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Target for Renewable Energy Deployment

Challenges to investment 

In the late 2000s, India faced a significant energy challenge to sustain its economic growth. The country needed to at least triple its primary energy supply and increase electricity generation five to six times to meet its growth targets. Moreover, approximately 400 million Indians still lacked access to electricity and had severely limited access to renewable energy in 2009. At the time, India depended on oil imports for 80% of its oil needs. To address these issues, India recognized the essential role of low carbon technologies, related policies, and goals.

 

Approach 

Inaugurated in January 2010, the Government of India and State Governments initiated the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM), or the National Solar Mission, aiming to promote solar power across the country. The mission sought to establish India as a global leader in solar energy by creating favorable policy conditions for its deployment both centrally and locally. Thereby, the mission adopted a three-phase approach from 2010 to 2022 with different policies and targets. After two revisions being in force, the JNNSM set a target of 100 GW of solar photovoltaic (PV) by 2022. Phase I (2010-2013) aimed for 1 GW of grid-connected PV and 200 MW of off-grid solar PV applications. Phase II (2014-2017) set a cumulative target of 10 GW for grid-connected PV and 1 GW for off-grid applications. Lastly, Phase III (2017-2022) aimed for a cumulative target of 100 GW for grid-connected PV, up from the original 20 GW, and 2 GW for off-grid applications. The government assessed progress at the end of each phase and midway through the last two phases, allowing adjustments to capacity and targets to manage the subsidy burden if anticipated cost reductions failed to materialize as the technology advanced.

 

Key Enabling Conditions 

As one of the eight missions of the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC), the mission was accompanied by various other solar initiatives and programs, such as the center as well as state rooftop installation scheme and the scheme for the Development of Solar Parks and Ultra Mega Solar Power Projects. These efforts were jointly aimed at creating a market for solar energy, promoting its development, and creating synergies with other missions.


Impact / Outcomes

In 2010, India had only around 10 MW of installed solar capacity. Four years after the start of the National Solar Mission, it had surpassed its first-phase target with 2.6 GW, which led to a revision of the overall target in 2015 from 20 GW to 100 GW by 2022. However, the revised target was not met with 70.1 GW and further 55.6 GW still under construction by June 2023. Nevertheless, solar power capacity increased 30 times since 2014, reaching 82.6 GW by April 2024, making India the fifth largest country for PV capacity in the world. The off-grid capacity target was met, having reached 2.7 GW, which includes 11.12 million solar lights by October 2023. Finally, the proportion of the population with electricity access rose from 67.9% in 2010 to 100% in 2022.


Additional Sources

Locations
India & South Asia, India
Year published
01 January 2009
Policy type
Climate policy
Policy lever
Long term goals to promote clean energy investment
Risk category
Political risk, Policy and regulatory risk, Technology risk

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