India may not meet its 100 GW solar energy target by 2022 says Wood Mackenzie

India may not meet its 100 GW solar energy target claims a new report from Wood Mackenzie .

Rishab Shreshta, solar analyst at research and consultancy firm Wood Mackenzie said “the country might still not be able to meet the 100 gigawatt (GW) solar target by 2022.”

As bid prices stabilise and costs continue to drop, long-term development remains positive but still not sufficient to meet the 100-GW solar target by 2022. India faces short-term uncertainty due to the imposing of various taxes and levies on solar products, the cancellation of tenders and tariff renegotiations,” said Shreshta.

During January to October 2018 India’s grid-connected power generation capacity increased by 4 per cent to reach about 347 GW — 13 GW more as compared to the corresponding period last year.

The firm further added “Renewables accounted for 9.7 GW of the total increase of 13 GW, highlighting the significant investment flowing into the sector. India is and will be the third-largest solar market globally in 2018 and 2019, respectively.”

The firm further noted that year-on-year growth rate of annual solar installed capacity will reduce to over one per cent in 2018, from 63 per cent in 2017, and expected to rebound to over 12 per cent in 2019.

“Despite strong domestic demand and safeguard duties on imported solar modules, domestic solar manufacturers still struggle to compete with foreign suppliers,” added Shreshta.

WoodMac expects electricity generation to grow 5 per cent year-on- year in 2019, it noted that 7.2 per cent annual growth in grid-connected power demand helped improve the capacity factor for all fuels in 2018.