New Hydroelectricity Policy

The government has decided to re-classify large hydroelectric projects as renewable energy under the New Hydroelectricity Policy.

• Earlier only small hydro projects of a capacity of less than 25 MW were treated as renewable energy. Large hydro projects were treated as a separate source of energy.
• It is a reclassification of existing capacity and no additional resources have been created through this policy.

Impact of the Reclassification: The country’s installed Renewable Energy (RE) capacity stands at 150.54 GW (solar: 48.55 GW, wind: 40.03 GW, Small hydro Power: 4.83, Bio-power: 10.62, Large Hydro: 46.51 GW) as on 30.11.2021 while its nuclear energy based installed electricity capacity stands at 6.78 GW.

During the last 7.5 years, India has witnessed the fastest rate of growth in renewable energy capacity addition among all large economies, with renewable energy capacity (including large hydro) growing 1.97 times and solar energy expanding over 18 times.