Indian total installed PV capacity has crossed 8.6 GW. Clean energy consulting firm Mercom Capital Group reported that at the end of September 2016, India had an installed capacity of 8,643 MW.
The country had reported cumulative capacity of 7,805 MW at the end of June 2016. Since then, 838 MW have been added. By end of August 2016, the total installed solar power capacity was pegged to be around 8.1 GW. Out of this, more than 50% has come from the four top performing states that crossed the 1 GW mark each, namely Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh. The remaining Indian states take up 41% of the total capacity.
The total added to the grid in the current calendar year now stands at 3.8 GW.
Given the huge target of 100 GW of installed solar power capacity by 2022, Indian government has been focusing on solar quite exclusively. However, discoms in the country are somewhat resistive in adding the quickly growing capacity to the grid. The government has acquired a stern tone asking the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) to allow 'must run' status to solar (see MNRE Backing Solar). .
At the same time, there is a slowdown in power demand as discoms prefer to buy cheap power available on power exchanges even though the capacity utilization of thermal power projects is coming down, according to Mercom.
Mercom CEO Raj Prabhu, said, "The challenge is going to come next year when approximately 9 GW of solar power is forecast to be installed. Unless the 'must run' status for solar projects is strictly enforced we are going to see some challenges." India has 14 GW of solar power projects in various stages of development and another 7 GW to be auctioned soon.
.png?w=50&fm=png){kind=logo}