India has crossed the 150 GW milestone of installed renewable energy capacity, including hydro, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has said in a tweet.

In August this year, MNRE announced that the country’s installed renewable energy capacity, including large hydro, had touched 146 GW, and 100 GW excluding large hydro.

Meanwhile, Minister of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) RK Singh told Rajya Sabha that India had installed 46.25 GW of grid-connected solar energy as of October 31, 2021.

In addition, 36.65 GW of solar projects are under various stages of implementation, and another 24.56 GW of capacity has been tendered. So, 107.46 GW of solar capacity has been installed or under various stages of implementation or tendering.

Regarding the slow pace in installing renewable energy projects due to the Covid-19, Singh said the ministry had provided a time extension to developers considering disruptions caused by the pandemic.

In reply to a question in the Lok Sabha, the minister said that the share of solar power in the overall electricity capacity is 12.20% and 4.37% in terms of electricity mix for 2020-21.

In 2021, the country installed 7.55 GW of renewable energy, including large hydro, capacity as of October. The capacity additions for 2019-20 and 2020-21 stood at 9.06 GW and 7.86 GW, respectively.

According to Mercom’s Q2 2021 India Solar Market Update, in the first half (1H) of 2021, India added 4.57 GW of solar capacity, growing 251% over the same period last year, surpassing installations in all of 2020.

India aims to become a net-zero economy by 2070 and has set a target of installing a non-fossil energy capacity of 500 GW by 2030, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at the COP26 Summit in Glasgow, Scotland.

India has also set a target to install 300 GW of solar capacity by 2030. The country needs to install 28 GW of new solar capacity annually from 2022 onwards, three times higher than the capacity installed in any given year.

According to Mercom’s forecast, India will likely add around 100 GW of solar capacity by 2025.