The Indian government remains confident of achieving its 100 GW solar PV installed capacity target by December 31, 2022, although only 31.696 GW were installed by October 31, 2019. According to an update on the installation numbers released by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), India has 17.998 GW capacity at various stages of installations while tenders for 36.278 GW have been issued.
In a written reply to a question asked in the House of the People (Lok Sabha) in the Indian Parliament, MNRE head RK Singh informed about the ministry's aims to tender another 15 GW between FY 2019-2020 and FY 2020-21.
Additionally, the ministry informed that from FY 2016-17 and FY 2019-2020 (as on October 1, 2019), it released around INR 85.19 billion ($1.19 billion) to support various solar power programs in the country. Beyond this, most of the solar projects are being set up with investment from the private sector. Details of these investments can be viewed on MNRE's website.
The ministry had earlier shared that the cumulative PV capacity of the country till July 2019 reached a little over 30 GW, which means between August 2019 and October 2019, 1.62 GW was installed (see 30 GW: India Installed PV Capacity Till July 2019).
A recent report from Mercom India Research claimed Q3/2019 installations in India were 2.2 GW. Mercom revised its full year forecast for CY2019 to 7.3 GW from a previous guidance of 8 GW (see India Installed 2.2 GW Solar In Q3/2019).
Karnataka leads
According to the ministry's website, the 31.69 GW capacity comes from 29.4 GW of ground mounted solar PV plants and 2.27 GW rooftop solar installations.
Among states, it is Karnataka that continues to lead the tally, followed by Rajasthan and others:
In news about the state government's decision to renegotiate renewable power purchase agreements (PPA) executed by the previous administration, Andhra Pradesh was revealed by the ministry to have developed a 1.16 GW of ultra-mega solar parks – 1 GW in Nambulapula Kunta and 160 MW in Ramagiri, both in Ananthapuramu district.
Tender delays
After a long wait of several months with tender cancellations, bid extensions and fresh tenders issued, the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) finally received three bids for its manufacturing linked tender in November 2019.
However, the fate of several other big tenders has of late been no less worrisome. Mercom India Research says developers are wary of participating in large scale solar tenders as that brings down their ability to actively bid for other projects and the delays and extensions again shoots up their cost structure. Nevertheless, the government is likely to be launching further large tenders as it inches closer to the target date of 2022 when it still aims to have 100 GW of solar capacity installed..
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