India Smashes Renewable Energy Target by 167%

Hot on the announcement that India intends to move its transport fleet to 100% electric by 2030, the renewable energy sector in India registered impressive growth in the financial year ending March 31st, 2016.

India is moving ahead at a rapid rate of knots into wind and solar generation. In the 12 months to March 2016 India added 6,937 MW of grid-connected renewable energy capacity. This is 167% of their target for the year and was spurred on by a combination of wind and solar power auctions.

More specifically wind added 3,300 MW of new capacity against a target of 2,400 MW and solar added 3,000 MW of capacity against a target of 1,400 MW. To put that in perspective, New Zealand's total electricity generation including8,000 MWhydro, wind, gas, coal and geothermal.

Wind energy remains the most attractive renewable energy technology in terms of capacity addition. At the end of the last financial year, grid-connected wind energy capacity in India stood at 26,700 MW, representing a share of 62.5% of the total grid-connected renewable energy capacity installed in the country.

The total power generation capacity installed in India on 31 March 2016 was 298,000 MW, of which renewable energy projects represent just over 14% at 43,000 MW capacity, a long way to go to 100% Renewable Generation, but a massive step in the right direction.

“The wind industry’s outlook is very encouraging. In the first nine months of the current financial year (which ends on March 31), installations were 1,644 MW. As on December 2015, wind power installations in India crossed the 25,000 MW mark.”
Tulsi Tanti, chairman and managing director of Suzlon Energy, India’s leading Renewables Provider.

Ecotricity is New Zealand’s only provider of carbonzero Certified Electricityand a leading provider of Electric Vehicle Charging infra-structure.

Original Article from CleanTechnica and Ecotricity