Renewable energy capacity to touch 16 GW in FY 23

New Delhi: The country's renewable energy capacity addition is estimated to touch 16 GW in the next financial year in view of the strong pipeline of 55 GW clean energy projects, according to ICRA.

"The outlook for the capacity addition in the Renewable Energy (RE) sector remains strong with a large project pipeline of over 55 GW and the highly competitive tariffs offered by these projects," rating agency ICRA said in a statement on Monday. It expects RE capacity addition to increase from 7.4 GW reported in FY'2021 to 12.5 GW in FY'2022 and further to 16 GW in FY'2023. The committment to climate change goals announced at the recent COP26 summit, including increasing the non-fossil power capacity to 500 GW and meeting 50 per cent of energy requirement from renewable sources by 2030, further strengthens the investment prospects in the renewable energy sector.

The capacity addition witnessed a strong recovery in the first eight months of FY 2022 (April to November 2021) with 8.2 GW added against 3.4 GW added in the the year-ago period. Girishkumar Kadam, Senior Vice President & Co-Group Head - Corporate ratings at ICRA, said the backlog of the projects awarded by the central nodal agencies and state distribution utilities remains large with under-development solar, wind and hybrid capacities of more than 55 GW. "Basis this pipeline, ICRA expects the RE capacity addition to increase from 7.4 GW reported in FY2021 to 12.5 GW in FY2022 and further to 16 GW in FY2023."