India generated 10.2 Billion Units (BUs) of electricity from green energy sources including solar, wind, biomass and small hydro — 26 per cent more than 8.1 BUs of renewable energy generated in the same month last year and 17 per cent more than 8.6 Bus generated in the previous month (May 2017), research and ratings agency India Ratings said in a report.
New Delhi: The month of June 2017 will go down in the history of India’s energy sector as the period when the nation recorded the highest monthly power generation from renewable energy sources, reinforcing hopes the country is on track to meet its ambitious green energy targets.
India generated 10.2 Billion Units (BUs) of electricity in June from green energy sources including solar, wind, biomass and small hydro — 26 per cent more than 8.1 BUs of renewable energy generated in the same month last year and 17 per cent more than 8.6 Bus generated in the previous month (May 2017), research and ratings agency India Ratings said in a report.
The report analyses data for monthly renewable power generation for two years between August 2015 and June 2017 drawing the data from the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), the power ministry’s planning wing. “The monthly data for power generation from renewable sources was not made public by the CEA but one can assume the generation in each of the months prior to August 2015 is lower than the generation for June 2017 as capacity itself was smaller then,” said Salil Garg, Director at India Ratings.
Cumulatively, the country’s power generation from renewable sources in the first three months of the current financial year (2017-2018) grew 27 per cent to 25.39 BU as compared to the corresponding period a year ago.
“This could be the highest monthly renewable generation as substantial renewable generation capacity has been added towards March 2017 in solar,” Garg said. India’s total installed solar power generation capacity grew three-fold to 13,652 Megawatt in the last two fiscal years leading to increased generation from solar.
Garg also said renewable power generation grows in three months between June and August due to higher solar radiation, monsoon, and higher wind speed.
“The record high achieved in June could come down in the winter months due to lower solar, and lower water for small hydro. Overall Y-o-Y number could be on an increasing trend but monthly generation M-o-M could vary,” he said.
Solar power generation witnessed a robust growth of 95 per cent to 1,797 Million Units (MU) in the month of June as compared to the corresponding month a year ago. Similarly, Wind power generation in June increased 24 per cent to 7,229 Million Units.
“Power generation from renewable sources continued to improve significantly to 10.2 BUs in June 2017 from 8.1 BUs in June 2016. Ind-Ra expects this trend to continue on account of higher capacity as compared with last year. The share of solar power generation increased substantially to 18 per cent in June 2017 from 12 per cent in June 2016. The share of renewable in total energy generation increased to 9.5 per cent in June 2017 from 7.7 per cent in June 2016,” the report stated.
The Modi government has set an ambitious target of setting up 175 Gigawatt of renewable power capacity by end 2022. This includes 60 GW from wind, 100 GW from solar, 10 GW from biomass and 5 GW from small hydro.
Also, the renewable energy ministry has announced multiple initiatives in a bid to promote solar energy including Solar Park Scheme for setting up over 50 Solar Parks and Ultra Mega Solar Power Projects targeting over 40,000 MW projects and scheme for setting up 1,000 MW of Grid-Connected Solar PV Power Projects by Central Public Sector Undertakings (CPSUs) with Viability Gap Funding (VGF), among others.
Source: energy.economictimes.indiatimes
