'25-30 GW more thermal capacity may be needed'
power capacity over the 49 GW already planned or under construction to meet future requirements, power minister RK Singh said on Friday.
The country's electricity demand is rising and will continue to grow, he said.
«We will make available the electricity required for our growth and we are not going to default on that,» Singh added.
Currently, India doesn't have round the clock renewable power so thermal power plants are required, he said at the Fourth International Conference & Exhibition on Clean Energy, organised by CII.
India also has an ambitious target of 500 GW of non-fossil fuel based power capacity by 2030.
For renewable energy, 88 GW of capacity is currently under construction and around 180 GW capacity is established as on date, Singh said.
The government has already laid down a strategy to add 50 GW of renewable energy capacity annually for five years starting this financial year.
India will also launch a pilot project using green hydrogen as storage for round the clock power having a capacity of 100 MW, Singh said.
The current cost, as per preliminary calculations, of such a storage based power is ₹6 per unit, which is cheaper compared with last two months' average price of ₹8/unit on the power exchanges, Singh said.
«If this is successful then it will establish a benchmark,» he said.
India will be the largest producer of green hydrogen and ammonia in the world and the largest exporter because it has the cheapest renewable power, he said adding that the country has already amassed substantial manufacturing capacity for it, positioning itself as a global leader in this sector.
He said that the recent memorandum of understanding with Saudi Arabia on energy will bring investment in India in the sector and also
