Green Energy Projects Established Investments Worth 1.34 Lakh Crores in Last 3 Years: RK Singh

Green energy projects have appealed investments of about Rs 1.34 lakh crore between April 2017 and January 2020, Parliament was informed. “Based on standard capital cost per MW, an investment of around Rs 1.34 lakh crore is estimated to have been made in the renewable energy sector during last three years i.e. 2017-18 to 2019-20 (up to January 2020),” Renewable Energy Minister RK Singh said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

He said most of the grid-connected renewable energy projects are being executed by private sector developers selected through a translucent competitive bidding process.

India has set an ambitious target of having 175 GW of clean energy by 2022 which includes 100 GW of solar and 60 GW of wind energy.

To a question on lack of investment in wind energy, he said, “During 2019-20 (up to 29.2.2020), the capacity of 2043 MW was added in the country as against 1480 MW during the previous financial year 2018-19.” Further, he said in order to appeal investors and developers, the government has instructed Solar Energy Corporation of India and NTPC not to recommend upper cap (of tariff) in future bids for wind and solar power projects.

He informed the House that the installed capacity of wind power during 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20 (as on February 29, 2020) was 1865 MW, 1480 MW, and 2043 MW, respectively.

The government has set a target of installing 60,000 MW of wind power capacity, to be commissioned by December 2022. Of this 60,000 MW, 37,669 MW capacity has already been commissioned (as on February 29, 2020), with 9236 MW of projects under implementation and 1200 MW underbidding, the minister said.

In another reply, he said a total of 8004.64 MW of renewable energy capacity has been installed in the April-January period of this fiscal as compared to 5978.47 MW installed in the year-ago same months. As on February 29, 2020, a grid-connected capacity of 35065.34 MW of solar power has been installed, he said.