The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has announced that the country’s installed renewable energy capacity has crossed the 100 GW milestone. This excludes large hydropower projects.

The installed renewable capacity increases to 146 GW if large hydro is included.

According to the announcement, India’s renewable energy capacity is now the fourth largest in the world. Also, the country stands fifth in solar power installation and fourth in installed wind power capacity.

“India has set ambitious targets for itself in the area of Renewable Energy, which the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy is committed to achieve,” the release said. India has a target to install 450 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2030.

There are about 50 GW of projects under development, and 27 GW that are tendered and yet to be auctioned.

“The achievement of installed RE capacity of 100 GW is an important milestone in India’s journey towards its target of 450 GW by 2030.” Tweeted, The Union Minister for the Ministry of Power and the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, R.K. Singh, the Union Minister for the Ministry of Power and the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, tweeted.

In February this year, the share of solar power in India’s installed power capacity mix reached 10.3%, exceeding that of wind-based power sources for the first time, according to Mercom’s data. The share of installed wind capacity is 10.25%.

India’s installed renewable energy (including large hydro projects) capacity stood at 143.9 GW, accounting for a share of 37.4% in the overall power mix at the end of the second quarter of 2021, according to preliminary data from the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) and Mercom’s India Solar Project Tracker.

Based on the preliminary numbers, solar installations increased, accounting for 11.2% of the total installed capacity compared to 10.69% in Q1 2021. Wind installations also showed a marginal growth and accounted for 10.26% of the total capacity at the end of Q2 2021.

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), coal accounts for 70% of India’s power generation while solar is less than 4%. However, solar energy will witness exponential growth and match coal’s share in the Indian power generation mix by 2040 or earlier. The share of coal is expected to decline from 44% in 2019 to 34% in 2040.