MNRE officials confident of achieving 500 GW target, wind industry flags land issues

Officials from the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) on Wednesday expressed confidence that India will surpass the target of 500 Giga Watt (GW) of renewable energy capacity, including 100 GW of wind energy by 2030.

Meanwhile, the wind-energy industry flagged the issue of land acquisition as a major challenge.

“We have crossed 200 GW in renewable energy capacity and now have a capacity of 210 GW. With the installation pipeline of almost 160 GW and another 100 odd GW under tendering, we are pretty confident of surpassing the targets,” MNRE Additional Secretary Sudeep Jain said at the Windergy India 2024 conference in Chennai.

“India is the fourth largest in the global wind installed capacity. Last year, we installed only 2.8 GW. This year we will add 4.5-5 GW. To meet the goals we have to steadily grow to a size of 10 GW annually,” Girish Tanti, Vice-Chairman of Suzlon and Chair, Global Wind Energy Council India said at the event.

He said one of the challenges is land development and approval and there is opportunity to streamline some of the land acquisition issues.

Speaking during a panel discussion at the event, Monika Rathi, Country Head, Vena Energy said land issues is one of the challenges for wind projects and added Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) could look at wind parks in States similar to solar parks and called for coordination between the States and Centre to identify the lands suitable for wind projects.

Amit Kansal, CEO and Managing Director, Senvion said the Centre and the States should initiate a dialogue about addressing the land issues and where the remaining 50 GW of wind projects is going to come up in the six years.

R.P.V. Prasad, Managing Director-India, Envision Energy, also called for collaboration between Centre and States to address land related issues.

Lalit Bohra, Joint Secretary, MNRE acknowledged that the land is going to be a big challenge and said MNRE will continue to coordinate with various state governments and request them to finalise land parcels.

He also said MNRE is seized of the issue and is planning to hold a ‘chintan shivir’ (brainstorming session) in November or December to discuss the issues relating to the 500 GW targets and address the challenges.

Published - October 23, 2024 10:53 pm IST