ISSN: 2455-2631 September 2023 IJSDR | Volume 8 Issue 9 IJSDR2309004 www.ijsdr.org International Journal of Scientific Development and Research (IJSDR) 19 Review on Present Status and Future Potential of Renewable Energy in India Dr. Nutanvarsha P. Deshmukh Assistant Professor Department of Botany Shri Shivaji Arts, Commerce and Science College, Akot, Maharashtra, India Abstract- The Sun has been worshiped as a life-giver to our planet since ancient times. The industrial ages gave us the understanding of sunlight as an energy source. India is endowed with vast solar energy potential. About 5,000 trillion kWh per year energy is incident over India's land area with most parts receiving 4-7 kWh per sq. m per day. Solar photovoltaics power can effectively be harnessed providing huge scalability in India. The primary objective for deploying renewable energy in India is to advance economic development, improve energy security, improve access to energy, and mitigate climate change. Sustainable development is possible by use of sustainable energy and by ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for citizens. Strong government support and the increasingly opportune economic situation have pushed India to be one of the top leaders in the world’s most attractive renewable energy markets. Presently, most of India’s energy demands are fulfilled by fossil fuels like co al, petroleum, natural gas, etc. Due to such high demand for fossil fuels, these fossil fuels will soon get depleted. India is increasingly adopting responsible renewable energy techniques and taking positive steps towards carbon emissions, cleaning the air and ensuring a more sustainable future. Recently, India achieved 5 th global position in solar power deployment by surpassing Italy. Solar power capacity has increased by more than 11 times in the last five years from 2.6 GW in March,2014 to 30 GW in July, 2019. Presently, solar tariff in India is very competitive and has achieved grid parity. Keywords: Renewable energy, Solar energy, Energy Introduction The sources of electricity production such as coal, oil, and natural gas have contributed to one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions. It is essential to raise the standard of living by providing cleaner and more reliable electricity. India has an increasing energy demand to fulfil the economic development plans that are being implemented. The provision of increasing quanta of energy is a vital pre-requisite for the economic growth of a country. The National Electricity Plan (NEP) framed by the Ministry of Power (MoP) has developed a 10-year detailed action plan with the objective to provide electricity across the country, and has prepared a further plan to ensure that power is supplied to the citizens efficiently and at a reasonable cost. According to the World Resource Institute Report 2017, India is responsible for nearly 6.65% of total global carbon emissions, ranked fourth next to China (26.83%), the USA (14.36%), and the EU (9.66%). Climate change might also change the ecological balance in the world. Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) have been submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Paris Agreement. The latter has hoped to achieve the goal of limiting the rise in global temperature to well below 2 °C. According to a World Energy Council prediction, global electricity demand will peak in 2030. India is one of the largest coal consumers in the world and imports costly fossil fuel. Close to 74% of the energy demand is supplied by coal and oil. According to a report from the Centre for monitoring Indian economy, the country imported 171 million tons of coal in 2013–2014, 215 million tons in 2014–2015, 207 million tons in 2015–2016, 195 million tons in 2016–2017, and 213 million tons in 2017–2018. Therefore, there is an urgent need to find alternate sources for generating electricity. Awareness of saving energy has been promoted among citizens to increase the use of solar, wind, biomass, waste, and hydropower energies. It is evident that clean energy is less harmful and often cheaper. Recent estimates show that in 2047, solar potential will be more than 750 GW and wind potential will be 410 GW. A mixture of push policies and pull mechanisms, accompanied by particular strategies should promote the development of renewable energy technologies. The Indian Government has been at work, making a comprehensive policy for compulsory use of renewable energy resources through biomass, hydropower, wind, solar and municipal waste in the country, particularly for commercial establishments, as well as Government establishments. The financial allocation for renewable energy sources vis-a` - vis total allocation, however, remains in the range of 0.1% during Tenth Plan period. The Indian government has also set specific targets for renewable energy by 2012 it expects renewable energy to contribute 10% of total power generation capacity and have a 4–5% share in the electricity mix. This implies that growth in renewable energy will occur at a much faster pace than traditional power generation, with renewables making up 20% of the 70,000MW of total additional energy planned from 2008 to 2012. From 2002 to 2007, there was 3075MW of renewable grid-tied power planned, but the actual capacity addition exceeded 6000MW by 2006. A large share of this was the result of exceptional growth of wind energy in India. Wind energy is expected to add more than 10,000MW of additional capacity by 2012, followed by small hydro (1400 MW), cogeneration (1200 MW) and biomass (500 MW). Ministry of Nonconventional Energy Sources is focused on nation-wide resource assessment, setting up of commercial projects, renovation and modernization, development and up-gradation of water mills and industry-based research and development. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has identified renewable energy R&D as an important factor for developing this sector. R&D subsidy is 100% of a project’s cost in government R&D institutions, and 50% in the private sector. The R&D subsidy for the