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| (Courtesy CIA.gov) |
The government is in the process of setting up a $1.25 billion fund, backed by state-owned and private institutions, to finance renewable energy projects.
The move will help in the scaling up of clean energy generation from 37 gigawatts (GW) at present to 175 GW by 2022, according to a senior government official.
State-owned institutions such as Power Finance Corp. Ltd and Rural Electrification Corp. Ltd have already committed a total of $300 million to the fund, Varsha Joshi, joint secretary in the ministry of new and renewable energy, told a gathering of power industry executives and bankers at the India Investment Summit organized by the finance ministry on Thursday.
At present, about 70% of India’s 284 GW power capacity is fired by fossil fuels such as coal, gas and oil. Large hydroelectric projects account for 15%, while other renewable sources account for about 13% and nuclear power about 2%.
