Give an account of the current status and the targets to be achieved pertaining to renewable energy sources in the country. Discuss in brief the importance of National Programme on Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs).

Current status

• Wind is still the largest renewable slice of installed capacity, concentrated in Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and Karnataka, with a shift from feed-in tariffs toward competitive bidding.
• Solar has grown sharply since 2014–15 through solar parks, rooftop policy, and reverse auctions that brought tariffs down; deserts, canals, and rooftops are the three main sites.
• Biomass, bagasse cogeneration, waste-to-energy, and small hydro add smaller but useful megawatts, especially where a factory already has fuel or a hill stream can take a run-of-river plant.
• Large hydro is counted separately from the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy basket, yet it remains a major non-fossil source for the grid.
• Manufacturing, storage, and transmission still lag generation announcements: solar cells and modules are import-heavy, and renewable-rich States face evacuation and must-run disputes with distribution companies.

Targets to be achieved

• The Union target of 175 GW of renewable capacity by 2022 is the working number: 100 GW solar (utility plus rooftop), 60 GW wind, 10 GW bio-energy, and 5 GW small hydro.
• India’s Intended Nationally Determined Contribution after Paris (2015) pledges that about 40 per cent of installed electric power capacity will come from non-fossil sources by 2030, and that emissions intensity of GDP will fall 33–35 per cent from 2005 levels by 2030.
• The International Solar Alliance, announced at Paris and hosted by India, is a diplomatic target as well as a technology club for sun-rich countries.
• State renewable purchase obligations, green corridors, and ultra-mega solar parks are the instruments meant to turn the 175 GW figure into wires and meters, not only a speech.

Why the targets matter

• They reduce the coal import and air-pollution bill, and they hedge a future carbon constraint on exports and climate finance.
• They can create installation, operation, and small-manufacturing jobs if Make in India on cells, inverters, and towers actually happens.
• They fail if land, forest clearance, and unpaid discom dues stall plants, or if the grid cannot absorb daytime solar.

National Programme on LEDs

• The programme, delivered mainly through Energy Efficiency Services Limited, aggregates demand so households and urban local bodies buy LED lamps and street lights at a low price instead of incandescent or sodium lamps.
• Unnat Jyoti by Affordable LEDs for All (UJALA) puts efficient bulbs in homes; the Street Lighting National Programme replaces municipal lighting.
• Importance is threefold: peak load falls, so fewer peaking plants and less diesel; household and municipal bills fall; carbon and local air pollution fall for the same lumen.
• It is the cheapest “renewable” megawatt because a unit not consumed need not be generated. It also builds a domestic LED manufacturing and assembly chain.
• Limits: quality and warranty must be policed, or cheap failures will send users back to old lamps; street-light savings need honest metering by municipalities.