India solar deployment forecasts revised downwards as COVID lockdowns, supply chain issues leave prospects ‘murky’ Email
ReNew Power has almost 10GW of installed solar and wind capacity in India. Image: ReNew Power.
India installed just over 2GW of solar in Q1 2021 as the country rebounded from COVID-19 related delays, however full-year installs could fall to well below previous estimates, one forecast suggests.
Research and consultancy firm Bridge to India, in an update to its Solar Compass report published today, says that 2,105MW of solar was installed in Q1 2021, taking the country’s total cumulative capacity to 44.2GW.
Mercom India’s solar market update has a broadly similar figure, stating that 2.05GW of solar was installed in the quarter, up on the 1.5GW installed in Q4 2020 and an 88% increase on the 1.1GW installed in Q1 2020.
May 27, 2021
India is targeting about 450 Gigawatt (GW) of installed renewable energy capacity by 2030 and, of that, a lion’s share – 280 GW (over 60%)–would come from solar. For the next 10 years, around 25 GW of solar energy capacity is needed to be installed every year, to ensure the sun continues to shine over the country’s sunrise sector.
The target also means India needs to manoeuvre global supply chain issues, irrespective of geopolitical realities and mining concerns, impacting the producers of major minerals required in the solar industry.
The Indian solar industry relies heavily on imports of important components such as solar cells, modules and solar inverters. Every year, the industry ends up spending billions on imports. According to the Indian government’s data, in 2019-20, India imported solar wafers, cells, modules and inverters worth $ 2.5 billion.
In charts: India needs a robust solar power policy to meet its renewable energy targets by 2030
Since the country doesn’t manufacture enough solar modules domestically, it will have to spend billions of dollars over the years to import them. Representational image. | Sam Panthaky/ AFP
India is targeting about 450 gigawatts of installed renewable energy capacity by 2030 and, of that, a lion’s share – 280 GW (over 60%) – would come from solar. For the next 10 years, around 25 GW of solar energy capacity is needed to be installed every year, to ensure the sun continues to shine over the country’s sunrise sector.
The target also means India needs to manoeuvre global supply chain issues, irrespective of geopolitical realities and mining concerns, impacting the producers of major minerals required in the solar industry.