Will India Miss Its 500 GW Renewable Energy Target for 2030?
PM Narendra Modi at a meeting on rooftop solar scheme
India crossed 251.5 GW of non-fossil capacity and achieved key milestones like 100 GW of solar, but roadblocks threaten 2030 renewable goal.
By Sanjay Singh
New Delhi, October 4, 2025 — Will India miss its ambitious target of achieving 500 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2030?
Last month, the government reported that India had crossed 251.5 GW of non-fossil capacity—more than halfway to its 2030 target of 500 GW. With less than five years left to meet the deadline, skepticism remains over whether the goal is achievable.
In August 2025, the government highlighted India’s strong progress, citing milestones such as crossing 100 GW of solar capacity. Officials claimed this trajectory positioned the country to meet its clean energy target, noting that India had already achieved 50 percent of its installed capacity from non-fossil fuel sources—well ahead of the Paris Agreement timeline.
However, recent analyses point to major hurdles. Rising capital costs, the absence of generation targets, low efficiency of renewable power plants, grid congestion, limited storage capacity, and rigid power purchase agreements (PPAs) are slowing progress. Reports from late 2024 and early 2025, including Ember’s study, identified financing challenges as a key risk.
Delays have also doubled the number of stranded renewable power projects unable to come online. While analysts note that falling renewable energy costs and expanding domestic manufacturing capacity could ease some of these barriers, India’s transmission infrastructure remains a bottleneck—particularly shortages of HVDC transformers and inadequate PPAs for new projects.
Other persistent challenges include land acquisition disputes, weak financial health of distribution companies (discoms), high capital costs, regulatory hurdles, and the technical difficulties of integrating intermittent solar and wind power into the national grid.
Globally, while Russia, the U.S., and European nations rely heavily on natural gas, India and China remain coal-dependent. Since 2015, India’s installed capacity has risen nearly 60 percent to 485 GW as of July 2025. Non-fossil-fuel capacity tripled to 243 GW, while fossil fuel capacity still grew five percent to 242 GW.
During this period, India’s power consumption surged 64 percent to 1,824 billion units. Non-fossil fuel sources generated about 371 billion units, compared to 191 billion in 2014–15. Fossil fuels still dominate with 1,453 billion units, or 78 percent of total generation.
According to analyses by the New Climate Institute and Climate Analytics, India is likely to fall short of its 2030 target—missing 140 GW in solar and 70 GW in wind capacity.
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