India Can Reach 17k MW Renewable Energy Capacity by 2022: Government

India can reach a capacity of 17,000 megawatts in renewable energy by the year 2022, the Rajya Sabha was informed.

During the Question Hour, Minister of state for power, new and renewable energy R K Singh said the share of renewable energy was progressively increasing in the Indian electricity mix.

"In the year 2015-16, with 65.78 billion units, the share of renewables was 5.61 percent. This increased to 6.59 percent in the year 2016-17. In growth terms with 82 billion units, the renewable generation in 2016-17 was around 25 percent higher than the previous year," he said.

As per the share of renewable energy in the total electric power generation capacity, the addition was 52.2 percent, he said.

The minister said the installed capacity was consistently increasing.

India has ambitious plans to increase the installed capacity of Renewable Energy (RE) to 175 GW by 2022. Of this 100 GW come from solar, 60 GW of wind, 10 GW of bioenergy and 5 GW of small hydro. India's total installed renewable power capacity crossed 60 GW this year, more than double the country's installed capacity just four years ago.

Source:PTI