MOSCOW, October 1 (RIA Novosti) - India will become a renewable energy superpower, following a large investment in the sector, Indian New and Renewable Energy Minister Piyush Goyal said on Wednesday.
"We will be a renewables superpower – you know Mr. Modi's mantra: 'speed, skill and scale,'" Goyal said in an interview with The Guardian.
The minister added that he expected the investment of $100 billion in renewable energy in India over the next five years.
Unlike the previous government's solar energy target number of 20GW by 2022, Goyal said India could aim for adding 10GW per year. As for wind power, the minister believed that adding up to eight gigawatts a year was not a very difficult task for the country.
However, he is confident that coal-fired electricity generation will grow rapidly too, despite the recently doubled tax on coal and closing of old coal plants. The minister attributed the growth largely to the aim of bringing power to all Indians and continuing the fast development of the Indian economy.
The swift expansion of coal power has been criticized by western countries over its detrimental environmental impact, but Goyal dismissed the criticism, pointing to the environmental damage the West itself had inflicted on the world.
