RK Singh Confident That India Will Achieve 175 GW RE Target

Speaking at the India Energy Forum in Delhi, the Minister of Power and New and Renewable Energy, RK Singh said that “the target of having 175 GW of renewable energy by 2022 looks huge. But, today we have established 83 GW clean energy. About 29 GW of renewable energy is under installation. That makes it 112 GW and under about 30 GW is under bid. So that makes the 175 GW of renewables. I am very confident that we would make it (175 GW of renewables by 2022).”

Singh also invited investments, particularly for the energy sector. He further said India has a huge potential because the (energy) demand is here. “The energy demand will grow at the rate of 7, 8 or 9 percent here.”

Substantiating the claim of prospects of a rise in energy demand in India he said “in the past 16 months, we electrified 26.6 million homes. Now, all that power demand is coming online. Our per capita demand is still much lower than the developed countries.”

Singh was participating in a ministerial panel during the event on October 14, 2019. The third India Energy Forum by CERAWeek has been organised in association with the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas from October 13 to 15. The Summit gives a platform to examine the fundamental challenges and opportunities to provide sustainable, secure and affordable energy choices to the people of India.

Also a part of the panel of ministers, Coal Minister Prahlad Joshi said “Coal will be there for the next 20 to 30 years. For manufacturing, 55 percent of the energy basket is coal.”

Recently, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) had clarified that the deadline for India to achieve its renewables target of 175 GW installed generational capacity is December 31, 2022. According to the notice issued by the MNRE, the clarification was made after the date for achieving the stated target was being mentioned differently in various sources, by the year 2022 or by the year 2021-22.

Published with permission from saurenergy.com