Centre for Energy Finance Market Handbook: Renewable Energy Supply Increases By 15.5 GW
According to the latest edition of the CEEW Centre for Energy Finance (CEEW-CEF) Market Handbook, new capacity addition of non-hydro renewable energy increased to 15.5 GW during FY22. This is a nearly two fold jump when compared to 7.7 GW installed in the FY gone by. However, given India has the ambitious goal of installing 500 GW of non-fossil fuel by 2030, we need to work at installing 40 GW per year.
Given the coal shortage in the country, the amount of the same added this year has dropped by 33 per cent compared to last year. During FY22, with the economy reopening, the power demand soared massively, with the energy supply falling short of 1.4 GW as of March 2022, compared to just 0.5 GW at the same time last year, the report pointed out. On the plus side, there has been a 100 percent addition in renewable energy capacity. This can provide a significant degree of protection from the supply chain issues plaguing conventional power sources. However, issues like battery storage need to be addressed on a war footing. Other innovative procurement formats such as ‘Hybrid’ and ‘Round-the-Clock’ (RTC) also offer a buffer against power intermittency.
Solar energy comprised 90 percent of the total renewable capacity added during the year, driven by rise in installations of rooftop solar to 2.3 GW. Higher module costs and the imminent imposition of basic customs duty led to a rise in the lowest solar tariff discovered to Rs 2.14 per kWh in FY22 from Rs 1.99 per kWh in FY21. Overall, renewable energy formed over 89 percent of the total 17.3 GW capacities added in the power sector during FY22.
