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Informist, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024

 

KOLKATA – New and Renewable Energy Minister Pralhad Joshi said Friday that India had so far added nearly 15 gigawatt of renewable energy capacity in the financial year 2024-25 (Apr-Mar), almost double the capacity addition of 7.54 GW in FY24.

 

Joshi said the country's total installed capacity in the non-fossil fuel energy sector has reached 214 GW, an increase of over 14% compared to the same period last year. "What India does in renewable energy is not only keenly watched by the world, but also adopted by several countries," Joshi said at an event here organised by an arm of the Confederation of Indian Industry. The minister added that India is not only witnessing an energy revolution, but also becoming the world's renewable energy capital.

 

Joshi said the government is committed to installing 500 GW of non-fossil fuel based power generation capacity by 2030 and is the only Group of 20 country to have ensured that it is ahead of schedule in meeting its sustainable development goals set at the Paris Climate Change Summit in 2015.

 

Earlier in the day, at a meeting to review the PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana, which is said to be the world's largest domestic rooftop solar power initiative with an allocation of INR 750 billion, Joshi said the West Bengal government needs to offer a state subsidy to go with the subsidies from the Centre to popularise rooftop solar power installations.

 

The central solar energy scheme, which aims to light up 10 million households by providing up to 300 units of free electricity with central government support up to INR 78,000, has seen lukewarm implementation in West Bengal. While 15 million registrations for the scheme have been received, the number of households availing the scheme has touched 706,000 so far. Of these, there have been only 228 installations in West Bengal. 

 

Joshi said the solar power subsidy scheme should be implemented in West Bengal in good spirit without politicking. The Trinamool Congress, which runs the government in West Bengal, has been at loggerheads with the Bharatiya Janata Party at the Centre for nearly a decade now. The central government has often alleged that central schemes are not implemented in West Bengal for political reasons. For instance, the Ayushman Bharat scheme is not popular in West Bengal as the state government has come up with a similar state-sponsored scheme titled Swasthya Sathi.  End

 

Reported by Avishek Rakshit

Edited by Rajeev Pai

 

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