India's annual solar investments to surpass those in coal by 2020-Deutsche Bank report

India, which has raised its solar power capacity target five-fold, could see annual investments in solar surpassing those in coal by 2019-20 with commitments worth about $35 billion from global companies already in hand, a Deutsche Bank report said.

With its increased focus on solar power, India could become one of the largest renewable energy producers in the world, matching China’s target of 100GW (gigawatt) or 100,000MW (megawatts) capacity by 2020, the report released on Sunday said.

India has raised its 2022 solar energy target to 100GW from 20GW as part of Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government’s efforts to lower dependence on coal-fuelled electricity. The country needs to invest about $200 billion to meet this target and to set up around 60,000MW of wind power capacity by 2022.

Global companies, including the US renewable energy firm SunEdison Inc, Japanese telecommunications company SoftBank Corp, Taiwan’s Foxconn Technology, and China’s photovoltaic module maker Trina Solar Ltd, have announced multi-billion dollar investments in Indian companies to set up solar power projects.

Russia’s OAO Rosneft, the world’s largest publicly-traded oil company, is exploring a huge investment in India’s solar energy sector with capacity ranging between 10,000MW to 20,000MW, Mint reported last week.

Indian power companies such as Adani Power Ltd, Reliance Power Ltd and State-run NTPC Ltd have already made inroads with their solar energy projects. Aditya Birla Nuvo Ltd has also announced plans to bid for solar power projects.

“Private sector interest is decisively moving towards solar from coal power, and we foresee numerous opportunities of fund-raising, yieldco structuring and M&A activity,” Deutsche Bank analyst Abhishek Puri wrote in his report.

Falling tariffs would also help in aiding growth of solar power adoption. Tariffs have dropped about 60% over last four years, from Rs.14.90 per kWh (kilowatt-hour) in 2010 to almost Rs.5.75 per kWh in 2015, rivaling with prices of conventional power sources.

India’s per capita electricity consumption reached 1010 kilowatt-hour (kWh) in 2014-15, compared with 957 kWh in 2013-14, according to the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), but continues to among the lowest in the world with several households in the interiors of the country having little or no access to electricity.

India plans to award solar contracts for the supply of 15,000MW this year. In 2014-15, the cumulative solar power capacity in India was about 3,744 MW, accounting for about 10.5% of the total renewable energy generated in the country.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.