India’s RE capacity reaches over 109GW as of Q1 2022

Solar accounted for 49% of the RE mix, followed by wind at 37%.

India’s renewable energy capacity has reached 109.89 gigawatts (GW) as of 31 March 2022, with solar accounting for almost half of the total renewable mix, according to a report by JMK Research & Analytics.

In its report, JMK said solar is the major contributor to the total renewable mix at 49% with 53.9GW commissioned as of the first three months of the year, with 45GW in the pipeline and 27GW under bidding.

Solar energy’s share rose seven percentage points in the overall renewable energy portfolio of India in 2022.

This is followed by the wind sector which accounts for 37% share, with 40.4GW commissioned, 10.2GW in the pipeline, and 5.3GW under bidding.

“The current pipeline of combined capacity of solar, wind and hybrid projects is around 64GW, which is likely to be commissioned in the next 4-5 years. Another 36GW of projects are under bidding phase i.e., where tenders have been issued but auctions are not yet completed,” the report read. 

In the first quarter of 2022, utility-scale solar capacity saw 4.09GW capacity addition, up by 71.8% from the previous year, whilst the wind sector added 274.88 megawatts (MW) which is 29.7% higher quarter on quarter.

The rooftop solar segment, meanwhile, saw an additional 459.8MW capacity in the first quarter, which is 33% lower that the previous quarter.

JMK also said that the second quarter is expected to see a significant increase in renewable installation with around 0.85GW of new wind capacity and 1.8GW of hybrid capacity. Around 3.5GW of new utility-scale solar capacity is expected to get commissioned during the same period.

By 2023, it expects around 16GW of new utility-scale solar capacity, and 3.3GW of new wind capacity to be installed in India, whilst rooftop solar capacity is seen to increase by around 3.5GW.