India has commissioned renewable energy projects of 7592 MW capacity in the first 10 months of the current financial year, while projects with a combined capacity of 34160 MW are under implementation, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Tuesday. The capacity addition in renewable energy for the previous financial year (2018-19) was 8532 MW. Most of the renewable energy projects are in the private sector selected through a competitive bidding process, minister of state for new and renewable energy RK Singh informed the House while replying to a question. An investment of Rs 36,729 crore has been made in renewable energy in the first 10 months of the current financial year, compared with Rs 40,460 crore in the previous fiscal.
India has already commissioned 83 GW of renewable energy capacity. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has raised the clean energy target for the country under the Paris Agreement from 175 GW to 450 GW. The country is expected to achieve the 100 GW solar power capacity target by 2022.
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The Narendra Modi government has taken several measures to boost investment in this crucial sector including 100% foreign direct investment under the automatic route and strengthening of power purchase agreements. The other initiatives taken by the government include mandated requirement of letter of credit as payment security mechanism, setting up of ultra mega renewable energy parks to provide land and transmission on plug and play basis, waiver of inter-state transmission system charges and the introduction of notification of standard bidding guidelines to enable distribution licensee to procure solar and wind power at competitive rates.
The government has also announced the trajectory for renewable purchase obligation up to the year 2022, laid transmission lines under green energy corridor scheme for evacuation of power in renewable rich states and finalised manufacturing-linked tender for setting up domestic manufacturing capacity. It has also launched new schemes such as Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha Evam Utthaan Mahabhiyan, Solar Rooftop Phase II and 12,000 MW CPSU Scheme Phase II.
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The government has taken several financial, policy and regulatory steps to boost the production of renewable energy in the country. It has announced financial incentives for roof-top solar systems and performance-based sops to discoms, flexibility in generation and scheduling of thermal power stations, grid augmentation for absorbing renewable energy, schemes for grid-connected solar power projects by CPSUs, guidelines for transparent tariff-based bidding for solar and wind power projects, subsidy for setting up off-grid and decentralized solar power systems, subsidy for setting up family type biogas plants, notification of standards for deployment of solar photovoltaic devices, and priority sector lending status for loans up to Rs 15 crore.