RENEWABLE ENERGY: INDIA Towards The Energy Transition

India, one of the world's fastest growing economy, is going through a massive green energy revolution. The per capita energy demand in India saw a growth of more than 60% in last two decades and with its expanding economy, urbanization and industrialization will further increase India's energy demands with a higher pace. Thus, for transition towards reliable, affordable and sustainable energy mix, India has set the ambitious target of achieving 175 GW by 2022 and 450 GW of renewable energy (RE) installed capacity by 2030 from the current capacity of 145 GW (including large hydro). Currently, India has the fourth largest (including hydro) renewable installed capacity globally-fourth largest for wind and fifth largest for solar.

India's push to green energy borne results with the country achieving the milestone of 100 GW of RE capacity in 2021.To lead the energy transition journey across the world, India pledged to shift towards a low-carbon economy during COP 21, in 2015 through the following commitments:

• 33-35% reduction in the emissions intensity below 2005 levels
• Increase in the share of non-fossil fuels in the total installed capacity to 40% by the year 2030

With its efforts towards adoption of clean and green energy, India is going through the largest renewable energy expansion drive in the world. This can be well observed through the fact that, the 2020 Climate Transparency report stated India to be the only country among the G20 nations to be on the track to achieve goal of curbing global warming by 2 degrees Celsius. The concerted efforts have led India to already register a 24% drop in its emissions intensity. It is also expected that India will not only surpass the 40% commitments of non-fossil fuel but will increase its non-fossil mix to 64% by March 2030. This drive towards climate change mitigation and decarbonization will also help India to gain USD 11 trillion in economic value over the next 50 years through series of our initiatives on mass adoption of clean energy and fuel technologies.

The continuous development in the sector has led to FDI inflow of USD 3.5 billion in RE sector over the last 5 years (2016-21) and a growth of more than 300% in renewables installed capacity. The rise of renewables in India's power sector has been a major success story with wind and solar PV accounting to twice their share as compared to 2014 levels in total generation. With the potential of 750 GW, it is expected that India will have a solar energy capacity of 300 GW by 2030 from its current level of 44 GW. The initiatives like PLI scheme for high efficiency solar PV modules and imposition of Basic Customs Duty will strengthen the entire supply chain of solar industry in India. The current domestic manufacturing capacity is of around 2,500 MW for solar PV cells and 9-10 GW for solar PV modules and expected to be scaled up to 10 GW capacity of integrated solar PV manufacturing plants by 2023.

India has made massive advances in wind sector over the last few years achieving one of the lowest costs in MW per turbine in the world and built a robust domestic manufacturing ecosystem in the sector. With the state-of-the-art technologies, there is 70-80% indigenization of wind turbines manufacturing from 17 different companies with 44 models for a current annual production capacity of 8000 MW to 10000 MW in India.

With India's goal to be an energy independent nation by 2047, the path of transformation includes not only energy transition but also energy security from the heavily import dependent hydrocarbon sector. To achieve this, green hydrogen will play an active role of being an alternate fuel for the applications where petroleum or fossil-based products are used. Recently National Hydrogen Mission was announced to turn India into a global hub for green hydrogen production and export as well. This mission will build a framework for advancing production, supply and use of hydrogen, and encouraging innovation and investment in these areas.

India has a significant potential to expand the bio-energy sectors as we have 750 million MT availability of biomass generated with the potential of 28 MW. India is also exploring to develop the offshore wind market, as we have huge potential to be tapped in our 7600 km. of coastline length. To harness the energy, National Offshore Wind Energy Policy was released in 2015 for development of offshore wind energy projects

With the tremendous strides in the renewable energy sector, India will continue to champion the cause of climate change mitigation both in the national and international arena and support the other economies of the world in their energy transition.

Vidhi Khabya

Investment Specialist, Invest India

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