India added 430.45 MW of wind power capacity in the second quarter (Q2) of 2022, a 57% quarter-over-quarter (QoQ) increase compared to 275 MW installed in Q1 2022. The cumulative wind installations in the country stand at 40.8 GW, according to the recent data released by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE).

The year-over-year (YoY) installations increased by 80% compared to 239.6 MW in Q2 2021.

Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Karnataka, and Maharashtra continued to be the leading markets for wind, accounting for 72.3% of the cumulative capacity.

In Q2 2022, Gujarat topped the list adding nearly 210.2 MW of wind capacity. The state makes up 23% of the cumulative capacity with 9.41 GW of installations. Karnataka added 51.25 MW of capacity during the quarter. The state is ranked third for cumulative installations with 5.18 GW accounting for 13% of the total wind capacity in the country.

Tamil Nadu, which ranks first in cumulative installations, did not add any new capacity in Q2 2022. The state has 9.87 GW of wind capacity accounting for 24% of India’s total wind installations.

The annual wind capacity additions have plummeted from 5.4 GW in 2016-17 to between 1.2 GW and 2 GW in subsequent years. Wind power tariffs dropped to a record-low of ₹2.43 (~$0.030)/kWh in the GUVNL 500 MW auction held in December 2017. This was lower than the lowest solar tariff of ₹2.44 (~$0.031)/kWh quoted in the Bhadla Solar auction in May 2017.

The industry believes that the e-reverse auction, introduced to promote competition, led to aggressive and often unsustainable bids leading to lower profit margins. A move is now on to phase out reverse bidding, as announced recently by MNRE Secretary Indu Shekhar Chaturvedi. During the last five years, the Solar Energy Corporation of India has auctioned around 16 GW of wind projects but awarded only around 12.5 GW of capacity.

Recently, the Ministry of Power issued the wind renewable purchase obligation (RPO) until the financial year 2029- 2030. It specified that wind RPO would be met only by energy produced from wind power projects commissioned after March 31, 2022.