India's renewable energy capacity grows 3-fold to 232GW in last decade

Business Standard

25-05-2025

India has logged threefold growth in its renewable power capacity in the last decade, with the installed green energy capacity reaching 232GW, including large hydro power plants, currently compared to 75.52GW capacity in March 2014, official sources said.
India has emerged as a global front runner in renewable energy space as the traiff of the grid-connected solar power plants has gone down by 80 per cent to Rs 10.95 per unit (for 170MW at Neemuch), sources said.
In March 2014, India's installed solar energy capacity was 2.82 GW, which has crossed 108GW now, recording multifold growth. Wind energy capacity has more than doubled to 51GW presently from 21GW in 2014.
Sources mentioned that during the UPA regime, India was almost absent in the solar manufacturing scene, with a meagre 2GW of solar module production in 2014.
In 2024, India has transformed into a global leader, with solar module manufacturing skyrocketing to 90GW and by 2030, the nation will reach an impressive 150GW, they said.
In 2014, India had almost zero domestic production of solar cells and wafers, which was a stark failure of the previous government's policy, official sources said.
Today, India has built a strong foundation with 25GW of solar cell production and 2GW of wafer production.
India has planned solar cells and wafer capacity of 100GW and 40GW respectively by 2030, which is aimed at reducing dependence on imports and becoming a self-sustaining power house.
Even in fully integrated production, the country has reached 3.2GW in 2024, with a target of 24GW by 2030.
Similarly, the biopower generation capacity has increased by 42 per cent from 8.1GW to 11.5GW over the last 10 years.
Compressed Biogas (CBG) sector expanded from a single project with 8 tonnes per day (TPD) CBG generation capacity in 2014 to 150 projects with a cumulative capacity of 1,211 TPD in 2024.
The PM-Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana, has gained significant traction, benefitting almost 13.3 lakh households, with nearly 12 lakh installation in the past 10 months, sources stated.
India has added a record 25GW of renewable energy capacity in 2024, which is 34.63 per cent higher than 18.57 GW achieved in the previous year.
India has set an ambitious target of having 500GW of renewable energy capacity by 2030, which requires the addition of about 50GW of green capacity per annum in the next five to six years, they stated.
Four renewable energy implementing agency (REIA), SECI, NTPC, NHPC and SJVN, have collectively issued RE power procurement tenders of around 44GW in fiscal year 2024-25.
Earlier in April, India became the world's third-largest producer of electricity from wind and solar energy in 2024, overtaking Germany.