India is world's 3rd largest consumer of electricity and world's 3rd largest renewable energy producer with 40% of energy capacity installed in the year 2022 (160 GW of 400 GW) coming from renewable sources.

Ernst & Young Ernst & Young Global Limited, trade name EY, is a multinational professional services partnership headquartered in London, England. EY is one of the largest professional services networks in the world. Along with Deloitte, KPMG and Pricewat ...

's (EY) 2021 Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Index (RECAI) ranked India 3rd behind USA and China.2019 Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Index (RECAI)
Ernst & Young, 2021. In November 2021, India had a renewable energy capacity of 150 GW consisting of solar (48.55 GW), wind (40.03 GW), small hydro power (4.83 GW), bio-mass (10.62 GW), large hydro (46.51 GW), and nuclear (6.78 GW). India has committed for a goal of 500 GW renewable energy capacity by 2030. In 2016, Paris Agreement's

Intended Nationally Determined Contributions A nationally determined contribution (NDC) or intended nationally determined contribution (INDC) is a non-binding national plan highlighting climate change mitigation, including climate-related targets for greenhouse gas emission reductions. Thes ...

targets, India made commitment of producing 50% of its total electricity from non-fossil fuel sources by 2030. In 2018, India's

Central Electricity Authority The Central Electricity Authority (CEA) was a body that managed and operated the electricity supply industry in England and Wales between 1 April 1955 and 31 December 1957. The CEA replaced the earlier British Electricity Authority (BEA) as a r ...

set a target of producing 50% of the total electricity from non-fossil fuels sources by 2030. India has also set a target of producing 175 GW by 2022 and 500 GW by 2030 from renewable energy. As of September 2020, 89.22 GW solar energy is already operational, projects of 48.21 GW are at various stages of implementation and projects of 25.64 GW capacity are under various stages of bidding. In 2020, 3 of the world's top 5 largest solar parks were in India including world's largest 2255 MW

Bhadla Solar Park Bhadla Solar Park is the largest solar park in the world as of 2022 and is spread over a total area of in Bhadla, Phalodi tehsil, Jodhpur district, Rajasthan, India. The park has a total capacity of 2245 MW. The park had witnessed the ...

Rajasthan Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Kings') is a state in northern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern s ...

and world's second-largest solar park of 2000 MW Pavgada Solar Park

Tumkur Tumkur, officially renamed as Tumakuru, is a city located in the southern part of Indian state of Karnataka. Tumkur is situated at a distance of northwest of Bangalore, the state capital along NH 48 and NH 73. It is the headquarters of the ...

Karnataka Karnataka (; ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a state in the southwestern region of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act. Originally known as Mysore State , it was renamed ''Karnat ...

and 1000 MW Kurnool in

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...

. Wind power in India has a strong manufacturing base with 20 manufactures of 53 different wind turbine models of international quality up to 3 MW in size with exports to Europe, United States and other countries. Solar, wind and

run-of-the-river hydroelectricity Run-of-river hydroelectricity (ROR) or run-of-the-river hydroelectricity is a type of hydroelectric generation plant whereby little or no water storage is provided. Run-of-the-river power plants may have no water storage at all or a limited amou ...

are environment-friendly cheaper power sources they are used as ""must-run" sources in India to cater for the

base load The base load (also baseload) is the minimum level of demand on an electrical grid over a span of time, for example, one week. This demand can be met by unvarying power plants, dispatchable generation, or by a collection of smaller intermittent e ...

, and the polluting and foreign-import dependent coal-fired power is increasingly being moved from the "must-run base load" power generation to the load following power generation (mid-priced and mid-merit on-demand need-based intermittently-produced electricity) to meet the peaking demand only. Some of the daily peak demand in India is already met with the renewable peaking hydro power capacity. Solar and wind power with 4-hour battery storage systems, as a source of dispatchable generation compared with new coal and new gas plants, is already cost-competitive in India without subsidy. India initiated the International Solar Alliance (ISA), an alliance of 121 countries. India was world's first country to set up a ministry of non-conventional energy resources (

Ministry of New and Renewable Energy The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) is a ministry of the Government of India, headed by current Union Cabinet Minister Raj Kumar Singh, that is mainly responsible for research and development, intellectual property protection, and ...

