Lethargic progress seen in Centre's clean energy ambition, shows data

None of the parties discussed environmental issues in any detail in their manifestos in the five states that went to polls this year

In January, the Amche Mollem campaign in Goa released a green manifesto. Amche Mollem is a citizens’ movement that resists developmental projects in the state. Although the manifesto had received support from all contesting parties in the last election, the issue of clean energy was not highlighted in detail in any of the parties’ manifestos.

But this indifference to clean energy is not a Goa-specific problem. None of the parties discussed environmental issues in any detail in their manifestos in any of the five states that went to polls this year — Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Manipur. Some did not even mention clean energy. In contrast, the 2019 general election witnessed all parties focusing on clean energy.

Although the government has set ambitious targets to take India’s renewable capacity to 500 Gw in 2030, a Business Standard analysis shows most states have a long way to achieve that standard.

Energy Statistics 2022 released by the government indicate that India had utilised only 6.3 per cent of its renewable potential by 2020-21. A target of 500 Gw would translate into the country using a third of its potential. So, the government would have to increase its grid-interactive installed capacity at least five times by 2030.

But according to 2020-21 figures, among the states with the highest utilisation in that year were Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. Overall, however, only five states had utilised at least 10 per cent of their energy potential.

In 2020-21, Punjab, with 16 Gw of grid-interactive installed capacity, had utilised 22.5 per cent of its renewable potential. Almost two-thirds of the installed capacity was solar, and the utilisation was 34 per cent in the case of solar.

Tamil Nadu had utilised 17.2 per cent of its potential, whereas Uttar Pradesh had utilised 14.7 per cent of its energy potential in 2020-21.

But these numbers are slightly misleading. That’s because Uttar Pradesh met most of the renewable energy requirements from biomass; the state had achieved 73 per cent of its biomass potential. To register further gains, it would need to rely on solar, where it had only installed 7.5 per cent capacity vis-à-vis its potential. On the other hand, Tamil Nadu was one of the few states to rely on wind energy.

Further analysis of data shows that if small hydro projects are excluded, then the performance of states falls further. On average, 22.6 per cent of small hydro potential had been utilised, whereas the corresponding ratios for wind and solar energy were 5.4 and 5.6 per cent, respectively.

In the case of wind, only two states — Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu — had achieved over 10 per cent potential. And, six states had reached over a tenth of solar potential. Of these, three (Tamil Nadu, Punjab and Karnataka) had over 25 per cent of grid-interactive installed capacity in proportion to their potential.