Renewables to account for 65% of India’s energy mix by 2030: Minister
New Delhi, India – About 44% of India's energy requirements at present come from non-fossil sources and are likely to touch as high as 65% by 2030, much higher than what the country pledged at the COP summit in 2021, said Union Minister RK Singh.
At COP26 held in 2021 in Glasgow, India committed to an ambitious five-part "Panchamrit" pledge. They included reaching 500GW of non-fossil electricity capacity, generating half of all energy requirements from renewables, to reducing emissions by 1bn tonnes by 2030.
India as a whole also aims to reduce the emissions intensity of GDP by 45%. Finally, India commits to net-zero emissions by 2070.
"At COP26 we pledged that by 2030 we will have 50% of our capacity which will be non-fossils, mostly renewables. If fact it would be actually 60-65%. We will be way beyond what we pledged," the minister who handles power and renewable portfolio said at The Energy and Resources Institute's World Sustainable Development Summit 2024 on Friday evening.
The minister said that 103,000 megawatts of renewable capacity is under construction in India, and 71,000 megawatts is under bid, which according to him was unmatched.
"Our rate and speed and scale of the energy transition is perhaps unmatched. We are the only one who is issuing bids for round-the-clock renewable energy. We are the only country that is adding storage as a mission to bring the price of storage down," he said.
India's per capita emission is one of lowest at 2.0-2.6 tonnes, against the world average of 6.8 tonnes, he asserted.
"Developed countries have become developed by using fossil fuels. 77% of the legacy carbon dioxide load on our planet earth was caused directly by them, which has led to the rise in global temperature."
Whereas India with 17% of the global population contributes to just 3% of the legacy carbon dioxide load, he said.
103,000 megawatts of renewable capacity is under construction in India and 71,000 megawatts is under bidding process