The national transmission panel approved the plan this week, and construction is estimated to take about six years. The first phase would connect Chhattisgarh, Odisha and West Bengal before linking to a 6,000-megawatt high-voltage transmission system. The project is intended to carry growing solar and wind generation from western states such as Rajasthan to major industrial hubs in the eastern states.
Renewables are expanding quickly, but limits in transmission, grid flexibility and battery storage have left some generation unused. India generated 27% of its electricity from clean sources last year, according to estimates by energy think tank Ember. Solar supplied 9.4% of total electricity demand, while wind and solar together met 14%. India also became the world’s fourth-largest clean electricity generator, overtaking France and Canada.
New and Renewable Energy Minister Pralhad Joshi said in August that India had reached 300 gigawatts of non-fossil-fuel power capacity and was comfortably on track to meet its 500-GW target by 2030. Yet data from JMK Research & Analytics showed that grid and transmission constraints, alongside limited battery storage, forced the curtailment of as much as 118.6 GW of solar and wind capacity in September.
A senior official said last week that India also plans to require state-owned utilities to add energy storage, aiming to reduce waste as clean power capacity grows.
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