Indian Government has upgraded solar energy mission by 5 times

Current Indian government led by Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi is promoting

renewable energy technologies mainly solar and wind to drive the phase of country’s

economic development, energy security and accessibility of cleaner and safer sources

of energy for the people of India. Therefore, during the budget of 2015 – 16 India’s

Finance Minister Mr. Arun Jaitley has announced that the Government of India’s (GOI)

ambitious plan of renewable energy capacity addition of 175 Giga-Watt (GW) by 2022.

And, out of this 175 GW capacity addition, 100 GW would come from solar power i.e.,

Indian Government has upgraded Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM)

target by 5 times from 20,000 MW to 100 GW, 60 GW from wind energy and 10 GW & 5

GW would come from small hydro power and biomass-based power respectively.  In

addition to this, for the FY 2015 -16, the government of India has set-up a target of

capacity addition of renewable energy by 4,460 MW which would be 24% more than the

target set of FY 2014 – 15.

Installed Renewable Energy capacity in India (as of December 2014)

India's solar capacity is 3,062 MW as of December 2014 and around 1,112 MW of

capacity so far commissioned under Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM).

As a part of achieving its target to build 100 GW solar energy capacity by 2022, the

government will be awarding 10,000 MW solar projects in coming three months. In

addition to this, for the success of the highly ambitious plan of achieving solar energy

capacity addition of 100 GW by 2022, NTPC alone will be setting-up approximately

6,000 MW of capacity, 2,500 MW of capacity will be by Solar Energy Corporation

(SEC), approximately 2,500 MW of capacity in Madhya Pradesh and rest capacity will

be added in the form of solar energy parks in other different states.

According to Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), NTPC would build

around 3,300 MW capacity by its own and rest 3,000 MW of capacity would be by

power tendering scheme. It has also been said that NTPC is planning to build 25,000

MW of capacity of solar power in coming six years. Out of this 25,000 MW capacity,

NTPC will build 10,000 MW capacity by itself and rest capacity will be through private

tendering scheme and will bundle with its un-utilized thermal power and sell it at an

average rate.

NTPC is planning to set-up two solar parks i.e., 1,500 MW and 1,000 MW in Anantpur,

Andhra Pradesh and Coonoor, Tamil Nadu respectively.  On the other hand, SEC (a

fully owned subsidiary of MNRE) will be tendering 2,000 MW capacity by next month. In

addition to this, SEC will be signing a joint venture agreement with the Madhya Pradesh

government soon to set-up India's first solar ultra-mega solar power plant, of 750 MW

capacity at Rewa and this would be through bids in batches of either 250 MW capacity

or 500 MW capacity by May. 

Presently, Madhya Pradesh is leading by awarding 2,500 MW capacity and Other states

like Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana are also soon issuing tenders. On the

other hand, Rajasthan is in the preliminary stage of study to build large scale solar

power in desert areas.

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