March 2028, according to a government memo released on Monday, Reuters reports.
The announcement comes as part of a wider plan to boost non-fossil fuel energy capacity, including solar and wind energy and nuclear and hydro power. The country plans to bring its generation to 500GW by 2030, to help cut its carbon emissions by 45% from 2005 levels.
However, India narrowly missed a target to install 175GW of renewable capacity by 2022, having instead installed 172.72GW by October last year, according to the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy’s end of year review. As of 28 February, non-fossil capacity has exceeded 175GW.
India’s government will issue tenders to install 15GW of renewable energy capacity in each of the first two quarters of this fiscal year, ending in March 2024. This will be followed by bids for 10GW of capacity in the following two quarters, according to the memo.
Out of the planned 50GW of renewable tenders each year, 10GW will be allocated to the installation of wind turbines. Solar currently makes up over half of India’s renewables capacity, with wind accounting for almost one third.
India hopes to boost the share of non-fossil capacity to 50% in 2050, from 42.6% currently. Its rate of additional renewables remains second only to China among major nations in the Asia-Pacific.
Despite this, India currently stands as the world’s third largest emitter of greenhouse gas emissions, after China and the US. It still depends heavily on coal to meet more than half of its energy demand, with its Ministry of Coal stating that “coal will continue to occupy centre-stage of India’s energy scenario”, potentially for the “next century and beyond”.
The government has previously cited lower per capita emissions compared with other richer nations as justification for its continued use of coal.
