India in the first half of 2024, 12.2GW!

According to JMK Research, India added about 12.2GW of new solar capacity in the first half of the year, which means that the new renewable energy capacity added in the first half of 2024 has exceeded the total new installed capacity in 2023.

The new solar capacity, combined with 1.9 GW of new wind power capacity, means India added more than 14 GW of new renewable energy capacity in the first half of this year. New solar capacity accounted for 44% of new renewable energy capacity and is the largest single contributor to the 195 GW of renewable energy capacity currently in operation in India.

Most of this growth came from large-scale ground-mounted power station projects, with India adding about 9.6 GW of large-scale ground-mounted power station capacity in the first half of this year. MK Research said that the temporary exemption of the approved list of components and manufacturers (ALMM), a means of encouraging developers to purchase and install more Indian-made solar products, enabled developers to import components from overseas in the first three months of this year.

Looking at the single quarter, India added about 7.5GW of large-scale ground-mounted power station installed capacity in the first quarter of this year, with 5.3GW installed in March alone.

The sharp increase in new large-scale ground-mounted power stations contrasts with a 10% quarter-on-quarter drop in rooftop solar capacity in the first quarter of this year. But this situation may change in the coming months, as the Indian government's latest budget includes an investment of $8.9 billion in the deployment of new rooftop solar projects, and JMK Research also expects the industry to rebound.

The analyst pointed out that India aims to add more than 2GW of new rooftop solar capacity in the second half of this year, up from 1.8GW in the first half, but the country's reliance on large-scale ground-mounted power station projects is worth noting.

From the first half of 2023 to the first half of 2024, India's new solar capacity increased by 78.9%. During the same period, the country's wind power capacity increased by 2.3%, and if India is to achieve its clean energy goals, including installing 500GW of non-fossil fuel capacity by the end of this decade, then these trends must continue.