India emerges as a world leader in Energy Transition,Power Minister

Power Minister R K Singh on Friday said that India has emerged as world leader in Energy Transition. Addressing the conference of Confederation of Indian Industry on Aatmairbhar Bharat – Self Reliance for Renewable Energy Manufacturing, Singh said, India had one of the fastest rates of growth of Renewable Energy capacity in the world. He said, India had pledged in COP-21 in Paris that by 2030, 40 per cent of its power generation capacity will be from non-fossil fuel sources. He said, the country had already reached at 38.5 percent. The Minister said that India has set a target of 450 GigaWatt of Renewable Energy capacity by 2030.

The Minister pointed out that India had achieved universal access by connecting every village and every hamlet under Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gram Jyoti Yojana Scheme and connecting every household under Saubhagya Scheme.  It was the fastest and the largest expansion of access in the world.  This had also resulted in the demand for electricity going up rapidly. India has already touched 200 GW of demand even when the effects of COVID-19 was still there. The demand had crossed what it was during pre-COVID time and it is expected that electricity demand will continue to rise, he said. 

The Minister said that India will also emerge as a leader in Green Hydrogen and Green Ammonia and the Government proposes to come out with Rules and Regulations providing for easier Open Access for those industries which want to become green i.e. which want to rely on green energy for their functioning.  Industry will be able to either set up green energy manufacturing capacity itself or through a developer and draw power from it through open access. The surcharge on open access will also be rationalized so as to ensure that open access is not saddled with unfair levies.