Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Limited (IREDA) is a Mini Ratna (Category – I) Government of India Enterprise under the administrative control of Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE). IREDA is a Public Limited Government Company established as a Non-Banking Financial Institution in 1987 engaged in promoting, developing and extending financial assistance for setting up projects relating to new and renewable sources of energy and energy efficiency/conservation with the motto: “ENERGY FOR EVER”
Energy is a basic requirement for economic development. Every sector of the national economy – agriculture, industry, transport, commercial and domestic – needs inputs of energy. The economic development plans implemented since independence have necessarily required increasing amounts of energy. As a result, consumption of energy in all forms has been steadily rising all over the country.
The growing consumption of energy has also resulted in the country becoming increasingly dependent on fossil fuels such as coal and oil and gas. Rising prices of oil and gas and potential shortages in future lead to concerns about the security of energy supply, which is needed to sustain our economic growth. Increased use of fossil fuels also causes environmental problems both on local and global scales.
In this background, there is urgent need for the country to develop a sustainable path of energy development. Promotion of energy conservation and increased use of renewable energy sources are the twin planks of sustainable energy.
The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy(MNRE) has been implementing comprehensive programmes for the development and utilisation of various renewable energy sources in the country. As a result of efforts made during the past quarter century, a number of technologies and devices have been developed and have become commercially available.
As against the estimated 80000 MW renewable energy based grid connected power generation potential in the country, so far only about 6000 MW installed capacity has been realized, giving vast opportunity for exploitation of renewable energy sources for power generation. The renewable energy based power generation capacity presently constitutes 5% of the total installed capacity in the country for power generation from all sources. The country is aiming to achieve upto 10% of additional installed capacity to be set up till 2012 to come from renewable energy sources.
Objective
