Tamil Nadu ranks number 1 for commissioned capacity in both wind and solar: Bridge To India

India’s total installed solar capacity recently reached 8.1 GW has grown by over 80% in the last 12 months to reach 8.1 GW. According to latest industry update from Bridge to India, out of the 3.6 GW capacity added in this period, 2.7 GW has come from four southern states with Tamil Nadu alone adding over 1.2 GW on the back of a generous feed-in-tariff of Rs. 7.01/kWh. The report states that Tamil Nadu now ranks number 1 for commissioned capacity in both wind and solar.

Bridge to India’s report finds that three western and central states of Rajasthan, Gujarat  and Madhya Pradesh and three southern states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh  and Telangana  account for around 80% of India’s total installed solar capacity as against only 38% of India’s overall power consumption.

An analysis of recently completed tenders totalling over 14 GW shows that this trend is likely to continue over the next 2 years with the southern states accounting for 60% of this pipeline (8.7 GW).

With oversupply in some regions, industry is now concern about where the future demand for solar will come from– Where future demand for solar will come from is now a concern for the industry with oversupply in some regions – Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan are already facing curtailments – combined with worries over grid balancing and management as the sector grows.

Bridge to India said market growth beyond 2018 will depend on fresh demand coming from states such as Maharashtra, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh.