Pushing Renewable Energy capacity addition

India is ambitiously pushing more addition of renewable energy capacity

 Pushing Renewable Energy capacity addition

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• The story: India has done reasonably well with its RE (renewable energy) targets, but it slowed down a bit in recent months. Now, the government is pulling out all the stops to achieve RE capacity of 150 gigawatts (GW) by 2 October, 2021. As part of the efforts, 2.2 GW is to be commissioned by Gandhi Jayanti and another 2.32 GW by 31 October.
• Big event coming up: The initiative comes in the run up to the 2021 UN Climate Change Conference, COP-26, to start in Glasgow on 31 October. India‘s installed renewable energy capacity is 147.05 GW, including hydropower projects of 46.37 GW. The country has installed solar and wind energy capacity of 100.68 GW.
• A big emitter: India, the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases after the US and China, plans to reduce its carbon footprint by 33-35% of its 2005 levels by 2030, as part of its commitment to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change adopted by 195 countries in Paris in 2015. It has also committed to have 40% of its total installed power generation capacity from renewables by 2030. India has reached 38.5% of its installed power capacity from non-fossil fuels and this will go up to 66% by 2030, according to the government. The country has also reduced its emissions by 28%.
• A large RE programme: India is running what will become the world’s largest clean energy programme of achieving 175 GW of clean energy capacity by 2022 as part of its global climate change commitments. The country’s electricity demand has also been on an upward trajectory following the dip during the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.

1. Government claimed that India’s demand for electricity is growing, which denotes a healthy growth of the economy.
2. Demand was 124 billion units in August '21, compared to 106 billion units recorded in the corresponding month of 2019 before the Covid-19 pandemic led to a drastic reduction in power demand.
3. India’s peak electricity demand reached an all-time high of 200.57 GW on 7 July, reflecting the revival of economic activity.

• West must commit: Government has been urging the group of 20 nations (G-20) having per capita greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions above the global average to bring it down to the world average, thereby vacating some carbon space for developing nations. The developed world occupies about 67-75% of the total carbon space.
• So far, so good: Government claims India is the only major economy with actions in line to keep global warming below 2°C of pre-industrial levels, and has called out nations on their carbon neutral intent announcements with India’s per capita emissions being just about one-third of the global average. Government feels that the announcements on carbon neutrality by some countries were “meaningless".
• EXAM QUESTIONS: (1) Explain the need for India to rapidly ramp up its renewable energy component in the total energy mix. (2) List and explain the types of RE sources, with their pros and cons.

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#renewableenergy #windpower #solarpower #geothermal #hydropower #COP26

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