India to provide viability gap funding for 1 GW of offshore wind

The government of India intends to provide viability gap funding (VGF) for an initial 1 GW of offshore wind power capacity, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Thursday.

The announcement was made as part of the Interim Union Budget presentation for fiscal year 2024/25. However, no further details were given with respect to this funding.

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Last August, India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) published a revised strategy for offshore wind with three models of development and an auction trajectory for 37 GW of total capacity.

On Thursday, minister Sitharaman also unveiled a scheme to promote rooftop solarisation, which is expected to result in 10 million households obtaining up to 300 kWh of free electricity every month. This will allow households to save between INR 15,000 (USD 181/EUR 166) and INR 18,000 from free solar electricity and selling surplus to discoms.

In the “Green Energy” category, the newly-presented interim budget also indicates plans for the setting up of coal gasification and liquefaction capacity of 100 million tonnes by 2030, which is supposed to “help in reducing imports of natural gas, methanol, and ammonia.” Meanwhile, financial assistance will be given to procure biomass aggregation machinery to support collection.

The interim budget’s Outlay on Major Schemes includes the following budget estimates: INR 100 billion for Solar Power (Grid); INR 9.3 billion for Wind Power (Grid); INR 6 billion for the National Green Hydrogen Mission; and INR 6 billion for the Green Energy Corridor.

India has committed to reaching net zero by 2070, ten to 15 years later than most other countries.

(INR 10 = USD 0.121/EUR 0.111)