(MNRE) in early 1980s) . Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), a

public sector undertaking A state-owned enterprise (SOE) is a government entity which is established or nationalised by the ''national government'' or ''provincial government'' by an executive order or an act of legislation in order to earn profit for the government ...

, is responsible for the development of solar energy industry in India. Hydroelectricity is administered separately by the Ministry of Power and not included in MNRE targets.

Global comparison

Global rank

India ranks second in terms of population and accounts for 17% of the world’s population. India is globally ranked 3rd in consumption of energy. In terms of installed capacity and investment in renewable energy, the EY's Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Index (RECAI) ranking in July 2021 is as follows:

Attractiveness score

The technology-specific RECAI scores (and rank) in 2021 are as follows:

Future targets

The installed capacity of renewable power is 119.512 GW as of 30 November 2022. The government has announced that no new coal-based capacity addition is required beyond the 50 GW under different stages of construction likely to come online between 2017 and 2022.

Present installed capacity

Year-wise renewable energy generation trend

Year wise renewable energy generation in TWh.

Grid-connected total including non-renewable and renewable

The following table shows the breakdown of existing installed capacity in March 2020 from all sources, and includes 141.6 GW from renewable sources. Since 2019, the hydropower generated by the under Ministry of Power is also counted towards

's Renewable Energy Purchase Obligation (REPO) targets, under which the DISCOMs (Distribution Companies) of various states have to source a certain percentage of their power from Renewable Energy Sources under two categories, Solar and Non-Solar.

Off-grid renewable energy installed capacity

Off-grid power as of 31 July 2019 (MNRE) capacity:

Renewable electricity generation

Hydroelectric power

India ranks 5th globally for installed

hydroelectric power Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined an ...

capacity. As of 31 March 2020, India's installed utility-scale hydroelectric capacity was 45,699 MW, or 12.35% of its total utility power generation capacity. Additional smaller hydroelectric power units with a total capacity of 4,380 MW (1.3% of its total utility power generation capacity) have been installed. Small hydropower, defined to be generated at facilities with nameplate capacities up to 25 MW, comes under the ambit of the Ministry of New and Renewable energy (MNRE); while large hydro, defined as above 25 MW, comes under the ambit of the Ministry of Power. India is endowed with vast potential of pumped hydroelectric energy storage which can be used economically for converting the non-dispatchable renewable energy like wind, solar and run of the river hydro power in to base/peak load power supply for its ultimate energy needs.

Solar power

India GHI Solar-resource-map GlobalSolarAtlas World-Bank-Esmap-Solargis

India is densely populated and has high solar insolation, an ideal combination for using

solar power Solar power is the conversion of energy from sunlight into electricity, either directly using photovoltaics (PV) or indirectly using concentrated solar power. Photovoltaic cells convert light into an electric current using the photovolta ...

in India. Announced in November 2009, the Government of India proposed to launch its Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission under the National Action Plan on Climate Change. The program was inaugurated by former

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

Manmohan Singh on 11 January 2010 with a target of 20GW grid capacity by 2022 as well as 2GW off-grid installations, this target was later increased to 100 GW by the same date under the Narendra Modi government in the 2015 Union budget of India. Achieving this National Solar Mission target would establish India in its ambition to be a global leader in solar power generation. The Mission aims to achieve grid parity (electricity delivered at the same cost and quality as that delivered on the grid) by 2022. The National Solar Mission is also promoted and known by its more colloquial name of "Solar India". The earlier objectives of the mission were to install 1,000 MW of power by 2013 and cover with collectors by the end of the final phase of the mission in 2022. On 30 November 2015, the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi and the President of France Francois Hollande launched the International Solar Alliance. The ISA is an alliance of 121 solar rich countries lying partially or fully between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn, several countries outside of this area are also involved with the organization. The ISA aims to promote and develop solar power amongst its members and has the objective of mobilising $1 trillion of investment by 2030. As of August, 2019, the Indian Oil Corporation stated that it wants to invest ₹25,000 crore in renewable energy projects. Much of the country does not have an electrical grid, so one of the first applications of solar power was for water pumping, to begin replacing India's forty to fifty lakh diesel powered

water pump A pump is a device that moves fluids (liquids or gases), or sometimes slurries, by mechanical action, typically converted from electrical energy into hydraulic energy. Pumps can be classified into three major groups according to the method they ...

