India’s installed renewable energy capacity, including large hydro projects, stood at 163.7 GW, accounting for a 40.3% share of the overall power capacity mix at the end of the third quarter (Q3) of the calendar year (CY) 2022, according to data from the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), and Mercom’s India Solar Project Tracker.

The share of renewable energy increased from the previous quarter when the total installations stood at 159.8 GW, representing 39.7% of the overall power capacity mix.

Among renewables, solar continued to dominate, with 14.7% of the total installed power capacity and 36.4% of the renewable capacity. Solar made up 35.4% of the renewable capacity in the previous quarter.

With a total installed capacity of nearly 46.9 GW, large hydro made up 11.5% of the total installed power capacity as of September 2022. India had approximately 41.7 GW of wind installations, representing around 10.25% of the total installed power capacity.

India installed 878 MW of wind capacity in Q3 2022, a 129% year-over-year increase compared to 384 MW installed in the same period last year.

Biomass and small hydro account for 2.5% and 1.2% of the cumulative installed power capacity at the end of Q3 2022.

Energy from conventional sources

The total installed energy capacity from conventional power sources stood at approximately 242.9 GW at the end of the September quarter, accounting for 59.7% of the total installations and down from 60.3% in Q2 2022.

The segment covered electricity generated from thermal-based sources, which included 50.2% of coal, gas (6.1%), nuclear (1.7%), lignite (1.6%), and diesel (0.14%).

Coal continued to lead the way with 204 GW of installations at the end of September 2022, the same as Q2 2022. The total market share of coal decreased to 50.2% in Q3 2022.

In May this year, the Ministry of Power set the trajectory to replace thermal power with renewables by the financial year (FY) 2025-26 to achieve 500 GW of non-fossil fuel-based capacity by 2030. According to the notification, around 58,000 million units of thermal power generated by the public, state, and private sector generating stations can be substituted by 30 GW of renewable energy by FY 2025-26.