As on 31.10.2015, cumulative capacity of about 38 GW of grid-interactive renewable energy capacity has been installed in the country. The Government has up-scaled the target of renewable energy capacity to 175 GW by the year 2022 which includes 100 GW from solar, 60 GW from wind, 10 GW from bio-power and 5 GW from small hydro-power. This was stated by Shri Piyush Goyal, Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal & New and Renewable Energy in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha today.
The Minister stated that Government is seeking cooperation from other countries both on technical and financial side to promote the generation of power from renewable energy sources. On technical side, National Institute of Solar Energy (NISE) is collaborating with premium institutions/ laboratories of USA, Japan and Germany in the fields of performance evaluation, long term operational reliability and indoor-performance testing of different technology modules. Similarly, National Institute of Wind Energy (NIWE) in collaboration with specialized institutions of Denmark; USA, Spain and Germany is working in the areas of wind forecasting, offshore wind, aero-structural design, training on testing inter-laboratory comparisons etc. On the financial side, Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) is also operating Line of Credits from various Bilateral/ Multilateral institutions for further extending the credit to viable renewable energy projects in the country.
The Minister further stated that Government has taken a number of initiatives in the past for the development of renewable energy in the country which inter-alia include incentives in the forms of generation based incentives/subsidies, viability gap funding from NCEF, fiscal incentives such as accelerated depreciation, concessional customs duty, excise duty exemptions, income tax holiday for 10 years and preferential tariff for renewable energy power projects. In addition, several major policy measures initiated by the Government recently to promote this source indigenously, inter-alia, include setting up of exclusive solar parks; development of power transmission network through Green Energy Corridor project; identification of large government complexes/ buildings for rooftop projects; provision of roof top solar and 10 percent renewable energy as mandatory under Mission Statement and Guidelines for development of smart cities; amendments in building bye-laws for mandatory provision of roof top solar for new construction or higher floor area ratio (FAR); infrastructure status for solar projects; making roof top solar a part of housing loan by banks/ NHB; incorporating measures in Integrated Power Development Scheme (IPDS) for encouraging distribution companies, making net-metering compulsory and raising funds from bilateral and multilateral finance, development institutions.
