India’s renewable energy sector achieves record capacity addition in FY24, led by solar power

The fiscal year that ended on March 31, 2024, proved to be a strong year for the country’s renewable energy sector. It achieved the highest-ever annual new capacity addition to the grid, spurred by the solar power segment, which accounted for 81 per cent of the addition.

The total new capacity added during FY24 stood at 18,485 MW, which was higher than the capacity added in FY23 at 15,274 MW, the previous highest annual addition. On average, the renewable energy sector added about 15,950 MW per annum in the past three years – FY24, FY23, and FY22.

In FY24, the new capacity addition in the solar power sector grew by about 18 per cent compared with addition made in FY23. The solar market brought 15,033 MW (including all categories such as ground-mounted, rooftop, hybrid solar, and off-grid) of new capacity in FY24 when compared with the 12,784 MW in FY23 and 12,761 MW in FY22, according to the data provided by the Union Ministry of New & Renewable Energy.

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Rooftop solar

In FY2024, the utility-scale solar segment added about 11.5 GW, an increase of 18% over FY23 installations. In the rooftop solar segment, about 2,992 MW was added during FY2024, an increase of 34% over FY23.

The surge in rooftop solar capacity in FY24 may be attributed to the exemption of the Approved List of Models and Manufacturers (ALMM) by the government till March 2024. The other reason could be the decrease in module prices in the second half of 2023 due to the decline in cell prices in China, according to JMK Research & Analytics.

Among the States, Rajasthan (3929 MW), Gujarat (3320 MW), and Tamil Nadu (1261 MW) were the leading states with maximum large-scale solar installations in FY2024.

Gujarat installed the maximum rooftop solar capacity of 964 MW during the previous fiscal year, followed by Maharashtra (583 MW) and Rajasthan (267 MW).

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Wind power

After a long time, the wind power sector added an annual capacity of more than 3000 MW, and it stood at 3253 MW in FY24 (2276 MW in FY23 and 1111 MW in FY22).

Gujarat, which replaced Tamil Nadu as the top state in wind power installations last year, maintained the lead with an addition of 1,744 MW in FY2024. Karnataka and Tamil Nadu added 725 MW and 586 MW respectively. As of March 2024, Gujarat’s wind capacity was 11,723 MW, while Tamil Nadu’s capacity was 10,604 MW.

As of March 31, 2024, India’s total RE capacity stood at 144 GW, including large hydro capacity, about 191 MW.

Of the total capacity of 144 GW, the solar power segment accounted for 82 GW (including 64 GW of ground-mounted capacity, 12 GW of rooftop capacity, 3 GW of hybrid capacity, and 3 GW of off-grid capacity). The total wind power capacity was 46 GW.

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