India Added >10 GW Solar & Wind Capacity from Jan-Sept’21: Report

From January 2021 till September 2021, approximately 8,811 MW solar capacity and 1,246 MW of wind capacity was added in India, according to a new report by JMK Research.

This is about 280% and 101%, respectively, higher compared to the same period previous year. The key reason for the significant increase is the commissioning of delayed projects in this period that were supposed to get commissioned earlier but got delayed because of COVID-19 disruption.

In terms of cumulative installations, according to the data released by Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) till September 2021, RE installation capacity in India reached 101.53 GW. Solar energy contributes for approximately 46% share in the total RE segment, making it the major contributor followed by wind energy (39%), Bio Power (10%) and Small Hydro (5%).

Rajasthan, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, and Maharashtra added maximum solar capacity in this period accounting for 68.53% of all solar installations. In wind segment, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka contributed about 98.66% of total wind installations in the country.

In the rooftop solar segment, about 2,068 MW of new capacity was added during January to September 2021, which is 134% higher than 883 MW capacity added during January to September 2020. Gujarat leads the chart with a capacity addition of 531 MW, accounting for nearly 26% of the total rooftop installations during the analysis period. Next to Gujarat, Maharashtra (501 MW), Haryana (217 MW) and Uttarakhand (181 MW) are the leading states in India with the most installed rooftop solar capacity.

The “Surya Urja Rooftop Yojana – Gujarat” scheme is the key reason for this significant capacity addition in Gujarat that aims installation of solar rooftops for 8 lakh residential consumers by March 2022. Under this scheme, 40% of state subsidy is provided on installation of systems up to 3 kW and 20% subsidy for 3 kW- 10 kW system size.

According to JMK Research, in 2021, approximately 11 GW of new utility scale solar capacity and 2.8 GW of new wind capacity is expected to be installed in India. Whereas rooftop solar capacity addition is expected around 3 GW. If the third wave of the covid-19 pandemic does not strike the country between November and December 2021, then it is extremely likely that the RE sector will achieve this target of 2021.