Karnataka tops in renewable energy, says IEEFA

Bengaluru: Karnataka is the new national leader in renewable energy generation, US-based Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) said on Tuesday. 

It has surpassed Tamil Nadu that had for quite some time been India’s best renewable market. With a population of in excess of 60 million, Karnataka has a sum of 12.3 gigawatts (GW) of renewable capacity installed till March, after having included five GW in 2017-18 alone, it said. 

IEEFA’s report “Karnataka’s Electricity Sector Transformation”, discusses a pattern driven by state and national energy policies that have empowered less dependence on imported energy and how declining costs have helped manufacture energy around the take-up of renewables, particularly solar. 

The report takes note of that solar tenders in Karnataka have seen close record low bids of Rs 2.82-3.06 for every kilowatt-hour (kWh) ($41-44/MWh), substantially not as much as the normal Rs 3-5/kWh for domestic thermal power tariffs and the Rs 5-6/kWh tariffs required for imported coal fired power. 

Renewables will represent 23 GW or 60 percentage of capacity (43 percentage of generation), up from 12.3 GW or 46 percentage in 2017/18. 

Hydro, which represents 3.6 GW or 13 percentage current capacity, continues to provide much needed dispatch able energy to adjust the state’s development.

IEEFA conducts research and investigations on economic and financial issues identified with energy and the environment.