The Ministry of New & Renewable Energy (MNRE), Government of India has released Rs. 1667.99 crore for solar energy projects and Rs. 366.47 crore for wind energy projects during 2016-17 (till 31 October), said Piyush Goyal, Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal, New & Renewable Energy and Mines.
It is to be noted that the solar funds has come down drastically during this fiscal. During 2015-16, the government released Rs. 3146.24 crore for the sector.
However, wind investments have improved compared to the previous year. For the entire 2015-16, the government released Rs, 316.94 crore only, though the prior year 2014-15 got Rs. 568 crore.
India has installed solar capacity of 8727.64 MW and wind capacity of 28279.40 MW as on 31st October 2016.
“The potential of wind and solar in the country has been estimated to be 302251 MW and 784990 MW respectively”, the Minister said.