Facts:
- Renewable targets:
- Solar – 100 GW by 2022
- Nuclear – 63 GW
- Hydro – 84 GW
- Additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent will be created by 2030.
- National Green Highways
- World Bank: India is emerging as a frontrunner in the fight against climate change.
- International Solar Alliance was launched by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Francois Hollande as a union of countries with abundant sunlight.
World Bank Report:
- The World Bank has observed that India has made a sweeping commitment to solar power, innovative solutions and energy efficiency initiatives to provide round the clock electricity to its people by 2030.
- With these initiatives and a firm decision to use more clean energy, India has emerged as the front-runner in the global fight against climate change.
- The report of the World Bank had also praised India for walking away from plans to install nearly 14 GW of coal-fired power plants in order to use solar power to generate electricity as it is affordable for the country now to use solar power instead of fossil fuels.
- The expense involved in generating electricity from solar photovoltaic (PV) is at present a quarter of what it was in 2009 and is also predicted to fall another 66% by 2040.
- India gets 300 days of sunshine every year and has one of the best conditions in the world to capture and use solar energy.
- India has set an ambitious target for generating 160 gigawatts (GW) of the wind and solar power by 2022.
- It would help India to help its population to light their homes, study at night, provide families with refrigerators to preserve food items.
- In addition, it would also act as an incentive for international firms to invest in India’s solar market.