Measurement of renewable energy capacity in India

Accurate measurement of renewable energy capacity is a prerequisite for effective climate policymaking. Yet, official statistics are rarely cross-validated against independent sources. Sound measurement helps policymakers meet globally-stated goals and guides the private sector in deploying capital. We compare solar and wind installed capacity from the Central Electricity Authority (cea) against two independent sources: satellite imagery from Global Renewables Watch (grw) and project-level data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (cmie) capex database. For solar, grw tracks cea closely (95% as of January 2024), lending credence to official statistics. Wind estimates differ more substantially, with grw reporting 122% of cea capacity as of January 2024, likely reflecting higher turbine capacity factor assumptions. As of April 2026, cea reports installed solar capacity of 154 gw and 56 gw for wind. The cmie capex database accounts for roughly 48-58% of cea-reported capacity for both wind and solar respectively by April 2026, consistent with its role as a survey rather than a census, and indicative of sizeable unrecorded capacity. Our analysis gives us confidence in official statistics as they can be cross-validated using independent sources. Additionally, we note that alternative sources like grw and cmie capex can serve as valuable project-level resources supporting microeconomic research.