In April India’s total installed electricity generation capacity has crossed the 400-GW-mark, according to the Central Electricity Authority (CEA).
At the end of April 2022, India’s total power generation capacity stood at 4,01,010 MW, (399496.61 MW in March 2022). Out of this, the thermal energy capacity was 2,36,108 MW and renewable energy was 1,11,399 MW. Within the thermal energy capacity, coal-based plants accounted for 2,04,079 MW and lignite, gas and diesel combined made for the rest (32,029 MW).
The growth of renewable story is more interesting. At 1,11,399 MW it was nearly twice as much as in March 2017- the capacity had doubled in five years.
At the end of April India’s wind capacity stood at 40,528 MW. After a few years of indifferent performance, the wind sector is now poised to grow well, thanks mainly to the opportunities available to wind energy companies to sell their electricity directly to customers either through the open access route or through the energy exchange.
As for solar, the installed capacity came to 55,337 MW. Even if it falls way short of the 2022-end target of 1,00,000 MW, it is a respectable number because India started with practically zero capacity barely ten years ago. Again, like wind, there are reasons to believe that solar installations will soar, thanks partly to the rooftop solar segment doing better, after years of being in the dumps.
India added 10 GW of solar capacity in 2021, a record. An encore is likely, given the performance in the first quarter of the calendar year 2022, when the country added 3GW, which was 50 per cent more than in the corresponding period of 2021 and 2.6 GW installed in the October-December period of 2021. The country pins its hope on rooftop solar, a low-hanging fruit, which has now begun doing well. India has 7 GW of rooftop solar, of which 1.7 GW was installed in 2021.
