Also: renewables, clean energy, non-conventional energy
Definition
Energy from sources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale, such as sunlight, wind, flowing water, biomass, geothermal heat and the tides, as opposed to finite fossil fuels.
Human societies ran on renewable energy for most of history: muscle, firewood, windmills and water wheels. Coal, then oil and gas, displaced them because fossil fuels pack a lot of energy into a small volume and can be burned whenever needed. The modern revival of renewables began with the oil shocks of the 1970s, which pushed many countries to look for domestic and secure sources, and accelerated in the twenty-first century as concern over climate change grew and the cost of solar panels and wind turbines fell sharply.
India created a separate Department of Non-Conventional Energy Sources in the early 1980s, which later became the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. For many years the sector meant small hydro, biogas plants and wind farms in Tamil Nadu and Gujarat. The launch of the National Solar Mission in 2010 under the National Action Plan on Climate Change, and the very large solar parks built since, changed the scale. At COP26 in Glasgow (2021) India announced the target of 500 GW of non-fossil electricity capacity by 2030 as part of its "Panchamrit" commitments.
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