In FY21, India’s RE installed capacity touches 94.43 GW, solar at 40.09 GW

• A total of 1463.31 MW of Renewable Energy (RE) capacity was added, taking the cumulative installed RE capacity to 94.43 GW as on March 31, 2021

• This includes 40.09 GW of solar capacity, 39.24 GW of wind capacity, 10.31 GW of Bio-power and 4.79 GW of Small Hydro capacity

New Delhi: In FY21, India's total renewable energy (RE) capacity has touched 94.43 GW, which is around 54 percent of the target of 175 GW. The government has aimed to install 175 GW of renewable energy generation capacity by 2022-end. According to data sourced from the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), "A total of 1463.31 MW of Renewable Energy (RE) capacity was added, taking the cumulative installed RE capacity to 94.43 GW as on March 31, 2021." 

This includes 40.09 GW of solar capacity, 39.24 GW of wind capacity, 10.31 GW of Bio-power and 4.79 GW of Small Hydro capacity, the data showed. 

49.7 GW of RE capacity under implementation

According to the MNRE, RE projects of 49.7 GW capacity are at various stages of implementation and projects of 25.91 GW are under various stages of bidding. "An expenditure of Rs 3,096.73 crore has been incurred up to March 31, 2021 which is around 86.24 percent of the total Revised Estimate (RE) for the Ministry for the year 2020-21," said the MNRE.

PSAs for nearly 19 GW tendered by SECI not signed yet

Even though good progress has been made in the installation of solar power capacity, power sale agreements (PSAs) have not been signed been signed for nearly 19 GW of RE projects tendered by Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), said a recent report by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) and JMK Research. Developers with SECI-tendered projects in their pipelines awaiting PSAs include Adani, Azure Power, ReNew Power and Greenko, which together form 78 percent of the total capacity in limbo, said the report. On average, 37 percent of the entire (installed and pipeline) project portfolios of these prominent developers is SECI-tendered projects with non-executed PSAs.

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Delays in signing power sale agreements (PSAs) are a bottleneck in the growth of RE capacity in India, jeopardising the government's renewable energy target of reaching 175 gigawatts (GW) by 2022, dampening investor confidence and threatening the viability of projects, the report noted.

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