Rajasthan is leading India’s shift to renewable energy, with more than 26,800 MW of installed capacity. Recently, Adani Green Energy on Wednesday announced that it has operationalized a 180-MW solar power plant at Devikot in Jaisalmer. This solar plant, will help produce approximately 540 million electricity units annually, powering over 1.1 lakh homes and reducing around 0.39 million tonnes of CO2 emissions.
Gujarat not far behind, hopes to surpass Rajasthan in the coming years as the leader in renewable energy. According to Mahesh Babu, MD of Gujarat Power Corporation Ltd (GPCL), “We have already overtaken Tamil Nadu as the number one state in generating wind power.” We are currently placed second among all states in solar power generation.” He further stated that once 30,000 MW of renewable energy park at Khavda in Kutch gets operationalised. Gujarat will be able to overtake Rajasthan as the number one player in solar energy. According to experts,
Renewable energy sources account for 64.5% of Rajasthan’s power generation capacity. This is a far higher than Gujarat’s energy mix, which contains 47% of renewable energy.
In the first ten months of 2023–24, Rajasthan produced 39,300 million units of green energy, a threefold increase over the same period in 2019–20. In contrast, during the first ten months of the current fiscal year, Gujarat—produced 36,184 million units of green power.
Overall Scenario of Green Energy-
Though the share of leading southern states like Tamil Nadu and Karnataka has declined since 2019-2020. The share of renewable energy in Karnataka’s and Tamil Nadu’s total energy baskets is 67 and 55 percent, respectively, which is significantly higher than in Rajasthan and Gujarat. However, during the five-year period between 2019-23 the share of renewable energy in Karnataka grew by 83 percent, and in Tamil Nadu it grew by 88 percent.
In last 10 months, Karnataka generated 33,500 million units of green power thereby placing itself at 3rd place. Tamil Nadu is ranked at 2nd place it produced 29,000 million units of green energy. Among the top green energy producing states, Andhra Pradesh grew the slowest, growing by only 28% since 2019.
Overall, India is slated to achieve its renewable energy targets much ahead of it’s schedule. The government is expected to revise the targets after the Lok Sabha elections end. It’s worth noting that the sector is more lucrative than what it was 15 years ago. Going forward, apart from Rajasthan and Gujarat, states like Maharashtra and Karnataka are expected to attract more renewable energy projects.