s, each consuming about 3.5 kilowatts, and off-grid lighting. Some large projects have been proposed, and a area of the

Thar Desert The Thar Desert, also known as the Great Indian Desert, is an arid region in the north-western part of the Subcontinent that covers an area of and forms a natural boundary between India and Pakistan. It is the world's 20th-largest desert, a ...

has been set aside for

projects, sufficient to generate 700 to 2,100

gigawatt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Wat ...

s. Solar power in India has been growing at a rate of 113% yoy and now dropped to around per kWh, which is around 18% lower than the average price for electricity generated by coal-fired plants. As part of India's ambitious solar programme the central government has set up a US$350 million fund and the

Yes Bank Yes Bank is an Indian bank headquartered in Mumbai, India and was founded by Rana Kapoor and Ashok Kapoor in 2004. It offers wide range of differentiated products for corporate and retail customers through retail banking and asset management ...

will loan US$5 billion to finance solar projects (c. January 2018). The bidding process for the addition of 115 GW to January 2018 renewable energy levels was completed by the end of 2019–2020.Govt to set up $350 million fund to finance solar projects

Hindustan Times ''Hindustan Times'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper based in Delhi. It is the flagship publication of HT Media, an entity controlled by the KK Birla family, and is owned by Shobhana Bhartia. It was founded by Sunder Singh Ly ...

, 18 Jan 2018. India is also the home to the world's first and only 100% solar-powered airport, located at

Cochin Kochi (), also known as Cochin ( ) ( the official name until 1996) is a major port city on the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea, which is a part of the Arabian Sea. It is part of the district of Ernakulam in the state of K ...

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...

. India also has a wholly 100% solar-powered railway station in Guwhati, Assam. India's first and the largest floating solar power plant was constructed at Banasura Sagar reservoir in

Wayanad Wayanad () is a district in the north-east of Indian state Kerala with administrative headquarters at the municipality of Kalpetta. It is the only plateau in Kerala. The Wayanad Plateau forms a continuation of the Mysore Plateau, the southern ...

. The Indian Solar Loan Programme, supported by the

United Nations Environment Programme The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is responsible for coordinating responses to environmental issues within the United Nations system. It was established by Maurice Strong, its first director, after the United Nations Conference on th ...

has won the prestigious Energy Globe World award for Sustainability for helping to establish a consumer financing program for solar home power systems. Over three years more than 16,000 solar home systems have been financed through 2,000 bank branches, particularly in rural areas of South India where the

electricity grid An electrical grid is an interconnected network for electricity delivery from producers to consumers. Electrical grids vary in size and can cover whole countries or continents. It consists of:Kaplan, S. M. (2009). Smart Grid. Electrical Power ...

does not yet extend.UNEP wins Energy Globe award
Launched in 2003, the Indian Solar Loan Programme was a four-year partnership between UNEP, the UNEP Risoe Centre, and two of India's largest banks, the Canara Bank and Syndicate Bank.

Nuclear power

, India had 10

nuclear reactor A nuclear reactor is a device used to initiate and control a fission nuclear chain reaction or nuclear fusion reactions. Nuclear reactors are used at nuclear power plants for electricity generation and in nuclear marine propulsion. Heat fr ...

s under-construction with a combined capacity of 8 GW and 23 existing nuclear reactors in operation in 7 nuclear power plants with a total installed capacity of 7.4 GW (3.11% of total power generation in India).

Nuclear power Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced ...

is the fifth-largest source of electricity in India after coal, hydroelectricity, solar, wind and gas power.

