India aims to generate 1,75,000 MW of power through renewable sources of energy alone to achieve its goal of providing round-the-clock electricity to all by 2022.
The ambitious target had been fixed keeping in view the Government’s decision to increase the share of electricity generation from renewable energy, said Director in the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy Dr Arun K Tripathi while addressing the inaugural session of a three-day ‘Power, Communication and Information Technology’ conference of the IEEE at the SOA University here on Thursday.
Dr Tripathi said solar energy would account for 1,00,000 MW while 60,000 MW would be generated by harnessing wind capacity. Besides, 10,000 MW and 5,000 MW would come from biogas and small hydro projects. “As on today, the share of renewable energy to the total installed capacity and electricity generation is 13 per cent and 7 per cent, respectively. The Government plans to increase the share of generation from 7 per cent to 15 per cent by 2022,” he said.
University Vice-Chancellor Prof Amit Banerjee presided over the session, which was also addressed by Prof Sukumar Brahma of the New Mexico State University, USA, Prof RV Raja Kumar, Director of the IIT, Bhubaneswar and Prof Goutam Das of the University of Texas at Arlington, USA.
Dr Tripathi said the Government visualises that 60,000 MW of solar power would be generated through large and medium-scale projects while 40,000 MW would come through grid-connected rooftop projects in the next seven years.
He said the Ministry has launched various schemes to promote solar power in the country which has 4,300 MW of installed capacity from this source at present.