The Guardian reported that the Indian government has predicted that it will exceed the renewable energy targets set in Paris last year by nearly half and 3 years ahead of schedule.
A draft 10-year energy blueprint published this week predicts India will be generating 57% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2027. The Paris target was 40% by 2030. The prediction reflects an increase in private sector investment in Indian renewable energy projects over the past year as stated by analysts.
The electricity plan also stated that no new coal-fired power stations were likely to be needed to meet the Indian energy needs until 2027, which raised further doubts over the viability of Indian mining investments overseas like the Adani’s Carmichael mine in Queensland, which is the biggest planned coal mine in Australia.
Piyush Goyal, India’s energy minister has been appealing to wealthy nations to provide capital to invest in green/renewable energy projects to help the country reach and exceed the targets in Paris.
Softbank of Japan has committed to invest $20 billion in the Indian solar energy sector together with Taiwanese company Foxconn and the Indian business group, Bharti Enterprises. In September, the French state-owned company EDF, stated they would invest $2 billion in the Indian renewable projects.
Indian company Adani opened the world’s biggest solar plant in Tamil Nadu earlier this year and last October, Tata announced that they are aiming to generate as much as 40% of its energy from renewable sources by the year 2025.
In the 2017 energy forecast, India aims to generate 275 gigawatts of total renewable energy, plus 72 gigawatts of hydro energy and 15 gigawatts of nuclear energy. About 100 gigawatts would come from other zero emission power sources. And with the energy efficiency advancements, it is expected to reduce the need for capacity goes up by 40 gigawatts over 10 years.
Click here to read the full story in The Guardian
Featured Image Credit: Chandravir Singh
Solar Trust Centre Team
