The renewables era

Promise and perils of ever lower solar and wind prices

India’s renewable energy capacity, and the dynamism of the sector, continues to grow. The country has hit 10,000 megawatts of installed capacity in solar energy, up from only around 2,650 megawatts in 2014. This came with the commissioning of the Kamuthi solar power plant by the Adani group, the world’s largest with a capacity of nearly 650 Mw. Almost simultaneously, an auction conducted by the Solar Authority of India for 1,000 Mw of wind power capacity resulted in the winning bidders agreeing to sell wind power for 25 years to the Power Trading Corporation, or PTC, at Rs 3.46 a