India is on track to become the world’s second largest solar energy market by 2026 in terms of annual solar energy capacity installed. National Solar Energy Federation of India (NSEFI) said in its statement that India has achieved the fastest growth ever by adding 50 GW of solar power capacity in just 14 months and has achieved the important target of 150 GW. This is rapid growth. It took 11 years to reach the first 50 gigawatts. After that, it took about three years to reach 100 gigawatts.
Estimated to reach 300 gigawatts
NSEFI Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Subramaniam Pullipaka said that India is expected to reach 280 to 300 GW of solar power to meet its target of 500 GW of clean energy capacity by 2030. At the current pace, India is moving closer to the target of annual growth of 50 GW, which is completely in line with this target. In fact, with initiatives like PM Surya Ghar, the upcoming PM Kusum 2.0, a separate policy for floating solar plants and growing demand linked to the National Green Hydrogen Mission, the solar power capacity in the country has great potential to grow much beyond these projections, said Pullipaka.
World’s second largest market will be created
Amid changing global scenarios, NSEFI estimates that India is on track to become the world’s second largest solar power market by 2026 in terms of annual capacity installed. NSEFI said global trends are indicating a possible slowdown in capacity addition in key markets such as the US and EU, which are currently competing for second place in terms of annual installed capacity.
Pullipaka said that on the contrary, India is continuously accelerating the development of renewable energy and continuously surpassing the key targets. With this, it is set to emerge as the second largest country in terms of annual capacity installed in the coming year. NSEFI said the adoption of distributed renewable energy (DRE) and solar energy at commercial and industrial (C&I) level will be the key factors driving growth in the next three years.
