Renewable sources make up 71% of new power capacity addition in FY24

Renewable energy (RE) sources contributed to 71 per cent of the overall new power capacity addition in 2023-24, a report from CEEW Centre for Energy Finance (CEEW-CEF) revealed.

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In FY24, a net power generation capacity of 25.9 GW was added, a significant increase from the 16.6 GW added in FY23. Renewable energy led this growth, contributing 18.5 GW of new capacity, followed by coal/lignite at 5.7 GW (22.1 per cent). Notably, nuclear capacity (1.4 GW) was added for the first time since FY17.

Solar (grid-scale and rooftop) remained the dominant source of renewable energy capacity additions, contributing 15 GW (81.3 per cent) compared with 12.8 GW in FY23. Wind capacity additions reached 3.3 GW (17.6 per cent), up from 2.3 GW in FY23. Small hydro and bio-power accounted for 0.3 per cent and 0.8 per cent, respectively.

The total installed capacity reached 442 GW in FY24, with renewables accounting for 143.6 GW (32.5 per cent) and large hydro contributing 46.9 GW (10.6 per cent). Coal’s share dropped below 50 per cent to 49.2 per cent (217.6 GW).

Gagan Sidhu, Director at CEEW-CEF, highlighted that India’s challenge with renewable energy lies in scaling up financing, especially to meet the annual bid capacity. He suggested unlocking the domestic bond market for corporate green bond issuances as a catalyst for achieving this scale.

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As of December 31, 2023, 87.5 GW of RE capacity was under construction, including 54.8 GW of solar, 19.2 GW of wind and 13.2 GW of hybrid capacity, among others.

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