India's solar capacity surges within a year

India’s solar energy capacity has seen a significant surge with an addition of about 25.8 giga-watts (GW) between January 2024-25.

However, the actual power output from this growth has not been as substantial, according to industry experts.

According to an Indian newspaper, as of January this year, India’s solar power installed capacity reached 100.1 GW.

This represented more than double capacity addition during the previous year – January 2023-2024, said Nitika Sharma, VP - corporate strategy and new business at Eninrac Consulting.

Despite the 25.8 GW capacity addition, solar energy has contributed an average annual power output of only about 15%, resulting in an effective realized capacity of about 3.9 GW from January 2024-25,” she said.

She added that despite notable progress in solar capacity installation, its share in India’s overall installed capacity has grown modestly 15% in 2022 to 20.9% in 2024.

Similarly, its contribution to the nation’s total power generation has seen a tepid increase, from 5.9% in 2022 to 7.4% in 2024,” she said.

According to Sanjay Gupta, CEO of Apollo Green Energy, India’s renewable energy output growth slowed in 2024.

“A gradual gradual recovery in 2025 is possible with infrastructure upgrades, policy interventions, and improving grid integration, but addressing these structural hurdles will be key to sustaining long-term growth,” he added.

According to Ravi Shekhar, founder and managing director at Eninrac, the likelihood of a tepid growth in solar power output is anticipated to continue for another four to five years until India has sufficient energy storage capacity.

Wind energy in India stood at an installed capacity of 48.3 GW as of January with a capacity increase of 3.4 GW over the same period, slightly higher than the 3 GW added between January 2023 and January 2024.

This demonstrated a slightly higher average annual power output of about 17% translating into a realized capacity of about 544 MW for the same period, said Sharma.

The tepid growth in solar output in India can also be attributed to policy and regulatory challenges, financial constraints, slow expansion of transmission infrastructure, rising preference for hybrid and storage integrated projects, and climate related factors, added experts.