India’s voluntary emission reduction commitments announced by the Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar, on Friday, has put renewable energy in the centre-stage of India’s economic development in the next 15 years.

 

India today announced its greenhouse gas reduction commitments, called ‘intended nationally determined contributions (INDC)’ by 33-35 per cent by 2030. In simpler terms, it means that India will strive to produce less carbon dioxide and re-absorb the gas from the atmosphere, by afforestation.

 

A key part of the plan is to see to it that 40 per cent of India’s installed power capacity by 2030 is non-fossil fuel based. Today, including nuclear and big and small hydro, it is 30 per cent.

 

This is a big fillip for renewable energy industry. In 2030, India is likely to house power capacity of 800,000 MW. Forty per cent of that will be 320,000 MW, which, of course, includes nuclear and large hydro.

 

Additional hydro capacity will come up as per the National Perspective Plan for inter-linking of rivers, which expects 40,000 MW by 2030 from the ILR programme. The target for nuclear power is 60,000 MW by 2032. Both large hydro and nuclear involve resettlement and rehabilitation of people — a tough nut to crack. Given that, it is a wild call as to how much of the capacity will come from these sources.

 

That leaves wind and solar to fill the arena. Both have their own challenges, but not as much as nuclear and large hydro. India’s plan is to have installed capacity of 175,000 MW by 2020. The INDC announced today indicates that there will a lot more in the next ten years from then.

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