Hydro grew 1.97 times and solar expanded over 18 times
Indian companies have begun to explore foreign stock exchanges as a source of funds, citing emerging opportunities in renewable sector which has created new business space and rated India as a favourite destination for RE investments, according to a year-end report by Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.
India’s renewable energy programme is driven by private sector investment, said the report, citing REN21 Renewables 2020 Global status Report which estimates US$64.4 billion investment in projects during 2014-2019 renewable energy programmes and US$11.2 billion alone in 2019.
The country has installed RE capacity of 150.54 GW (solar: 48.55 GW, wind: 40.03 GW, Small hydro Power: 4.83, Bio-power: 10.62, Large Hydro: 46.51 GW) as on 30 Nov 2021 and 6.78 GW of nuclear energy based installed electricity capacity.
At COP 21, as part of its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), India had committed to achieving 40% of its installed electricity capacity from non-fossil energy sources by 2030. The country has achieved this target in November 2021 itself.
This brings the total non-fossil based installed energy capacity to 157.32 GW which is 40.1% of the total installed electricity capacity of 392.01 GW.
The Government committed at the recently concluded COP26 to have 500 GW of installed electricity capacity from non-fossil fuel sources by the year 2030, said the report on 28 Dec 2021.
India has witnessed the fastest rate of growth in renewable energy capacity addition among all large economies, with renewable energy capacity (including large hydro) growing 1.97 times and solar energy expanding over 18 times.
As per Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) data Cell, DPIIT, the Indian ‘Non-Conventional Energy’ sector received approximately US$7.27 billion as FDI from the year 2014-15 up to June 2021.
Of this, FDI of US$797.21 million was attracted during 2020-21.
Liberal foreign investment policy allows the foreign investors to enter into joint ventures with an Indian partner for financial and/or technical collaboration and for setting up of renewable energy-based power generation projects.
Upto 100% foreign investment as equity qualifies for automatic approval, under the extant FDI policy of the Government. fiinews.com
