India’s renewable energy capacity target of 175 GW by 2022 has been impacted by low installation of solar rooftop and wind energy projects, according to a report by the Standing Committee on Energy.
As of December 31, 2022, 120.90 GW of renewable energy capacity has been installed, which is about 69% of the overall target. Against the overall target of 100 GW from solar, only 7.40 GW of rooftop solar projects have been installed in the country. The report highlighted several reasons for the shortfall, including the non-availability of information at the grass-root level, a lack of awareness about the schemes, and the apathy of distribution companies (discoms) towards solar rooftops.
The committee recommended imposing a strict timeline for approvals/rejections of applications, installation of net-meter, inspection of the system, etc. by discoms, and mandating reasons for rejection of applications on the national portal. Discoms may also be incentivized to positively participate in the program. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy should ramp up its pace for timely achievement of targets and monitor the implementation of rooftop solar and wind energy projects to ensure adherence to the prescribed timeline for their commissioning so that renewable energy projects do not get unduly delayed.
Against the overall target of 60 GW from wind, the cumulative installed capacity of wind power is 41.93 GW as of December 31, 2022. The committee further noted that the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy had projected the budgetary requirement of INR 10,422.54 crore for the financial year 2023-24, and INR 10,222 crore has actually been allocated with an increase of about 45% against revised estimates of 2022. The committee recommends that the ministry should increase its fund absorption capacity and focus on exhaustive utilization of the budgetary allocation.
