Wednesday, September 17, 2014: Union minister for power, coal and renewable energy, Piyush Goyal, on Thursday, during the Economic India summit mentioned that the government is expecting $100 billion investment in renewable energy sector in the next four years and about 50-60 billion investment in power transmission and distribution.
The government is in process of evolving a new policy framework to attract investments by offering tax breaks and cheaper loans. Power crisis being the major hurdle for the India industrial growth, the government is now focused towards fulfilling the target of meeting 24×7 electricity supply to every household in the nation within the span of next four years.
India is more dependent upon the fossil based sources like coal for power generation, which meets only about 70 per cent of the total power demand. The decision of investment in renewable energy sector for power generation might have raised hopes among the people for brighter tomorrow.
There are chances that the imports might shoot up, putting a burden on the current account deficit. Piyush mentioned that the imports were necessary as the domestic manufacturing have not reached to a level wherein it could provide the required number for solar mission.
He had earlier said that the domestic solar equipment developing capacity is of around 700-800 MW which is perhaps not sufficient to meet government plans of power generation. Meanwhile, during the same event, the Godrej Group Chairman Adi Godrej stated that the delivery of it may not be possible in five years rather it is possible in ten years. The country’s current installed solar capacity exceeds 2,600 MW.
