New Delhi: India is likely to achieve its two Paris Agreement goals 10 years before the 2030 deadline, according to US-based Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA).IEEFA made this estimate ahead of India’s 2nd Biennial update report, which would be released by the Indian government today at COP24 Katowice , Poland.“For the first goal, IEEFA predicts that installed non-fossil fuel capacity in India will exceed 40 per cent by end of 2019. And at the current rate of 2 per cent reduction per year in emission intensity of its gross domestic product (GDP), India will likely achieve 33-35 per cent of emission intensity reduction targets a decade ahead of target,” it said in a report.By March 2019, IEEFA said India’s thermal power capacity would be 226 gigawatt (GW) or 63 per cent of India’s total of 360 GW. It further said that by the end of 2019 India’s non-fossil fuel capacity would exceed 40 per cent for the first time.The Global Coal Plant Tracker report had said that in the first six months of 2018, 26 GW of Indian coal-fired power plant proposals were shelved or cancelled. According to IEEFA, this transformation was stark when one considers that since 2010, India had seen a staggering 573 GW of coal plant proposals canceled or shelved.To enact the targets, the National Electricity Plan (NEP) 2018, established a clear pathway for the country to well exceed the first target.According to IEEFA, the NEP 2018, actually forecasts fossil fuel capacity will decline from 218 GW or 67 per cent of 2017 installed capacity to 264 GW or just 43 per cent of total installed capacity by 2027. Renewable energy (excluding large scale hydro power) is targeted at 275 GW by 2027, representing a fivefold expansion on March 2017 installations of 57 GW.The research institute estimates that renewables alone would represent 44 per cent of installed system capacity by 2027, with hydro and nuclear representing another 80 GW or 13 per cent of the 619 GW total.IEEFA said that the devaluation of the rupee coupled with a volatility in oil prices during 2018 increased the country’s energy security concerns, drawing attention to India’s excessive reliance on increasingly expensive imported fossil fuels.“In addition, $10 billion worth of financial distress being experienced by import coal-fired power plants at Mundra in Gujarat is further adding to the country’s significant financial and political angst of late,” it said.It said that economically, the past two years have seen renewable energy tenders completed at prices consistently well below Rs 3/kWh, making renewable energy clearly the low-cost source of new electricity generation.