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Mumbai: India’s solar energy capacity has seen a significant surge with about 25.8 GW addition between January 2024 and January 2025, however, the actual power output from this growth has not been as substantial, according to industry experts.
As of January 2025, India’s solar power installed capacity reached 100.1 GW, reflecting an addition of about 25.8 GW between January 2024 and January 2025. This represented more than double capacity addition during the previous year – January 2023 to January 2024, said Nitika Sharma, VP – corporate strategy and new business, Eninrac Consulting.
“While the growth in solar power installed capacity has been remarkable, the actual power output from solar energy has not been as substantial. Despite the 25.8 GW capacity addition, solar energy has contributed an average annual power output of only about 15 per cent, resulting in an effective realised capacity of about 3.9 GW from January 2024 to January 2025,” she said.
She added that despite notable progress in solar capacity installation, its share in India’s overall installed capacity has grown modestly, from 15 per cent in 2022 to 20.9 per cent in 2024.
“Similarly, its contribution to the nation’s total power generation has seen a tepid increase, from 5.9 per cent in 2022 to 7.4 per cent in 2024,” she said.
According to Sanjay Gupta, CEO, Apollo Green Energy, India’s renewable energy output growth slowed in 2024.
“A gradual recovery in 2025 is possible with infrastructure upgrades, policy interventions, and improving grid integration, but addressing these structural hurdles will be key to sustaining long-term growth,” he added.
According to Ravi Shekhar, founder and managing director, Eninrac, the likelihood of a tepid growth in solar power output is anticipated to continue for another four to five years until India has sufficient energy storage capacity.
One of the key reasons behind this has been the weather patterns recently. The solar radiation has been lower in the current financial year in India, because of the fact that the monsoon was much better than expected long term average, according to Vikram V, vice-president, co-group head – corporate ratings, ICRA.
“While this year has been good in terms of solar capacity addition, this benefit will show up next year. However, the growth in solar generation in the current fiscal has been impacted by lower solar radiation,” he added.
Wind energy in India stood at an installed capacity of 48.3 GW as of January 2025 with a capacity increase of 3.4 GW over the same period, slightly higher than the 3 GW added between January 2023 and January 2024.
This demonstrated a slightly higher average annual power output of about 17 per cent translating into a realised capacity of about 544 MW for the same period, said Sharma.
The tepid growth in solar output in India can also be attributed to policy and regulatory challenges, financial constraints, slow expansion of transmission infrastructure, rising preference for hybrid and storage integrated projects, and climate related factors, added experts.
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