Has India almost achieved its target of 175 GW renewable energy capacity?

CLAIM

India has almost achieved its target of 175 GW installed renewable energy capacity by 2022. It has achieved 159.95 GW of installed renewable energy capacity by March 2022. 

FACT

Misleading. India’s renewable energy target of achieving 175 GW installed renewable energy capacity is excluding energy from big hydroelectric plants. India is still quite far from achieving its 175 GW target and the installed renewable energy capacity (excluding big hydroelectric plants) stood at 114.07 GW till June 2022.

WHAT THEY SAY

It has been claimed by various social media profiles and pages that India has almost fulfilled its target of achieving 175 GW of installed renewable energy capacity in 2022. To make this claim various figures closer to 175 GW have been cited to prove that India will be able to achieve its renewable energy targets this year. We came across one such ‘creative’ being rapidly shared on social media which claims that India has achieved 159.95 GW of installed renewable energy capacity by March 2022 implying that India has almost reached its target of achieving 175 GW of installed renewable energy capacity in 2022. 

WHAT WE FOUND

Recently, in an important development, the Union Cabinet approved India’s updated Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) and submitted it to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). As part of the updated NDC, India declared that it is committed to achieving about 50 percent cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-fossil fuel-based or renewable energy resources by 2030. 

The first target set up for 2022 as part of this mission is achieving 175 GW of installed renewable energy capacity in 2022 comprising 100 GW from solar, 60 GW from wind, 10 GW from biomass, and the remaining 5 GW from small hydropower.

The Government had earlier stated that India is looking to achieve 175 GW of installed energy capacity in 2022 ‘excluding energy from big hydroelectric plants’. 

Likely to miss the 175 GW target

Government data highlighted in the Parliament show that the country is likely to miss its renewable energy target of generating 175 GW of green energy by end of 2022 with delays in achieving targets for both solar and wind power in the country. 

A New Indian Express report quoted the Secretary, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, deposing before a parliamentary standing committee, “It is true that our target is 60 GW by the year 2022. As per the current situation, we may not be able to reach 60 GW. This is not only true for wind, but also for the overall target for Renewable Energy.”

“The delays are due to COVID and the impact of solar supply chain disruptions in China. An extension of five and a half months is given for the Scheduled Commissioning and an additional extension on a case-to-case basis is being considered for some projects as a special dispensation to offset the effect of COVID. As a result, it will take us some more time to reach 175 GW,” noted the parliamentary standing report on ‘evaluation of wind energy in India’ tabled in parliament, the report further said. 

Installed renewable energy capacity stood at 114.07 GW till June-end in 2022

A Ministry of New and Renewable Energy press release stated that India’s renewable energy capacity (excluding large hydro) stood at 114.07 GW till June-end this year. The report further stated that projects involving 60.66 GW of renewable energy capacity are under various stages of development. Further, as of June 2022, the total installed capacity of 114.07 GW comprises 57.71 GW from solar and 40.71 GW from wind. 

“Against the target of achieving 175 GW of Renewable Energy (excluding Large Hydro) installed capacity by 2022, a total of 114.07 GW renewable energy capacity (excluding large hydro) has been installed in the country as on June 30, 2022. Further, a capacity of 60.66 GW is under various stages of implementation and a capacity of 23.14 GW is under various stages of bidding,” the Minister of State for New and Renewable Energy Bhagwanth Khuba said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha.

According to a latest report, India presently has an installed renewable energy capacity of 116 GW and is 58 GW away from meeting its 175 GW target for 2022. 61% of this shortfall is in the four big states of Maharashtra (11.1 GW),  Uttar Pradesh (9.7 GW), Andhra Pradesh (9.2 GW), and Madhya Pradesh (6.5 GW). The report also concluded that it is unlikely that India will be able to meet its 175 GW target for 2022.

The 159.95 GW claim

The claim that India has achieved 159.95 GW of installed renewable energy capacity by March 2022 comes from the fact that the figure quoted is including energy from large hydroelectric plants. 

Energy from large hydroelectric plants was earlier not counted as renewable energy and only smaller projects of less than 25 MW in capacity were categorized as renewable energy. In 2019, however, the Union Cabinet approved a new hydroelectric policy according to which large hydro projects were given the status of renewable energy projects. 

But this is also true that the 175 GW renewable energy target of India doesn’t count energy from large hydroelectric projects. The recent reply from the Minister of State for New and Renewable Energy, Bhagwanth Khuba, in the Rajya Sabha, stands testimony to that.