India has the world's fifth-largest electricity generation capacity which currently stands at 243 GW. Renewable energy including large hydro constitutes for only 28.8% of overall installed capacity in India. The total renewable energy potential from various sources in India is 2,49,188 MW.
Up until 31st March 2014 India has been able to achieve only 12.95% of its renewable energy potential. The untapped market potential for overall renewable energy in India is 216918.39 MW which shows huge growth potential for renewable energy in India.
The power sector in India is highly diverse with varied commercial sources for power generation like coal, natural gas, hydro, oil and nuclear as well as unconventional sources of energy like solar, wind, bio-gas and agriculture. The demand for power has been growing at a rapid rate and overtaken the supply, leading to power shortages in spite of manifold growth in power generation over the years.
Focused efforts are going on to bridge this demand-supply gap by way of policy reforms, participation from private sector and development of the Ultra Mega Power Projects (UMPP). The power sector offers tremendous opportunities for investing companies due to the huge size of the market, growth potential and returns available on capital.
Industrialization, urbanization, population growth, economic growth, improvement in per capita consumption of electricity, depletion of coal reserve, increasing import of coal, crude oil and other energy sources and the rising concern over climate change have put India in a critical position. It has to take a tough stance to balance between economic development and environmental sustainability. One of the primary challenges for India would be to alter its existing energy mix which is dominated by coal to greater share of cleaner and sustainable sources of energy.