Solar energy has replaced wind power to become the largest renewable energy technology in India.
According to data reported by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy for January 2021, the solar energy capacity in India was 38.7 gigawatts. Wind power capacity has been reported at 38.6 gigawatts.
Solar energy surpassing wind power as India’s biggest renewable energy technology is not surprising – this was expected a long time ago. However, the pace at which solar power capacity has grown has been stellar. Ten years ago, the solar power capacity was only 18 megawatts, while the wind power capacity was 13 gigawatts (13,000 megawatts). Therefore, during the past ten years, solar energy capacity has grown 2,150 times, while wind energy capacity has grown three times.
There are several reasons behind this exponential growth in solar energy. More states in India are blessed with solar energy resources than those with wind energy resources. Except the northeastern states and some northern states, almost all Indian states can support large-scale solar projects. Wind energy projects are concentrated in six to seven states, with most of the installed capacity in coastal states.
Another factor that supported the increase in solar energy in relation to wind energy is the rapid drop in equipment costs. The price of solar energy modules has declined dramatically in recent years, especially due to the large growth in production capacity of Chinese manufacturers, who supply the vast majority of cells and modules used in India. Although India is largely self-sufficient in the manufacture of wind energy equipment, companies here have failed to launch the largest megawatt turbines ever seen on the European market.
This drop in cost has also led to a sharp drop in tariff proposals submitted by developers. Earlier this year, two bids witnessed bids of around Rs 2 (2.84 ¢) per kilowatt hour, a new record low for solar energy in India.
The development of solar energy parks that provide the plug-and-play capability for developers to implement projects has been a major differentiator between the development of solar and wind energy. Several states, like MNRE, have focused on the development of large solar energy parks of sizes up to 4 gigawatts. No concerted effort has been made to develop wind farms.
Finally, successive Indian governments have focused more on developing solar energy. A national mission for solar energy was launched in 2010, while a similar mission for wind energy was launched in 2015. The installation target was also much higher for solar energy. India has set a target of having 100 gigawatts of solar energy and only 60 gigawatts of wind energy by 2022. This despite the fact that wind energy already had a big alert in terms of installed capacity on solar energy when these targets announced in 2014 .
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