India's renewable target optimistic: IEA

The share of renewables in India's power generation is expected to touch 19 per cent in 2021 as the country has set a more optimistic target of having a 175-gigawatt renewable capacity by 2022, International Energy Agency said today.
In a report released here, International Energy Agency (IEA) said the renewable capacity is expected to grow by almost 76 gigawatt (GW) over the medium term versus 66 GW in the Medium-Term Renewables Market (MTMR) report in 2015.
This upward revision is due to much higher capacity additions of solar photovoltaic (PV), which are anticipated to account for 50 per cent of all new renewable capacity growth over the medium term, said IEA in its MTMR released at the Singapore International Energy Week.

"Onshore wind is expected to expand by 25 GW over the medium term thanks to a strong project pipeline, new supportive policies to encourage the repowering of old sites, and the announcement of wind auctions to develop 1 GW of capacity that should drive additional growth after 2018," it said.
However, the scaling back of AD (accelerated depreciation tax policy in India) from 80 per cent to 40 per cent, which will come into effect at the end of fiscal year (FY) 2016, and the pace of implementation of recently announced wind auctions remain forecast uncertainties, it said.
Hydropower capacity is expected to expand by over 10 GW alongside solar PV and onshore wind, driven by the government's 5 GW small hydropower target by the end of the country's 12th Five-Year Plan (FYP) in 2022.

The increasing policy focus on small hydropower should partly offset delays in large-scale hydropower projects due to increasing environmental concerns.

India's agreement with Bhutan to co-develop over 2 GW of mostly large hydropower projects should also contribute, the report said.
The weak grid infrastructure in India is seen posing challenges to renewable deployment over the medium term, but the grid integration of variable renewables remains an important focus of the government with its green corridor programme and the national smart-grid mission, it said.
In India, the accelerated deployment of renewables over
the medium term could be 46 per cent higher and is primarily dependent on the success of the country's many cross-cutting reforms to improve state electricity board governance, increase compliance levels of the Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO) and improve the financial health of insolvent distribution companies.

Accelerated deployment will require increased state participation in the country's Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana (UDAY) scheme to open up the banking system and financially restructure distribution companies and continued efforts to expand and upgrade the country's grid infrastructure.
Better synchronisation among national goals and state-level policy implementation will be necessary to support further uptake of solar PV (which could add an additional 19 GW compared with the main case) and successful implementation of future onshore wind auctions, it said.
The diversification of financing sources could bring the cost of debt down and improve the economic attractiveness of renewables, it said.