Encouraging investor interest and enabling regulations can boost the investments into the renewables sector by a healthy 35 percent to Rs 1.5 lakh crore between now and the end of fiscal 2023, says a report.
The past three years saw fresh investments into the renewables sector led by solar and partly by wind power, surging to Rs 1.1 lakh crore, showed a Crisil report in a sectoral analysis.
According to the report “Global investor interest and enabling regulations can fuel addition of 35 GW of renewables (solar and wind) capacity, involving Rs 1.5 lakh crore of fresh investments in the three years through fiscal 2023. This will be a 35 percent growth over Rs 1.1 lakh crore invested in the past three fiscals.”
The push towards clean energy has been driving global investor interest into the domestic renewables sector which has been visible in tenders getting oversubscribed amid strong participation by global investors despite the prices plunging to rock bottom of under Rs 1.4 a unit for solar.
According to Hetal Gandhi, a director at the agency, “Global investments have risen from around 15 percent of total capital investment during fiscals 2015-18 to around 50 percent of total investments in fiscals 2018-20. Going by this trend, global investments and internal accruals can generate around half of the Rs 1.5 lakh crore investments required.”
Continued investor interest also builds on sustained enabling regulations, visible through removal of tariff caps, consistent regulatory policies, and rising renewable energy targets.