According to the latest statistics released by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, a total of 1104 MW of solar power projects were commissioned during the period April 2014 to March 2015. A total of 14 states added solar power generation capacity, and the state of Rajasthan(229 MW) had the highest installed capacity during the year. Three other states (Madhya Pradesh, Punjab and Andhra Pradesh) installed more than 100 MW each.
The chart below provides the state-wise breakup of the installed capacity.
Capacity addition under various schemes
About 74% of the total capacity addition took place through MNRE schemes(Phase 2, Batch 1 of JNNSM), and state policies. 454 MW of projects were commissioned under MNRE schemes and 360 MW of projects were commissioned under state schemes.
Among state policies, Punjab led the capacity addition with 167 MW, which is close to 50% of the total capacity addition under various state schemes. Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka also added significant capacity through their respective state solar policies.
Conclusion
According to the official estimates of MNRE, this is the first time that more than 1000 MW have been added in a financial year(April to March). With this, the total grid-interactive solar capacity reached 3736 MW as of 31.03.2015.
With several states coming up with various policies, it is very likely that the cumulative solar capacity will cross the 5 GW mark during the financial year 2015-16.
(Originally appeared in Intersolar.in)