Non-Hydro Renewable Energy Capacity Addition Grew 61 Per Cent In Q1 FY2023: Report

According to the latest edition of the CEEW Centre for Energy Finance (CEEW-CEF), new capacity addition of non-hydro renewable energy increased to 4.2 GW during the first quarter of FY2023 compared to just 2.6 GW installed in the same period last fiscal. This is about a 61 per cent jump in new renewable energy (RE) capacity addition on a year-on-year basis. In addition to more investment in the sector, the sharp increase in capacity generation could also be attributed to the low base in the corresponding quarter when capacity installations took a hit due to the Covid-19- lockdowns. The CEEW-CEF Market Handbook also highlighted that despite various fire incidents, sales of electric vehicles jumped by 636 per cent to a little over 2 lakh units in Q1 FY2023 compared to the corresponding period. The share of EVs in total new vehicles sold during the quarter increased to 4.35 per cent compared to less than one per cent in the same quarter previous fiscal.

Gagan Sidhu, Director, CEEW Centre for Energy Finance, said, " Continued low share of wind capacity addition is a matter of concern as India's power sector transition cannot be based on solar alone. However, there are also some encouraging signs. A significant 1,200MW of wind capacity was auctioned in Q1FY23. This is in addition to another 1,200MW of wind-solar hybrid that was separately auctioned in the quarter. Further, wind energy has also received a regulatory push in recent weeks. First is the move to do away with reverse auctions for wind tariff discovery. Second is the introduction of a dedicated Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO) for wind capacity commissioned post-March 2022. The former is a long-standing demand of the wind industry, whilst the latter is a regulatory demand creator."

Overall, RE accounted for 98 per cent of the total 4.3GW electricity generation capacity added during the quarter. Within RE, solar energy dominated, representing 89 per cent of the total 4.2GW of RE added. This was partly on the back of strong demand for grid-scale and rooftop solar additions. However, wind energy capacity additions continued to lag at just 430MW. In terms of capacity auctioned, a significant 48 per cent of the 3.15GW of RE auctioned in the quarter comprised innovative procurement formats such as hybrid RE and floating solar. The newly published handbook further highlighted that India's peak power demand (met) reached a new high of 211.9 GW in June 2022 and crossed the 200 GW mark in each month of the first quarter as a result of the prolonged heat waves and delayed arrival of monsoons. In generation terms, the total power generated increased by 16 per cent in Q1 FY2023 to reach 411 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) compared to 354 billion kWh in Q1 FY22.