Renewable’s share in India’s power generation at a record 13.5% in August
23 Oct 2018
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The share of energy generated from renewable sources in India reached an all-time high in August 2018, with a record 13.4 per cent of the total energy generated in India during the month.
The share of renewable energy technologies in the total energy generated in India stood at 13.3 per cent in the preceding month, according to the latest data released by the government.
In August 2018, India generated over 122.1 terawatt-hours of electricity, of which 16.3 terawatt-hours were generated by renewable energy projects, mostly wind and solar.
For the first eight months of this year, the share of power generated from renewable sources reached 9.5 per cent, which will very likely decline towards the year-end due to reduced generation from wind power projects.
Power generation from renewable sources increased 51 per cent year-on-year between August 2017 and August 2018.
Wind energy, as always, was the largest contributor to the total renewable energy generation in August 2018, with a share of 71.9 per cent in the 16.3 terawatt-hours renewable energy generated, and a share of 9.6 per cent in the 122.1 terawatt-hours of electricity generated by all sources in August 2018. Wind energy had achieved its highest-ever penetration of 9.7 per cent in the national-level generation in July 2018. Wind energy generation in August 2018 was 56.7 per cent more compared to the same month last year.
The share of solar power generated in the total renewable energy generation in August 2018 was 16.1 per cent, while its penetration at the national level was 2.2 per cent. Solar power generation, at 2.6 terawatt-hours, usually remains low during the months of monsoon.
The sharp increase in wind energy generation can be attributed to the ‘good’ monsoon India witnessed this year. Cyclonic activity during these months also enable high speed winds. Monsoon winds play a major part in the uptick in wind energy generation, especially in the southern states. Around 52 per cent of the total wind energy generated in India in August 2018 came from the southern region itself. Wind energy accounted for 22 per cent of the total energy consumption in the southern region in August 2018.
The impact of monsoon on wind power projects is clear from the fact that the wind energy generation hit an all-time high during the peak season of 2018 even when the wind energy capacity addition during H2 2017 and H1 2018 was just 1.8 megawatts.
