To achieve the renewable energy target of 72,000 MW by 2022, India will have to invest around US$ 46.22 billion, says a new report from Research and Markets.
In addition to this, India will have to make investments in upgrading the transmission and distribution infrastructure and old renewable plants that will reach their end of life. With all these together, India will have to invest US$ 83.35 billion in the renewable energy market till 2022.
India has set the target of achieving overall renewable energy installed capacity of 41,400 MW by 2017 and 72,400 MW by 2022.
With 21136.20 MW of total installed capacity, India is ranked No.5 in the world behind China, U.S, Germany and Spain. However there is huge potential for wind energy in India that is far from being utilized.
Estimates from Indian Wind Energy Association points out that wind power potential for all the states of India put together would be in the order of 1.5 GW. It can sustain the growing needs of electricity of the Indian consumers in a sustainable way.
Worldwide India is the fifth largest country in terms of electricity generation at 243 GW. Renewable energy, including hydro power, constitutes for 28.8 percent of overall installed capacity in India. The total renewable energy potential from various sources in India is 2,49,188 MW, the research said..
Up until 31st March 2014 India has been able to achieve only 12.95% of its renewable energy potential. The untapped market potential for overall renewable energy in India is 216918.39 MW which shows huge growth potential for renewable energy in India.
Indian power sector relies of a number of sources like coal, natural gas, hydro, oil and nuclear, as well as unconventional sources like solar, wind, biogas and agriculture. The demand for power has been growing at a rapid rate and overtaken the supply, leading to power shortages in spite of manifold growth in power generation over the years.
India has adopted various measures to bridge the demand-supply gap using 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.
The country is facing challenges due to the growing industrialization, urbanization, population growth, economic growth, improvement in per capita consumption of electricity, depletion of coal reserve, increasing import of coal, crude oil and other energy sources which demand new ways to explore energy reserves.
Reducing the reliance on coal and other conventional power sources and increasing the share of cleaner and sustainable source of energy, will be the country’s priority for the power sector in the coming years.
Rajani Baburajan