Solar industry will be accountable for more than a fifth of India’s increase in electricity demand by 2022, as installed capacity reaches 75 gigawatts, according to a research report.
As per the report launched by Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), India’s solar capacity will be capable of delivering 110 terawatt-hours, or 22 per cent of required power increase within seven years.
IEEFA conducts research and analyses on financial and economic issues related to energy and the environment. Cleveland based researcher IEEFA has a mission to accelerate the transition to a diverse, sustainable and profitable energy economy and to reduce dependence on coal and other non-renewable energy resources.
Net electricity demand in India, powered by an economic growth rate of seven per cent, is likely to increase by 500 terawatt-hours by fiscal 2022—60 per cent of estimated requirements last year, IEEFA estimates.
Tim Buckley, director, energy finance studies at IEEFA said in an official release, “India is replicating Germany’s and China’s systematic electricity sector transformation, with the added advantage that the cost effectiveness of this is accentuated by the fact that the price of solar electricity has dropped by 80 per cent in five years.”
India has about 37 gigawatts of green-energy capacity. The country aims for an almost five-fold expansion to 175 gigawatts by 2022 at an estimated investment of US$ 200 billion.
