India to double renewable power capacity by 2017

New Delhi: India will add nearly 30,000 MW of power generation capacity from renewable energy sources—doubling it from the current size—in the next four years, a senior official said today. “We plan to add around 20,000 MW of wind and around 10,000 MW of solar capacity by 2016-17,” said BK Chaturvedi, Planning Commission Member (Energy).[caption id=“attachment_1386575” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Power line. Reuters[/caption] At present the renewable energy capacity in the country is around 30,000 MW. “India has massive renewable energy source, we have around 30,000 MW of renewable energy at present, of which around 20,000 MW is wind energy, a lot of it is bio energy primarily from sugar factories which is co-generation and some of it is solar,” Chaturvedi said. Under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission, the government aims to connect 20,000 MW of solar power to the National Grid by 2022. As per estimates of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory of US, resources or the potential for wind energy in India are as high as 10 lakh MW and for solar 20 lakh MW. “We have plans to expand our wind energy. We have technology in the form of wind turbine,” Chaturvedi said. On the clean energy front, he said the government has identified 600 power guzzling industries as the focus area for promoting efficiency measures. “We have identified 600 industries where there is need for energy efficiency. These are cement, fertiliser, oil refineries, steel plants, paper mills etc,” he said. Another area which requires attention is coal mining, he said, adding, “Coal mining is an area where we need to work more, mining is one sector where there are enormous employment opportunities and will help the GDP.” PTI