After a year of relative lull, renewable energy will be back on track in 2019 with new plants being set up and the introduction of the much anticipated policy on battery storage.
Total renewable energy capacity addition in 2019 will be 15,860 megawatts (MW), up 50% compared to 2018, when there was a lack of clarity on goods and services tax (GST), safeguard duty and BIS standards, besides slow construction of large parks and poor grid connectivity.
In 2019, for the first time, India will cross the 10,000MW of generation capacity in utility scale solar, that is, large solar farms. More than 75% of new capacity is expected to come up in Rajasthan (over 2,000MW), Andhra Pradesh (1,950MW), Tamil Nadu (1,872MW) and Karnataka (1,555 MW).
Floating solar is expected to make major strides as well in 2019. Recent tender results indicate a sharp dip in tariff premium over ground-mounted plants, while the falling cost and constraints in land and transmission capacity will force policymakers to prioritize floating solar.
Rooftop solar capacity addition in 2019 is expected at 2,368 gigawatts (GW), 49% higher than in 2018, while about 290MW will come from off-grid capacity, mostly from solar pump installations.
“Dictated purely by tender timetables, capacity addition should jump from 10,560MW last year to 15,860MW in 2019.”
Reference- livemint, Bridge To India report, Economic Times