Going by the capacity additions up to the end of February, both the wind and solar sectors would fall well short of their targets for 2012-13.
India added 1,282 MW of wind and 505 MW of solar in the first 11 months of the current financial year, against targets of 2,500 MW and 800 MW respectively, according to information provided by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.
With this, the total wind power capacity in India stood at 18,635 MW and solar at 1,446 MW as on February 28.
In solar, the projects that were awarded in the second batch of the National Solar Mission, of total capacity of 340 MW, are scheduled to be completed this month. February was a good month for solar, when 210 MW of capacity was connected to the grid.
It is possible that another 130 MW could be commissioned under the National Solar Mission projects in March, taking the total capacity closer to the target.
Wind, on the other, hand falls way short of the target. However, this was only expected, given the record in the first three quarters. Wind power capacity additions suffered because the Government withdrew two sops — generation-based incentive and accelerated depreciation — at the beginning of the year. Investors could avail themselves of one of the two sops. Since these sops were expected to be brought back, investors preferred to wait and watch before putting down their money.
The Government has since brought back ‘generation-based incentive’ and the recent Budget has allocated Rs 800 crore for the purpose. This should offer some help to the wind sector in 2013-14.
Solar is expected to see robust growth in 2013-14 as many States have come up with their own programmes.
According to MNRE data, India today has a total renewable power capacity of 27,295 MW. Wind, at 18,635 MW, constitutes the bulk of the capacity. India also has 3,552 MW of small hydro power plants, 1,263 MW of biomass plants, 2,301 MW of bagasse-based co-generation plants and 96 MW of waste-to-power plants.