Source:ember-climate.org
India saw strong growth in renewable (RES) capacity installations in 2022, setting the stage for the country to assume climate leadership in the run up to this year’s G20 summit. Solar and wind dominated India’s power generation capacity growth in 2022, accounting for 92% of total capacity additions. Coal accounted for only 5%.
While India’s coal capacity additions in 2022 dropped significantly in comparison to the previous year, solar and wind capacity additions increased. Combined, solar and wind added 15.7 GW of new generation capacity in 2022, 17% more than additions in 2021. Coal added less than 1 GW, showing a 78% decrease in additions in comparison to 2021.
Among India’s clean power sources, the largest additions have come from solar in recent years. 2022 was no exception: India added 13.9 GW of solar capacity in just one year, comparable to the UK’s entire solar capacity in 2021. Rajasthan and Gujarat, the top two states for total solar deployment, together added 8.6 GW, slightly more than Türkiye’s entire solar fleet as of 2021. Installations in all the other states combined were still sizable at 5.3 GW, larger than Chile’s entire solar fleet.
Combining wind and solar together, Rajasthan added 6.7 GW of additional capacity. This addition accounts for 43% of India’s total solar and wind capacity deployments in 2021. This was the largest ever annual combined solar and wind capacity addition at the state level in India’s history.
Growth in solar and wind capacity is expected to be concentrated in Rajasthan and Gujarat, which both have ambitious targets for 2030. Rajasthan and Gujarat together account for one third of India’s total RES capacity target of 450 GW, most of which are solar and wind.
Rajasthan plans to reach 90 GW of RES capacity by 2030. To meet this goal, Rajasthan would have to add 8.6 GW of RES capacity every year for the next eight years. This would mean surpassing the 2022 installation record in upcoming years. Rajasthan’s RES capacity reached 21 GW by the end of 2022, easily beating its 2022 target.
Gujarat’s 2030 target is about two thirds of Rajasthan, with an aim to reach 61 GW of RES capacity. To reach this goal, Gujarat would need to add 5.4 GW of RES capacity every year. Rajasthan’s success with solar acceleration shows that it is realistic for Gujarat to meet that target. Gujarat’s RES capacity reached 18.6 GW by the end of 2022, exceeding its 2022 target.
