The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy says grid-connected solar in the country has passed the 2 GW point. Wind power still dominates the sector with 19.8 GW installed.
The Indian government has announced the nation has passed the 2 GW mark for cumulative installation of grid-connected solar power.

In a statement on its website, the Indian Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) said that at the end of September, 395 MW of grid-connected PV had been installed in the 2013-14 financial year, as part of a 1.1 GW target.

With the government recently publishing the guidelines for the 750 MW phase II, batch I of its Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM), the installation figures are impressive but remain dwarfed by wind power generation in the country.

A further 808 MW of wind power has been installed in the current financial year to take the cumulative figure to 19.8 GW with a 2.5 GW wind power target this year alone.

Small hydro, with a cumultaive 3.7 GW, and bagasse – or sugarcane pulp – with 2.4 GW, also lead solar. Biomass (with a cumulative 1.3 GW installed) and energy-from-waste (99 MW) complete the list of grid-connected renewable energy sources listed by the ministry.

Solar amounts to 139 MW of off-grid renewables generation, behind non bagasse biomass (491 MW) and biomass gasifiers (163 MW).

Those figures mean solar is the third most important renewable enrgy source for off-grid energy, ahead of energy-from-waste (116 MW), water mills (11 MW) and aero generators/hybrid systems (2 MW).