India plans to achieve half of its renewable potential by 2030

The government needs to decide projects based on equity. For now, most of the renewable projects are concentrated in only a few states

At the recently concluded COP26 summit in Glasgow, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that India would increase the installed capacity of renewables to 500GW by 2030. While the government's earlier plan was to ramp up renewable capacity of 450 GW, another 50 GW has been added to the target.

India, until now, has been able to achieve only a fourth of this target. Renewable capacity addition as per CEA data for September had crossed the 100 GW mark.

PM Modi has also set a target of net-zero for 2070. But what is interesting is that India plans to reach half of its renewables' potential capacity by 2030.

The energy statistics released by the ministry of statistics and planning earlier this year show that India had a potential renewable capacity of 1090 GW. The government has claimed that it shall reach the 500 GW target by 2030, which would translate into achieving half of that potential within the next eight years.

Further analysis of data shows that India would need to install four times the capacity it has installed until now within the next eight years. It would also need to correct imbalances in installation so that just a few states do not exploit the potential.

For instance, in the case of wind, while India has reached 12.5 per cent of its potential, data indicates that three states contribute to most of India's wind power. In terms of potential, Tamil Nadu has achieved 27.5 per cent of its wind power potential, whereas Madhya Pradesh has covered 24 per cent, and Rajasthan has achieved 22.9 per cent. The rest of the six states have utilised less than 12 per cent of their wind energy potential.

With respect to solar energy, of the 30 states for which data is available, only nine states have utilisation levels higher than the national average. Nationally, India has been able to utilise only 4.6 per cent of its solar potential.

Only four states—Punjab, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Telangana—have achieved double-digit utilisation levels. For most of the North-eastern states, utilisation levels are negligible.

Although hydropower is not part of the government's plan, North-eastern states lag the rest of the country to develop small hydro projects.

Whether the government can achieve the 500 GW target or not, it needs to ensure that the development is not uneven.