‘India’s renewable energy capacity goes beyond its mark of 80 GW’

NEW DELHI: The Centre informed the Parliament on July 16, that the renewable energy capacity in India has gone past 80 GW mark, which comprises of 29.55 GW of solar energy and 36.37 GW wind power.

The government has further set its target to achieve clean energy capacity of 175 GW by 2022, including 100 GW solar and 60 GW of wind energy.

R K Singh, Minister of Power and New & Renewable Energy, said in a written reply in Rajya Sabha, “A total of 80.46 GW of renewable energy capacity has been installed in the country as on June 30, 2019, which includes 29.55 GW from Solar & 36.37 GW from wind power.”

Singh further stated that the solar capacity in 2016-17 was 5525.98 MW, 9362.63 MW in 2017-18 and 6529.20 MW in 2018-19.

As per the minister, 42 solar power parks with a collective capacity of around 23.40 GW are permitted by the government to simplify the achievement of 100 GW target by March 2022.  23.40 GW out of the approved capacity, power purchase agreements (PPAs) have been signed for around 9.20 GW and out of this, around 6.40 GW of capacity has been commissioned in various solar parks as on June 30, 2019.