Status of the total renewable energy capacity in the country

Subject: Economy

Context: There has been a marked increase in new capacity additions of wind and solar, particularly rooftop solar, in the first quarter of FY21.

Concept:

Total renewable energy capacity in the country was, as of July 31, a shade under the 1-lakh MW mark, which means it could have well touched the mark as of today.
The performance of the rooftop solar sector, where the achievement of 1,924.44 MW is 96.2 per cent of the annual target
The total grid-connected installations at 5,099 MW.
With these installations, India’s cumulative renewable energy capacity, at 98,882.73 MW, accounts for 25.2 per cent of the country’s total energy capacity, crossing the 25 per cent mark for the first time.
It is not all of non-fossil fuel energy, because it doesn’t count the large hyrdo capacity, which is another 46,367 MW.
Together with wind and solar, total non fossil fuel-based electricity installed capacity accounts for 37.54 per cent of the total installed capacity of 3,86,888.15 MW.
It is pertinent to note that in the 2015 Paris Agreement, one of the three commitments of India was that by 2030, 40 per cent of its electricity capacity would be of non-fossil fuels.
If the government’s policy on net-metering is more conducive, India could see rooftop installations of 5GW annually. Net metering is the system of netting-off any sale of surplus energy from a solar plant against the plant owner’s consumption. The safeguard duty on imports from China has expired and the 40 per cent basic customs duty on solar modules will kick in from April 2022