Planning Commission: India to double renewable power capacity by 2017

Under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission, the government aims to connect 20,000 MW of solar power to the National Grid by 2022.

Under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission, the government aims to connect 20,000 MW of solar power to the National Grid by 2022. File photo: V. Ganesan

India will add nearly 30,000 MW of power generation capacity from renewable energy sources — doubling it from the current size — in the next four years, a senior official said on Wednesday.

“We plan to add around 20,000 MW of wind and around 10,000 MW of solar capacity by 2016-17,” said B K Chaturvedi, Planning Commission Member (Energy).

At present the renewable energy capacity in the country is around 30,000 MW.

“India has massive renewable energy source, we have around 30,000 MW of renewable energy at present, of which around 20,000 MW is wind energy, a lot of it is bio energy primarily from sugar factories which is co-generation and some of it is solar,” Mr. Chaturvedi said.

Under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission, the government aims to connect 20,000 MW of solar power to the National Grid by 2022.

As per estimates of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (USA), resources or the potential for wind energy in India are as high as 10 lakh MW, and 20 lakh MW for solar energy.

Mr. Chaturvedi said: “We have plans to expand our wind energy. We have technology in the form of wind turbines.”

On the clean energy front, he said the government has identified 600 power guzzling industries — including cement, fertiliser, oil refineries, steel plants and paper mills — as focus areas for promoting efficiency measures.