India Increased The Use Of Renewable Energy To Generate Electricity In 2019

India has always been known as one of the countries that consume the most coal to generate electricity. Coal, as well as other fossil fuels, is killing the world by polluting the environment.

However, India has been making efforts in shifting away from using coal-fired power stations to using hydroelectric, wind or solar sources to for generating electricity.

There are many reasons why India is making this massive shift. One of the main ones is cost. Generating solar energy is costing less, making the source more affordable. For example, a Rajasthan-based solar energy company is selling 1 kilowatt per hour for Rs 2.44 at a wholesale price. Compared to this price to that of the US, the cost is around Rs 7. At the moment, 1 unit electricity cost in India varies from Rs 2 to Rs 8.

Earlier this year, the country announced that it has already achieved its goal of generation 20GW of solar energy four years ahead of schedule. The new goal now that by 2022, India will generate 100GW of solar energy.  India’s gross electricity consumption was 1,181 kWh per capita for 2018-2019.

PM Narendra Modi is planning on expanding electricity generation through energy sources by 2030.

This started in 2017 when energy minister Piyush Goyal initiated online reverse auctions. These auctions let people make lower bids if they wanted to build renewable infrastructure.

Not just local, but international developers were also interested in this. They started to make use of this opportunity and build solar and wind infrastructures, mostly in Tamil Nadu and Gujarat.

Thanks to this, prices are lowered by 20% to 30% compared to energy generation using coal. The government made a promise that these costs will stay the same for 25 years.

The Indian government has invested $40 billion for renewable energy generation and has doubled its capacity to 83 gigawatts.

The shift to using renewable resources to generate electricity is also creating more employment opportunities for Indian citizens.