The share of energy generated from renewable energy sources in India has reached an all-time high, according to the latest data released by the government.

Renewable energy technologies contributed a record 13.4% to the total energy generation in India in August 2018. This surpassed the previous high of 13.3% achieved in the preceding month. In August 2018, India generated over 122.1 terawatt-hours of electricity, of which 16.3 terawatt-hours were generated by renewable energy projects, mostly wind and solar.

The year-on-year increase, between 2018 and 2017, in generation from renewable energy technologies for August was a whopping 51%. For the first eight months of this year, the share of power generated by renewable energy technologies reached 9.5%, which will very likely decline as we near year-end due to reduced generation from wind power projects.

Wind energy, as always, was the largest contributor to the total renewable energy generation in August 2018. The technology had a share of 71.9% in the 16.3 terawatt-hours renewable energy generated, and a share of 9.6% in the 122.1 terawatt-hours of electricity generated by all sources in August 2018. Wind energy had achieved its highest-ever penetration of 9.7% in the national-level generation in July 2018. Wind energy generation in August 2018 was 56.7% greater than what it was in the same month last year.

The share of solar power generated in the total renewable energy generation in August 2018 was 16.1%, while its penetration at the national level was 2.2%. Solar power generation, at 2.6 terawatt-hours, usually remains low during the months of monsoon.

The sharp increase in wind energy generation can be attributed to the ‘good’ monsoon India witnessed this year. Cyclonic activity during these months also enable high speed winds. Monsoon winds play a major part in the uptick in wind energy generation, especially in the southern states. Around 52% of the total wind energy generated in India in August 2018 came from the southern region itself. Wind energy accounted for 22% of the total energy consumption in the southern region in August 2018.

The impact of monsoon on wind power projects is clear from the fact that the wind energy generation hit an all-time high during the peak season of 2018 even when the wind energy capacity addition during H2 2017 and H1 2018 was just 1.8 megawatts.

This stellar performance by wind energy projects may, however, not be visible during the next monsoon in 2019. Media outlets, quoting an US-based agency, report that El-Nino may play spoilsport for a ‘good’ 2019 monsoon.