India has achieved an iconic recent milestone with a reported solar power generation capacity touching a 10,000MW mark on March 10, 2017. This multi-fold surge registered a three-time increase in less than three years, with the capacity reported as 2,650MW in mid-2014.
Power, Coal, Mines, New & Renewable Energy Minister, Piyush Goyal reiterated in a tweet on Bright Future: India having crossed 10,000MW of Solar power capacity. He added that this was more than three times increase in less than three years.
This is reportedly a step towards meeting the proposed goal of 100GW solar power generation capacity by 2022. It is also reported that India is poised to enhance its renewable energy generation capacity to around 175GW by 2022.
The capital expenditure reported earlier last month was low and the credit cheaper which affected the solar tariff to a new low of Rs 2.97 per unit in an auction conducted in Rewa Solar Park in Madhya Pradesh 750MW capacity. This auction was conducted by a joint venture of Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) and the Madhya Pradesh government.
The solar power tariff touched a new low last year in January with the Finland-based energy firm, Fortum Finnsurya Energy, quoting Rs. 4.34 per unit, with the objective of set-up a 70MW solar plant under NTPC’s Bhadla Solar Park tender. It is also reported that the tariff touched Rs 4.63 per unit in November 2015, following the bidding by US-based SunEdison, the world’s biggest developer of renewable energy power plants.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) still has to release details on this iconic milestone. Some local news outlets have already claimed that this is attributed to India’s largest utility NTPC commissioning another 45MW of PV at Bhadla Solar Power project, Jodhpur, Rajasthan. The project currently stands at 160MW in operation and NTPC having crossed the 500MW mark with 520MW solar being commissioned.
