India To Speed Up Renewable Auctions, Tender 50 Gigawatts Every Year

India has once again announced ambitious plans to speed up auctions for renewable energy projects. 

India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has issued an updated timeline for issuance of renewable energy tenders. The Ministry has laid out plans to issue tenders for 50 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity every year between the financial years 2024 and 2028. At least 10 gigawatts of the tenders issued every year will be for wind power projects. 

For the current financial year (2024), the ministry has set a target to issue tenders for 15 gigawatts capacity each in the first two quarters and 10 gigawatts each in the last two quarters. 

At the end of February 2023 India had reported renewable energy capacity of 169 gigawatts. An additional 82 gigawatts capacity was under implementation while 41 gigawatts was at the tendering process. 

With planned tenders for 250 gigawatts over the next five years, India’s renewable energy capacity could reach close to 550 gigawatts by 2030 — a target previously stated by the Indian government. Tenders will be issued for standalone solar, standalone wind, solar-wind hybrid, and round-the-clock supply projects. Tenders will also be issued for projects with storage. 

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy had announced a similar plan in 2018. At that time, the Ministry had announced plans to issue tenders for 40 gigawatts of capacity every year until financial year 2028. Needless to say, India could not stick to the planned auctions trajectory due to multiple reasons, including Covid-related disruptions. 

India had a target to have 175 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity by December 2022, against which it had achieve 169 gigawatts by end of February 2023. Against a target of 100 gigawatts of solar power capacity, only 64 gigawatts had been commissioned. Only 42 gigawatts of wind energy capacity was commissioned against a target of 60 gigawatts by December 2022.