Solar capacity exceeds wind power in 2020
Despite a 56 per cent decline in capacity addition, the share of installed solar power capacity exceeded wind power sources for the first time.
India added 3,239 megawatts of solar capacity in 2020, 56 per cent lower compared to 7,346 MW installed in 2019, according to Mercom India Research.
Large-scale solar projects saw a 60 per cent decline and rooftop installations a 35 per cent drop.
"India's solar installations in 2020 were the lowest in five years. While other top solar markets in the world have experienced positive growth, India, which had one of the most stringent lockdowns in response to the pandemic, took a while to get back up and running. However, we expect the industry to experience significant positive growth in 2021," said Raj Prabhu, CEO of Mercom Capital Group.
The difficulty in getting distribution companies (discoms) to sign power sale agreements (PSA) was another bottleneck. This has left about 17-18 GW of projects without a PSA.
Once economic activity resumed post-lockdown, installations picked up in the second half of 2020.
Nevertheless, the share of solar power in India's installed power capacity mix reached 10.3 per cent in 2020, for the first time exceeding that of windbased power sources at
10.25 per cent. Solar, with
48 per cent, accounted for the majority of new power capacity additions in 2020. Renewable energy sources accounted for 78 per cent of the power capacity added in 2020. Electricity generated from solar in 2020 crossed 58.2 billion units.
Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Gujarat were the top three states for large-scale solar capacity additions, representing around 51 per cent of 2020 installations.
Ahmedabad, Feb. 25: Virat Kohli on Thursday surpassed Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s record of winning maximum number of Test matches as captain on home soil after leading the side to a 10wicket victory over England in the day-night third Test here.
Kohli now has 22 victories at home in 29 Tests as captain which is one better than Dhoni, who had
21 wins in 30 Tests. Kohli already is India’s most successful Test captain with 35 wins.
India chased down a target of 49 runs in only 7.4 overs to win the Test by 10
wickets and go up the series.
Sourav Ganguly and Mohammed Azharuddin have 21 and 14 victories to their credit as captains.
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