India Closes FY23 With 12.8 GW Of Solar Additions

The March numbers for India’s power sector are finally out, and for solar especially, the slowdown seen since September has ensured that total capacity added during the year is less than Fy22. At 12.8 GW,  that has to go as a major disappointment for the sector, considering the lack of the kind of uncontrollable disruptions that took up Fy22.

The disruptions in the last year were mostly on the policy front in fact, be it the start of the BCD regime on solar imports or the expansion of the ALMM requirements to almost all solar projects of any significance. Seeing the writing on the wall, the government did backtrack on the ALMM requirement, the impact of which should be seen in the coming months.

Utility scale solar saw the biggest hit, with new additions at 8 GW a full 21% less than the previous year. Saving the day was Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, which led in new additions in the utility scale segment.

The rooftop segment managed to show some growth in FY23, with Gujarat’s well documented lead strengthening further during the year with 687 MW of new additions, followed by Maharashtra (547 MW) , and in a surprise for many, Kerala with 266 MW.

The silver lining during the year has been the performance of the wind energy sector, which finally seemed to get back on a path to revival with over 2.2 GW of fresh capacity additions, more than double the 1.1 GW recorded in FY2022. With the end of the e-reverse auction condition for wind tenders, future tenders are expected to lead to better responses, albeit at higher rates.

FY24 numbers are widely expected to be better for both Solar and Wind, with the C&I (Corporate and industrial) segment in particular powering growth, with some industry experts hoping for upto 8 GW of capacity from these segments. A long pipeline of pending projects will also be pushed for completion or even cancellation for clarity, which should ensure a faster growth for clean energy during the year.