Investment in India’s renewable energy sector shot up 59 per cent year-on-year during the first three months of 2015 to $1.6 billion, according to a report by research firm Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF).

While BNEF predicts that the investment trend in the renewable energy sector remains on track to cross $10 billion in 2015 for the first time since 2011, it still falls short of the levels of commitment made by firms at the recently held event, Re-Invest 2015.

During the event, 213 firms committed $200 billion of investment to set up 266 GW of renewable capacity over the next five years.

However, regulatory filings accessed by BusinessLine reveal that big ticket investment decisions are yet to be firmed up.

For example, Hero Future Energies, part of the Hero Group, which started off with a ₹1,000-crore investment in 2013, has cut its 2015-16 investment target to just ₹400 crore, including ₹100 crore of loans to its subsidiaries.

Meanwhile, global research firms continue to question whether the target of 175 GW of renewable generation capacity by 2022 can be achieved. Of the total target, 100 GW is to be from solar power.

Solar capacity Researchers at global consultancy firm IHS hold a pessimistic outlook on the nation’s solar capacity addition. In a report released in March, IHS said India’s solar power generation capacity will be only 14 GW.

“Our projections on solar in India are much more optimistic at 30 GW, even if we don’t buy the government’s target numbers either.

“In our view, the main drivers in India are the strong economic fundamentals of solar,” said Tobias Engelmeier, founder and Director of solar energy consultancy firm Bridge To India.

Mix of policies “If the Indian government is serious about reaching the 100 GW target, it could achieve that through a mix of policies such as enforcing renewable supply options (hitting mostly the financially stable public sector power generators), making available preferential, cheap and long-term financing through interest rate subsidies, and building large solar parks across the country,” he added.

BNEF’s Advisory Board Chairman Michael Liebreich pegs India’s renewable energy growth at around 48GW for solar and 24 GW for wind by 2022.

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