India witnessed yet another record year for wind energy capacity addition in financial year 2016-17, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy recently reported.
The Minister for Power, Coal and New & Renewable Energy Piyush Goyal recently told the Indian Parliament that a record 5,400 megawatt wind energy capacity was added during the financial year 2016-17 (April 2016 to March 2017). This is 35% more than the envisaged target of 4,000 megawatts set at the start of the financial year.
The states of Andhra Pradesh (2,190 megawatts), Gujarat (1,275 megawatts) and Karnataka (882 megawatts) dominated the capacity addition, Goyal added. These figures may change as the ministry continues to compile the final capacity addition numbers.
India had also managed to beat the wind energy capacity addition target for financial year 2015-16. A total of 3,423 megawatts wind energy capacity was added that year compared to the target of 2,400 megawatts. Wind energy contributed nearly half of the total renewable energy capacity added that year in the country.
A strong capacity addition number was expected in the wind energy sector as some crucial financial incentives were set to expire at the end of the financial year 2016-17. It is not immediately clear if the projects commissioned in 2016-17 will be eligible for those incentives but the last month of the financial year saw a huge jump in capacity addition.
Between April 2016 and February 2017, a total of 2,374 megawatts of wind energy capacity was added. In March 2017 alone the capacity addition jumped to 3,026 megawatts.
