Solar power has replaced wind power as the largest technology for renewable energy in India.
According to data reported by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy for January 2021, the solar power capacity in India was 38.7 gigawatts. Wind power capacity is reportedly 38.6 gigawatts.
Solar power surpassing wind power as the largest technology for renewable energy in India is no surprise – it has long been expected. However, the rate at which solar power was growing was stronger. Ten years ago, solar power was only 18 megawatts, while wind power was 13 gigawatts (13,000 megawatts). In the last ten years, the solar power capacity has grown 2150 times while the wind power capacity has grown three times.
There are several reasons behind this exponential growth of solar power. More states in India are blessed with solar energy sources than those that have wind energy sources. Except for the northeastern states and some northern states, almost every Indian state can support large-scale solar projects. Wind power projects are concentrated in six to seven states, with most capacity in coastal states.
Another factor that supports the rise in solar power due to wind power is the rapid decline in equipment costs. The price of solar modules has fallen sharply in recent years, mainly due to the large production capacity growth of Chinese manufacturers, which supply a large majority of cells and modules used in India. Although India is largely self-sufficient in the production of wind energy equipment, companies here have not succeeded in introducing the largest megawatts-sized turbines on the European market.
This drop in costs has also led to a sharp drop in tariff bids submitted by developers. Earlier this year, there was an offer in two tenders of about R2 (2.84 ¢) per kilowatt hour, a new record low for solar power in India.
The development of solar parks that offer the developer’s plug-and-play capability to implement projects has shown an important distinction between the development of solar and wind power. Several states as well as the MRs have focused on the development of large solar parks up to 4 gigawatts in size. No such joint effort has been made for the development of wind farms.
Finally, successive Indian governments have focused more on the development of solar power. A national mission for solar power was launched in 2010, while a similar mission for wind energy was launched in 2015. The installation target was also much higher for solar power. India has set a target of having 100 gigawatts of solar power and only 60 gigawatts of wind power by 2022. This is despite the fact that wind power already had a huge advantage in terms of installed capacity over solar power when these targets were announced in 2014.
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