Environmental concerns have led to a firm push toward solar and wind energy in India. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) plans to add 175 GW of renewable energy by 2022.

To meet the goal, the share of renewable power in India’s energy mix is gradually increasing. The solar sector is witnessing installations and projects at an unprecedented scale. The government has made the wind sector more competitive by introducing a bidding process to develop wind power projects. Small hydro is expected to see an increase in installations, the MNRE has detailed project reports ready for implementation.

Renewable energy sources currently make up 15.07 percent with a capacity of 46,665.53 MW. Hydro makes up 13.93 percent accounting for 43,133.43 MW of the total power generated in the country. The government of India is considering inclusion of large hydro in renewables. If approved, renewables will account for almost 30 percent of the entire power generated in India.

With more than 8.8 GW of solar energy installed to date, solar represents 2.9 percent of the net installed capacity in India and accounts for almost 19 percent of all renewable energy generation.

According to the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), the coal-based generation capacity in India is 60.66 percent of the total installed capacity of 309,582.86 MW as on November 30, 2016. The total thermal power generation stands at 69.13 percent with a capacity of 214,003.90 MW, slightly lower than before. According to latest CEA projections, the share of coal will drastically fall in the coming years.

Nuclear power has a total capacity of 5,780 MW and is 1.87 percent of total installations. The capacity hasn’t changed, but the percentage share has fallen as installation and generation in other sectors have increased.