The pace of adding renewable generation capacities slowed down in FY19 with just 8.6 gigawatt (GW) of solar and wind power plants getting commissioned in the fiscal. The country had added 11.3 GW and 11.8 GW of renewable capacities in FY17 and FY18, respectively. The installed renewable capacity now stands at 77.6 GW.
Experts have attributed the situation to devaluation of the rupee, rising finance costs, government-mandated tariff caps in reverse auctions and cancellation of renewable project tenders as the reasons behind slowing down capacity installation. Also, as recently noted by renewable research firm Bridge to India, “private sector response (in the renewable sector) has dimmed in response to poor tender design, low tariff expectations and transmission sector bottlenecks”. Issues such as GST, safeguard duty and mandatory BIS standards have also discouraged developers to an extent.
