India’s renewable energy installations have reached the 200 GW mark as of August 2024. Close to half of this capacity is made up of solar power, and almost a quarter each comes from wind power and hydropower, followed by a small amount from biopower.
Segment-wise, solar power continues to dominate capacity additions across the country. However, a key shift has occurred in this trend – the focus is now not only on utility-scale projects, but also distributed solar. While solar deployment in the commercial and industrial space has continued to grow primarily due to attractive economics, solar uptake on the residential side has received much-needed policy impetus. This policy effort has been greatly upscaled with multiple interventions for accelerating implementation, and is expected to contribute significantly to the overall growth of solar power in the country.
The mature but previously struggling wind power segment has received a much-needed boost from the slew of solar-wind hybrids, round-the-clock renewables as well as firm and dispatchable renewable power projects being developed for both utilities and corporate clients. Industry interest in offshore wind is expected to open up another tremendous area of opportunity for wind power growth.
Finally, hydro and biopower have been witnessing meagre capacity additions over the past few years. However, this is slowly changing with the renewed focus on both segments from industry and government alike. In the hydropower space, massive pumped storage projects are being taken up for development, to help balance the grid and manage the intermittency of renewables. On the biopower side, compressed biogas and ethanol projects are providing a fillip to the previously ailing segment.
Simultaneously, there has been a host of policy and project-related developments on the manufacturing end, across the entire renewables sector. Meanwhile, the scaling up of renewables and the development of a low-cost clean energy landscape are expected to provide support to the nascent but fast-evolving green hydrogen segment.
Net, net, the Indian renewable energy sector is on the right growth track, towards achievement of the 500 GW by 2030 goal.
