Scaling up renewable energy in India is the topic of the day as government officials, investors, and energy industry leaders gather in New Delhi, India to attend RE-Invest, the First Renewable Energy Global Investors’ Meet & Expo.
The Director-General of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) Adnan Z. Amin, delivered the keynote address, stressing the importance of renewable energy in sustainably meeting India’s growing energy needs. India is the world’s third largest economy and the fourth largest energy consumer. By 2030, India will surpass China as the world’s most populous nation, demanding more than twice as much energy as is needed today.
“India’s increasing demand for energy can no longer be met through traditional energy sources alone,” said Amin in his keynote address. “Renewable energy must be a major part of the solution because it can meet the demand cheaply and sustainably while at the same time achieving broader socio-economic objectives.”
According to IRENA’s new report ‘Renewable Power Generation Costs in 2014’, the cost of generating power from renewable energy sources has reached parity or dropped below the cost of fossil fuels for many technologies in many parts of the world. Biomass, hydropower, geothermal, wind and solar are all competitive with or cheaper than coal, oil and gas-fired power stations. This holds true even without financial support and despite falling oil prices. Solar photovoltaic (PV) is leading the cost decline, with solar PV module costs falling more than 75% since the end of 2009 and the cost of electricity from utility-scale solar PV falling 50% since 2010.
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