The legal framework for renewable energy in India

While the Electricity Act does not provide a definition of renewable energy, there are other legislation and policies at both central and state level providing the definition of renewable energy sources. Among these, the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (Terms and Conditions for Tariff Determination from Renewable Energy Sources) Regulations 2017 define ‘renewable energy’ as grid quality electricity generated from renewable energy sources. The term ‘renewable energy sources’ has been further defined to mean small hydro, wind, solar including its integration with combined cycle, biomass, biofuel cogeneration, urban or municipal waste and other such sources as may be approved by the MNRE. Also, by way of office memorandum dated 8 March 2019, the MOP has now also classified hydro power project stations with a capacity of more than 25MW as a renewable energy source.