India 'outperforms' other wind power markets: Fitch

India is expected to double its wind capacity between 2021 and 2030.

India is amongst the outperformers in the wind power sector as it is set to double its wind capacity between 2021 and 2030 with more than 40 gigawatts (GW) additions in the pipeline, Fitch Solutions Country Risk & Industry Research reported.

Fitch also noted that India’s COP26 pledge to increase its low carbon power capacity to 500GW by 2030 and meet 50% of its total energy requirements with low carbon energy sources by 2030 poses significant upside risks for even greater wind capacity growth.

“Despite this growth being the third-largest globally and sizeable upside risks over the long-term, we expect India's wind power sector will face near-term challenges and underperform relative to government targets for 2022,” Fitch noted.

At present, India’s installed capacity stands at around 38GW and is forecast to increase to 85GW.

The report also projected that India’s wind power sector will add only 8.2GW of wind power capacity between year-end 2020 and 2022, with wind power capacity set to reach 47GW by 2022. This is well below the 60GW government target.

“Our cautious outlook relative to the government target is informed by the challenges the country is facing in tendering and delivering the necessary capacity to meet ambitious expansion plans,” the report read.

“We believe delays to the implementation of tendered projects and more muted interest in new auctions will present a substantial hurdle to fulfilling these envisioned expansion plans. However, should these development challenges be addressed the scope for more capacity growth is significant given the sizeable upside risks.”

Besides India, Fitch counted Brazil as a global wind outperformer with 23.7GW of wind power capacity additions set to begin operations between 2021 and 2030.

Fitch forecast a 17.1% growth to 20.4GW in the segment in 2021, followed by an annual average growth of 8.2% from 2022 onwards to reach a total capacity of 41.1GW in 2030.