Madrid (NVI): India is going to achieve 100 giga watts (GW) of Solar power in the next three years, Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said here today, while speaking about the aggressive manner in which the country is expanding its renewable energy mix to fight climate change.
He said that five years ago, India had just 3 GW of Solar but today it has 33 GW.
“It is huge… India is going to achieve 100 GW of Solar energy by 2022, i.e. in the next three years it will add 67 GW more of solar energy,” he said at a Ministerial Plenary on “SOLAR AND THE SIDS – Making the Sun Shine Brighter”, on the sidelines of the 25th session of Conference of Parties under the UN framework convention of Climate Change (UNFCCC COP25).
The Minister said enhancement of capacity has led to a sharp fall in the prices of solar energy. “The prices (of Solar energy) used to be Rs 20 per unit. Now, it is just 10 per cent of it,” he added.
Javadekar also spoke at length about making efforts towards increasing renewable energy capacity.
“All countries need to do it because the target of UNFCCC is to do away with use of all fossil fuels, not only coal. We (India) have today 37 per cent energy capacity through renewables. We want to increase it because our energy demand is rising so we have decided to have 40 per cent of energy capacity through renewal energy – solar, wind, bio-waste,” he said.
He also spoke about the International Solar Alliance (ISA) launched four years ago in Paris by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Francois Hollande.
“It was a new beginning. Now I can say that the four-year-old child is running fast, but it must run faster because the need of the hour is that we must tap solar in a big way,” said Javadekar, who also holds the portfolio of Climate Change.
Expressing contentment over 83 countries joining the ISA in just four years, he called upon more countries to join the ISA to reduce dependence on fossil fuels to meet the growing energy requirement.
“When we meet in Glasgow next year, I am sure, there will be more progress in ISA,” he added.
“When ISA was launched, the idea was that all those countries, who get more solar energy as they fall between Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn, should come together to create consumers’ own market,” the Minister said.
