NEW DELHI, Dec. 28 (Xinhua) -- India has a total installed capacity of around 73.95 Gigawatt (GW) of renewable energy projects, out of which 37.84 GW has been added during the last four-and-a-half-years, Minister for New and Renewable Energy and Power R.K. Singh told the Lower House on Thursday.
To encourage the renewable energy projects in the country, the Indian government has taken a number of steps such as permitting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) up to 100 percent, fiscal and promotional incentives such as capital subsidy, accelerated depreciation, waiver of Inter State Transmission System (ISTS) charges and losses, etc, he said.
Also, to ensure cheaper generation of renewable energy, projects are awarded through a transparent bidding process. The government has issued standard bidding guidelines to enable the distribution licensees to procure power at competitive rates in cost effective manner.
According to an official statement issued by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, India attracted about 3.2 billion U.S. dollars as FDI in the renewable energy sector from April 2015 to June 2018.
India has set a target of installing 60 GW of wind power capacity by 2022, against which 35 GW capacity has already been installed.
The government is promoting wind power projects by providing various fiscal and financial incentives such as accelerated depreciation benefit, concessional custom duty exemption on certain components of wind electric generators, the minister said.
