RE capacity addition declines by 42% month-on-month in September: Official data

• India has added a total of 435.99 MW of renewable energy (RE) capacity in September, taking the total cumulative RE capacity of the country to 89.22 GW

• An MNRE report said that five solar parks of total capacity of 4,300 MW were sanctioned by the government under the Solar Parks scheme in September

New Delhi: India has added a total of 435.99 MW of renewable energy (RE) capacity in September, taking the total cumulative RE capacity of the country to 89.22 GW, a monthly report released by the government said. The overall RE capacity of the country includes 38.12 GW of wind power, 36.05 GW of solar power, 10.31 GW of bio-power and 4.74 GW of small hydro power. The figures for September mark a decline of nearly 42 percent in RE capacity addition month-on-month as a total of 751.52 MW were added in August.

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) said that an expenditure of Rs 1,710.52 crore was incurred until September 30 in the expansion of renewable energy capacity. This means that by the end of August, the government has spent 29.73 percent of the budget estimate for the MNRE for 2020-21.

48.21 GW under implementation, 25.64 GW under various stages of bidding

According to MNRE's report, while projects of 48.21 GW capacity are at various stages of implementation, projects of 25.64 GW capacity are under various stages of bidding. The government granted RE projects an extension of five months in the scheduled commissioning date in view of the COVID situation in August. The Centre asked all the implementing agencies of MNRE to treat the lockdown period imposed to contain the spread of COVID-19 pandemic as force majeure and give RE developers a time extension of five months, from March 25 to August 24.

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5 solar parks of 4,300 MW sanctioned by MNRE

The MNRE report said that five solar parks of total capacity of 4,300 MW were sanctioned by the government under the Solar Parks scheme in September. The five parks are coming up in the states of Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh. The Ministry has also invited Expression of Interest (EoI) for the installation of innovative standalone solar pumps.

The backdrop

The fresh data comes a month after CEEW Centre for Energy Finance said in a report that India needs to add new renewable energy capacity at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16 percent to reach '450 GW by 2030.' The report added that despite Covid-19, 12 GW of solar and 400 MW of solar-wind hybrid capacity was sanctioned/auctioned in the first quarter—equivalent to an impressive 14 percent of India's aggregate installed RE capacity of 87.7 GW.

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