India uses 12.95% of green energy

Total installed capacity of renewable energy has touched 32,269.6 Mw as of March 2014

The installed capacity of renewable energy has touched 32,269.6 Mw or is 12.95 per cent of the potential available in the country as on March 31, 2014. With this, renewable energy, including large hydro electric projects, constitutes 28.8 per cent of the overall installed capacity in India.

According to the India Renewable Energy Status Report 2014 released at the ongoing Green Summit 2014 in Bangalore on Thursday, the total renewable energy potential from various sources in India is 249,188 Mw. The untapped market potential for the overall renewable energy in India is 216,918.39 Mw that shows a huge growth potential for renewable energy in India.

The Ministry of New & Renewable Energy (MNRE), government of India, has set a target of overall renewable energy installed capacity of 41,400 Mw by 2017. This creates an opportunity worth $10.51 billion for the renewable energy market in India till 2017.

India has the world's fifth-largest electricity generation capacity, which presently stands at 243 Gw. The power sector in India is highly diverse with varied commercial sources for power generation like coal, natural gas, hydro, oil and nuclear as well as unconventional sources of energy like solar, wind, bio-gas and agriculture. The demand for power has been growing at a rapid rate and has outstripped supply, leading to power shortages in spite of a manifold growth in power generation over the years, the report said.

Focused efforts are going on to bridge this demand-supply gap by way of policy reforms, participation from private sector and development of Ultra Mega Power Projects (UMPP).

"The power sector offers tremendous opportunities for investing companies due to the huge size of the market, growth potential and returns available on capital. Industrialisation, urbanisation, population growth, economic growth, impro- vement in per capita consumption of electricity, depletion of coal reserve, increasing import of coal, crude oil and other energy sources and the rising concern over climate change have put India in a critical position," the report said.

It has to take a tough stance to balance development and environmental sustainability. One of the primary challenges for India would be to alter its existing energy mix.

Which is dominated by coal to a greater share of cleaner and sustainable sources of energy, it said.