India will miss its renewable energy target at the end of the year, with experts saying that multiple challenges including a lack of financial help and taxes on imported components are stalling the clean energy industry.
The country has just over half of its planned renewable energy capacity, according to a high level parliamentary report last week.
The target, set in January 2018, would have increased India's renewable energy capacity to 43% of its current energy mix. The government hopes to achieve the goal by mid- 2023.
Vibhuti Garg, energy economist in New Delhi, said that the solar industry is particularly vulnerable to such roadblocks because of the inconsistent federal and state-level renewable energy policies, excessive custom duties on renewable energy related products and financing issues.
She said that improving the financial health of government-owned power companies would help build renewable capacity in India. State-owned power companies have been struggling due to delays in government grants and consumer payments and the COVID-19 epidemic, which has resulted in shutdowns of energy-heavy industries.
India's parliamentary committee stated that ministry approvals for solar projects take an unduly long time, making it hard for new solar parks to open.
State-owned energy companies owe $1.5 billion to renewable energy generators and developers and the debt contributed to the slow buildout of clean energy, it said.
The Indian government's ministry of renewable energy, which is in charge of meeting the nation's renewable energy targets, has attributed the failure to meet targets of the COVID 19 pandemic.
India, the third largest emitter of carbon dioxide after China and the U.S. recently finalized its climate targets and pledged to invest 50% of power generation from clean energy sources by the year 2030. The population grows and the government seeks to improve living standards, so the country's energy needs are expected to double by the end of the decade.
India's climate targets were rated as insufficient by the Climate Action Tracker, an organization that conducts independent scientific analysis to determine if a country's ambitions are in line with limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit or 2 C 3.6 F Other observers say that the failure to meet these targets is not as big a setback as it appears to be.
Ashish Fernandes of Climate Risk Horizons, an organization that looks at the risks climate change poses to India's economy, said that the goal won't be achieved but that it has played an important role in directing India's electricity and power generation systems towards renewable energy.
He said long-term agreements to purchase coal power have stopped federal and state energy companies from investing heavily in renewables.
We need to retire old, expensive coal plants and replace them with renewable energy. He said that this can save energy companies and consumers a lot of money.