According to a recent analysis by Ember, a global energy think tank, India’s solar and wind sectors accounted for 92% of the country’s electricity capacity additions in 2022. This growth in clean energy demonstrates India’s potential to take on climate leadership as the country prepares for the G20 summit later this year. The analysis also showed that coal contributed only 5% of the new capacity additions, while India’s solar and wind additions increased its renewable generation capacity by 15.7 GW, a 17% increase from 2021. In 2022 alone, India added 13.9 GW of solar capacity, comparable to the UK’s entire solar capacity for 2021.
Rajasthan and Gujarat were identified as the two states with the most renewable electricity capacity additions, driven by solar power. Together, they added 8.6 GW of solar capacity, more than Turkey’s entire solar fleet in 2021. Rajasthan installed 6.7 GW of solar and wind capacity in 2022, accounting for 43% of India’s total solar and wind capacity deployments and representing the largest-ever annual combined solar and wind capacity addition at the state-level in India’s history. Gujarat installed 3.1 GW of solar and wind capacity, about half of Rajasthan’s installations.
Ember’s analysis predicts that the growth in renewable generation capacity will continue to be concentrated in Rajasthan and Gujarat, which have set targets of reaching 90 GW and 61 GW of renewable capacity by 2030, respectively. To achieve these goals, Rajasthan will have to deploy about 8.6 GW of renewable capacity annually for the next eight years, while Gujarat will need to install 5.4 GW of renewable capacity annually for the same period. If these 2030 targets are achieved, renewable capacity in the two states will account for one-third of India’s total renewable capacity target of 450 GW by 2030, mostly comprising solar and wind.
Ember’s Asia data analyst, Uni Lee, believes that India, particularly the states of Rajasthan and Gujarat, has demonstrated to the world that rapid deployment of solar and wind energy is not only possible, but also already happening. As India presides over the G20 presidency this year, it is well-placed to take on climate leadership and provide an example of how clean power generation can be facilitated by harnessing the potential of solar and wind energy.
