India renewable power mix to hit 68pc by 2030: Minister

The share of installed renewables capacity in India's power generation could increase to 65-68pc by 2030, renewable energy minister Raj Kumar Singh said at the G20 energy transition ministers' meeting in Goa on 22 July.

India had pledged to achieve a 40pc share of renewables in total energy capacity by 2030 at the Cop 21 summit in Paris in 2015, but reached this target nine years in advance, Singh said. The country will also reach the 50pc target it pledged at the Cop 26 summit in Glasgow ahead of time, he added. "We had also pledged [at Cop 21] to reduce the emissions intensity of our economy by 33pc [by 2030]," Singh said, adding that this target was achieved last year.

"And therefore in [the Cop 26 summit in] Glasgow we pledged that 50pc of our installed capacity will be from non-fossils and we shall reduce the emissions intensity of our economy by 45pc," Singh said. "Now we shall achieve both these targets with margins to spare. By my calculations, by 2030, we'll have about 65-68pc of our capacity coming from non-fossils… and similarly we'll have reduced our emissions intensity by 2030 by more than 50pc."

India currently has an installed renewables capacity of 183.97GW, with total capacity from fossil and non-fossil fuel sources at 421GW, the minister said. Around 88.81GW of renewable energy is under installation, Singh added. The Indian government had committed to achieving 500GW of installed renewable capacity by 2030 at Glasgow, along the path to its 2070 net zero target.

The National Electricity Plan (NEP) envisioned increasing the share of non-fossil fuel installed capacity in power generation to 64.4pc by 2030. India has already achieved 43pc as of May, power ministry data show.

By Pranav Joshi and Rituparna Ghosh