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The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy is confident of tendering out 30 GW of solar power projects in the current and the next financial year.
An official statement said, “The country currently has (as on October end) the fifth highest solar installed capacity in the world...Further, 22.8 GW capacity is under implementation or have been tendered out.” “Projects worth each 30 GW solar power and 10 GW wind power capacity would be bid out each in the year 2018-2019 & 2019-2020,” the statement said. The confidence is despite industry trackers reporting a slowdown in solar project installations and bids.
According to Mercom India Research, “Solar installations in India from July 2018 to September 2018 was around 1,589 MW, a 4 per cent decrease compared to 1,659 MW installed in April 2018 to June 2018 period.” “Lower installation levels were not a surprise due to a slowdown in tender and auction activity last year. The safeguard duty, lack of clarity around GST rates, and land and transmission issues have all sapped the momentum from the solar market,” said Raj Prabhu, CEO and Co-Founder of Mercom Capital Group.
The government statement however said, “The Ministry plans to bid out remaining solar power capacity in 2018-19 and 2019-20, so that bidding gets completed for entire 100 GW capacity additions by March 2020, leaving two years’ time for execution of projects.” The country has set a target of achieving 100 GW of solar power generation capacity by 2022. The installed wind power generation target is 60 GW by 2022 of which 34.98 GW has been commissioned by October 2018 end.
The share of renewable energy generation in the total energy mix has also risen in the country. “A total of 101.83 billion units of power were generated in the country during the year 2017-2018 from all renewable energy sources as compared to 61.78 billion units generated in 2014-2015 (increase of around 65% during last four years). Share of renewable energy in terms of overall power generation has reached to around 8 per cent from 5.5 per cent in 2014-2015,” the statement said.
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