Investments in clean or renewable energy in India have touched $10.9 billion on solar surge against an annual average of $8 billion in the last three years, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
Solar PV investment leaped ahead of wind investments for the first time during the year due to a strong policy push for power from the sun.
The increase in investment in India’s solar sector was 80 percent to $5.6 billion in 2015 from $3.1 billion last year.
The report on green energy said the increase in investment mirrored the optimism generated by the pro-renewable energy policies introduced by the incumbent Narendra Modi-led BJP government. Solar investments have risen for the third year in a row propelled by allocation of 11GW of capacity in 2015 to independent power producers through multiple federal and national-level programs.
Investments in wind have stayed relatively flat at $4.1 billion in 2015, which is also the average achieved in the last three years. The government has set a target of 100GW of solar capacity and 60GW of wind power by 2022. A slight increase in financing was observed in energy smart technologies which include smart grids and smart meters.
At the Paris climate conference, India announced its intention to raise the share of non-fossil fuel power capacity in the country’s power mix to 40 percent by 2030 from the current level of 30 percent. The government is also working on a target to provide power for all by 2019.
Bloomberg New Energy Finance expects clean energy financing to touch record numbers in the next two years beating the previous best of $13.1 billion in 2011.
India ranks the fifth largest country by financing in 2015 narrowly overtaking Germany and behind China, United States, Japan and United Kingdom.
Baburajan K
editor@greentechlead.com