India will achieve 500 GW RE target by 2030: ISA DG

New Delhi India is poised not only to achieve its ambitious target of 500-gigawatts renewable energy capacity by 2030 but also surpass it, driven by an anticipated decline in battery prices by 2025, according to Ajay Mathur, Director General of the International Solar Alliance (ISA). Mathur, who has also been a member of the Indian Prime Minister’s Council on Climate Change, said global climate finance distribution remains skewed and that reforming multilateral development banks and facilitating renewable energy investments have been priority areas of India’s G20 presidency. India, as the G20 presidency, has invited ISA as one of the guest international organisations.

Mathur said a fall in battery prices by 2025 could drive the widespread adoption of solar plus battery solutions, leading to the realisation of India’s ambitious target of installing 500 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2030 - one of the five commitments Prime Minister Narendra Modi made during the 2021 Glasgow climate talks. “If you are putting 500 gigawatts during the day, you also are setting up very expensive storage to ensure that you also use it at night. Now, expensive storage implies that you and I pay a higher price for electricity than what we can afford. In a country which is already starving for electricity; in a country where the ability to pay for electricity is limited, to look at a future in which more expensive electricity is available doesn’t seem right. “It is possible that the future may come around if battery prices fall. The ISA’s forecasts indicate that this would happen this year or 2024 or 2025. If that happens, then solar plus batteries become the energy source of choice because they’re the cheapest. In that case India will not only achieve 500 gigawatts, it will exceed the target,” he said. When asked about factors driving the reduction in battery prices, Mathur attributed the decline to competition among battery manufacturers and the evolution of battery technologies.