Bioenergy

Biomass

India is an ideal environment for biomass production given its tropical location, sunshine and rains. The country's vast agricultural potential provides agro-residues which can be used to meet energy needs, both in heat and power applications. According to IREDA "Biomass is capable of supplementing the coal to the tune of about 26 crore (260 million) tonnes", "saving of about ₹25,0000 crore, every year." It is estimated that the potential for biomass energy in India includes 16,000 MW from biomass energy and a further 3,500 MW from bagasse cogeneration. Biomass materials that can be used for power generation include bagasse, rice husk, straw, cotton stalk, coconut shells, soya husk, de-oiled cakes, coffee waste, jute wastes, groundnut shells and sawdust.

=Biogas

= In 2018, India has set target to produce 1.5 crore (15 million) tons (62 mmcmd) of biogas/bio-CNG by installing 5,000 large scale commercial type biogas plants which can produce daily 12.5 tons of bio-CNG by each plant. The rejected organic solids from

biogas Biogas is a mixture of gases, primarily consisting of methane, carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulphide, produced from raw materials such as agricultural waste, manure, municipal waste, plant material, sewage, green waste and food waste. It is a ...

plants can be used after

Torrefaction Torrefaction of biomass, e.g., wood or grain, is a mild form of pyrolysis at temperatures typically between 200 and 320 °C. Torrefaction changes biomass properties to provide a better fuel quality for combustion and gasification application ...

in the existing coal fired plants to reduce coal consumption. The number of small family type biogas plants reached 3.98 million.

=Bio protein

= Synthetic methane (SNG) generated using electricity from

carbon neutral Carbon neutrality is a state of net-zero carbon dioxide emissions. This can be achieved by balancing emissions of carbon dioxide with its removal (often through carbon offsetting) or by eliminating emissions from society (the transition to the "p ...

renewable power or Bio CNG can be used to produce protein rich feed for cattle, poultry and fish economically by cultivating '' Methylococcus capsulatus'' bacteria culture with tiny land and water foot print. The carbon dioxide gas produced as by product from these bio protein plants can be recycled in the generation of SNG. Similarly, oxygen gas produced as by product from the electrolysis of water and the

methanation Methanation is the conversion of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide (COx) to methane (CH4) through hydrogenation. The methanation reactions of COx were first discovered by Sabatier and Senderens in 1902. CO''x'' methanation has many practical ap ...

process can be consumed in the cultivation of bacteria culture. With these integrated plants, the abundant renewable power potential in India can be converted in to high value food products without any water pollution or green house gas (GHG) emissions for achieving food security at a faster pace with lesser people deployment in agriculture / animal husbandry sector.

=Waste to energy

= Every year, about 5.5 crore (55 million) tonnes of municipal solid waste (MSW) and 3,800 crore (38 billion) litres of sewage are generated in the urban areas of India. In addition, large quantities of solid and liquid wastes are generated by industries. Waste generation in India is expected to increase rapidly in the future. As more people migrate to urban areas and as incomes increase, consumption levels are likely to rise, as are rates of waste generation. It is estimated that the amount of waste generated in India will increase at a per capita rate of approximately 1–1.33% annually. This has significant impacts on the amount of land that is and will be needed for disposal, economic costs of collecting and transporting waste, and the environmental consequences of increased MSW generation levels. India has had a long involvement with

anaerobic digestion Anaerobic digestion is a sequence of processes by which microorganisms break down biodegradable material in the absence of oxygen. The process is used for industrial or domestic purposes to Waste management, manage waste or to produce fuels. Mu ...

and

technologies. Waste water treatment plants in the country have been established which produce renewable energy from sewage gas. However, there is still significant untapped potential. Also wastes from the distillery sector are on some sites converted into biogas to run in a gas engine to generate onsite power. Prominent companies in the waste to energy sector include: *

A2Z Group A2Z Group is an engineering, procurement and construction company, headquartered in Gurgaon, India, in Haryana state. Its inception was in 2002, and had more than 31,000 staff members. The company has clients in the retail, government, infraserv ...

of companies *Hanjer Biotech Energies *Ramky Enviro Engineers Ltd *Arka BRENStech Pvt Ltd * Hitachi Zosen India Pvt Limited *

Clarke Energy Clarke Energy is part of the Kohler Co., Kohler Company and is a multinational specialist in the sale, engineering, installation and maintenance of power plants that use gas engines. Clarke Energy is an independent company with its global head ...

