India has taken the lead in the renewable energy sector in the world with solar power at the centre of its renewable policy framework. The country is aiming to expand its renewable energy capacities to a record level making it the world's largest green energy producer nation.

Union Minister of State with Independent Charge for Power and Renewable Energy, Piyush Goyal underlined India's ambitious goals in the renewable energy sector.

Speaking on a seminar on Africa India Cooperation on Power Africa on the sidelines of the 52nd Annual Meeting of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group, Goyal said, "We have been able to bring the cost of renewable energy generation to below grid parity. Reduction in cost of equipments, finance and tariff provides a good potential for growth renewable energy sector. We are looking at expanding the renewable energy capacities to a level witnessed never before."

As per the MNRE officials, India has set an ambitious target to set up renewable energy capacities to the tune of 175 gigawatts (GW) by 2022 of which about 100 GW is planned for solar, 60 for wind and other for hydro, bio among other. At 57 GW of installed capacity currently, the renewable energy has 18 per cent of the total installed power capacities in India.

While launching the project on 'Scaling Solar Mini Grids', Goyal informed that after the launch of International Solar Alliance in Paris in late 2015, so far about 121 countries have been invited to join the Alliance. "Already many countries have agreed to join the alliance and many of them are African nations," he said.

The Solar Mini Grids project has an objective of taking advantage of the available solutions to promote universal energy access by 2025 and reduce electricity costs and tariffs through introduction and promotion of mini-grids for harnessing solar power in a time-bound manner.

Mini Grids are defined as systems having renewable energy-based electricity generation (with capacity of 10 KW and above and supplying to the target consumer base such as housholds). The programme aims to formulate a set of actions, projects and activities which shall be undertaken in a coordinated manner by the Focal Points from ISA prospective member states.

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