Friday, February 14, 2014: India’ s present renewable energy capacity is approximately 30,000 MW and the country aims to add nearly 30,000 MW of power generation capacity from renewable energy sources. India wants to double its clean energy in the next four years.
BK Chaturvedi, Planning Commission Member (Energy) said, “We plan to add around 20,000 MW of wind and around 10,000 MW of solar capacity by 2016-17,” in a report in the Hindu.
“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.”
Through the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission, the Indian government aims to connect 20,000 MW of solar power to the National Grid by the year 2022.
As per estimates of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (USA), the potential for wind energy in India are as high up to 1million MW, and 2 million MW in solar energy.
The government has identified 600 industries like cement, fertiliser, oil refineries, steel plants and paper mills that are focusing on areas promoting energy efficiency, for the same.