* ORS Group * Punjab Renewable Energy Systems Pvt. Ltd.

Biofuel

= Ethanol

= India imports 85% of petrol products with import cost of $55 billion in 2020–21, India has set a target of blending 20%

ethanol Ethanol (abbr. EtOH; also called ethyl alcohol, grain alcohol, drinking alcohol, or simply alcohol) is an organic compound. It is an alcohol with the chemical formula . Its formula can be also written as or (an ethyl group linked to a ...

in petrol by 2025 resulting in import substitution saving of US$4 billion or ₹30,000 crore, and India provides financial assistance for manufacturing ethanol from rice, wheat, barley, corn, sorghum, sugarcane, sugar beet, etc. Ethanol market penetration reached its highest figure of a 3.3% blend rate in India in 2016. Ethanol is produced from sugarcane molasses and partly from grains and can be blended with gasoline. Sugarcane or sugarcane juice may not be used for the production of ethanol in India. Government is also encouraging 2G ethanol commercial production using biomass as feed stock.

= Biodiesel

= The market for biodiesel remains at an early stage in India with the country achieving a minimal blend rate with diesel of 0.001% in 2016. Initially development was focussed on the jatropha (jatropha curcas) plant as the most suitable inedible oilseed for biodiesel production. Development of biodiesel from jatropha has met a number of agronomic and economic restraints and attention is now moving towards other feedstock technologies which utilize used cooking oils, other unusable oil fractions, animal fat and inedible oils.

Biodiesel Biodiesel is a form of diesel fuel derived from plants or animals and consisting of long-chain fatty acid esters. It is typically made by chemically reacting lipids such as animal fat ( tallow), soybean oil, or some other vegetable oil ...

and also Biopropane are produced from non-edible

vegetable oil Vegetable oils, or vegetable fats, are oils extracted from seeds or from other parts of fruits. Like animal fats, vegetable fats are ''mixtures'' of triglycerides. Soybean oil, grape seed oil, and cocoa butter are examples of seed oils, or f ...

s, used cooking oil, waste animal fats, etc.

Wind power

The development of wind power in India began in the 1990s, and has significantly increased in the last few years. Although a relative newcomer to the wind industry compared with

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...

or US, domestic policy support for

wind power Wind power or wind energy is mostly the use of wind turbines to generate electricity. Wind power is a popular, sustainable, renewable energy source that has a much smaller impact on the environment than burning fossil fuels. Historically ...

has led India to become the country with the fourth largest installed wind power capacity in the world. As of 30 June 2018 the installed capacity of wind power in India was 34,293 MW, mainly spread across

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a state in southern India. It is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, whose Tamil language ...

(7,269.50 MW), Maharashtra (4,100.40 MW),

Gujarat Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...

(3,454.30 MW),

(2,784.90 MW),

(2,318.20 MW),

(746.20 MW) and

Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (, ; meaning 'central province') is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal, and the largest city is Indore, with Jabalpur, Ujjain, Gwalior, Sagar, and Rewa being the other major cities. Madhya Pradesh is the seco ...

(423.40 MW) Wind power accounts for 10% of India's total installed power capacity. India has set an ambitious target to generate 60,000 MW of electricity from wind power by 2022. The Indian Government's Ministry of New and Renewable Energy announced a new wind-solar hybrid policy in May 2018. This means that the same piece of land will be used to house both wind farms and solar panels. Largest wind farms in India

References

External links

India's National Power Portal and Dashboard

India's Central Electricity Authority

{{DEFAULTSORT:Renewable Energy In India