India to lead renewable energy surge in 2021: IEA

Coal Insights Bureau

India will contribute the most towards pushing renewable energy (RE) sector up in 2021, according to the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) new report, Renewables 2020 – Analysis and forecast to 2025.

“India is expected to be the largest contributor to the renewables upswing in 2021, with the country’s annual additions almost doubling from 2020. A large number of auctioned wind and solar PV projects are expected to become operational following delays due not only to Covid-19 but also to contract negotiations and land acquisition challenges,” IEA said in the report.

In the European Union, capacity additions are forecast to jump in 2021. This is mainly the result of previously auctioned utility-scale solar PV and wind projects in France and Germany coming online.

Growth is supported by member states’ policies to meet the bloc’s 2030 renewable energy target and by the EU recovery fund providing low-cost financing and grants. In the Middle East and North Africa region and Latin America, renewable energy additions recover in 2021, led by the commissioning of projects awarded previously in competitive auctions.

In the first half of 2020, 13 countries awarded almost 50 GW of new renewable capacity to become operational during 202124, the highest amount ever. China’s national solar PV auction awarded 25 GW in June 2020, marking the global trend. Despite a sharp slowdown in construction activity, India awarded 11.3 GW of solar and almost 1 GW of wind capacity in central and state auctions, reversing the downward trend that had begun in the second half of 2019.

Growth in renewable capacity in India slowed significantly – but this started happening prior to the nationwide lockdown imposed at the end of March and resulted largely from the persistent challenges of utilities’ poor financial health and projects delays. IEA

Renewable capacity to achieve record growth in 2021

Renewables will achieve record expansion in 2021, with almost 218 GW becoming operational – a 10 percent increase from 2020.

Renewable electricity auction results by technology and country/region, 2018-20