India’s installed solar power capacity has officially crossed the 4 GW mark, the country’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy announced recently.
As of 31 July 2015, India reached an installed solar power capacity of 4.1 GW, adding 358 MW solar power capacity between April and July, the first four months of India’s financial year 2015-16.
Overall, India added a total of 866 MW renewable energy capacity during April-July period, with wind energy remaining the leading technology with 421 MW capacity additions. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy is planning to add 2.4 GW wind energy capacity during the current financial year, which leaves around 2 GW wind energy capacity to be added between by March 2016.
Similarly, a target to add 1.4 GW of solar power capacity has also been announced, however independent research firms expect that over 2 GW solar power capacity could be added in calendar year 2015, in line with the country’s target to have 100 GW of solar power capacity installed by March 2022.
Small hydro power technology looks to be in a much better position to meet its installation target. Of the 250 MW targeted capacity addition for the financial year, 75 MW worth of small hydro power capacity had already been added by July-end.
Biomass and cogeneration capacity is targeted to be increased by 400 MW this financial year, but no project had been commissioned by the end of July.
Solar power technology remains the fourth-largest in terms of installed capacity among all renewable energy technologies in India. However, it will soon overtake small hydro power and then biomass-based power technology in terms of installed capacity to become the second-largest technology behind wind energy.
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