Securing Capital. Mitigating Risk. Powering Sovereignty.
WIPPA Foundation Day 2026, celebrated on April 22nd, 2026, brought together senior government officials, policy experts, grid operators, and independent power producers to evaluate structural strategies for India’s renewable energy landscape. With India achieving a record 6.1 GW of wind capacity additions in FY 2025–26 and advancing toward its overall 500 GW non-fossil fuel capacity target by 2030, discussions focused on turning capacity expansion into long-term grid balance and operational readiness.
The event’s core agenda centered on three foundational areas: grid integration and system stability, institutional alignment, and supply chain readiness. Discussions emphasized transitioning from standalone capacity metrics to system-level reliability through firm, dispatchable hybrid configurations. Furthermore, participants discussed streamlining coordination across the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), SECI, and state bodies to resolve execution bottleneck issues, alongside strengthening domestic manufacturing frameworks and transmission access to accommodate long-term growth trajectories.
In his opening address, Parag Sharma, our President, and CEO of Resolven, set a serious, high-stakes context for the wind industry. He highlighted that India has moved into the global elite, achieving its highest-ever annual capacity addition, standing joint second with the USA globally. Beyond the milestones, he emphasized wind’s critical role in stabilizing the grid; with a 28% capacity credit during non-solar hours, wind remains the key to meeting India’s evening peak demand. With a projected 11% CAGR, the sector is poised to expand nearly threefold by FY 2035-36, marking a defining era for the industry. The address was also a candid call for the government to address the challenges holding back this 156 GW mission by 2035-36.
Shri Pralhad Joshi, Honourable Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy, highlighted India’s positioning in the global market and emphasized joint problem-solving between government and industry. Congratulating WIPPA upon completing its 13th year he pointed that WIPPA has turned into 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐯𝐨𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐲. He said, “𝐼 𝑎𝑚 ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑦 𝑡𝑜 𝑛𝑜𝑡𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑖𝑡 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑖𝑛𝑑 𝑠𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑟, 𝑊𝐼𝑃𝑃𝐴 ℎ𝑎𝑠 𝑏𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝑒𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑙𝑦 𝑠ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑖𝑎𝑙𝑜𝑔𝑢𝑒, 𝑓𝑙𝑎𝑔𝑔𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝑖𝑠𝑠𝑢𝑒𝑠, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑛𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛’𝑠 𝑐𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑛 𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑔𝑦 𝑗𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑛𝑒𝑦.”
Pointing to the gathered industry leaders, CXOs, investors, and lenders, the honourable minister applauded them for being the industry’s backbone, and acknowledged their contribution in shaping and securing India’s future. Shri Joshi went on congratulate and thank the industry for adding 6 GW of wind capacity through the last fiscal, outlined the vast potential that awaits to be tapped. He expressed confidence at the ongoing strong collaboration of policy-makers and stakeholders in reaching the nation’s stated targets, calling the 156 GW target by 2036 𝐚𝐦𝐛𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐞.
Shri Joshi committed policy support through efficient systems, Renewable Purchase Obligations, dedicated wind component, strengthening of the investment environment, enforcement of the late-payment surcharge provisions, transparent competitive bidding guidelines amongst others, promising commensurate support and ongoing facilitation of pathways as need arises. Highlighting India’s strong wind supply chain, the honorable Minister, closed his note saying, “𝐼𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑎 𝑟𝑒𝑚𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑠 𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑔𝑟𝑜𝑤𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑜𝑚𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝑑𝑒𝑠𝑝𝑖𝑡𝑒 𝑔𝑙𝑜𝑏𝑎𝑙 𝑔𝑒𝑜-𝑝𝑜𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑒𝑠.”
Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) Secretary, Shri Santosh Kumar Sarangi’s address emphasised the urgency of production capacity ramp up to 10 GW per annum in order to meet the 500 GW target by 2030. He said, “𝐶𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎 𝑝𝑖𝑝𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑗𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑠 𝑖𝑠 𝑒𝑥𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑙𝑦 𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑙. 𝑅𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑛𝑜𝑤 𝑤𝑒 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑡 27-28 𝐺𝑊 𝑜𝑓 𝑤𝑖𝑛𝑑 𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑔𝑦 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑗𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑖𝑝𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑒; 𝑎𝑛𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 20-25 𝐺𝑊 𝑜𝑓 𝑤𝑖𝑛𝑑 𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑔𝑦 𝑝𝑖𝑝𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑡𝑜 𝑝𝑢𝑡 𝑢𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑡 𝑧𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑤𝑒 𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑓𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑙𝑦 𝑐𝑙𝑎𝑖𝑚 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑏𝑦 2030 𝑤𝑒 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑡 100 𝐺𝑊 𝑜𝑓 𝑤𝑖𝑛𝑑 𝑖𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠.”
He reiterated and applauded the measures undertaken by Solar Energy Corporation of India Limited (SECI) in recent days to bolster wind energy projects, pointing how the states of UP, Bihar, and Odisha are now in the wind bracket, and how the much anticipated RE-RTC bids will have significant wind components in the portfolio, expressing hope that their tariffs would be competitive too.
Responding to the concerns raised by our President, Mr. Parag Sharma, in his welcome address, Shri Sarangi agreed that land acquisition, ROW, and grid enablement issues are delaying progress, and conveyed that the ministry is working with the state governments to smoothen land acquisition; is in discussion with the Ministry of Defence, and Ministry of Home Affairs for project clearances in border zones. On the DSM issues highlighted by Mr. Sharma, Shri Sarangi assured that the MNRE, Ministry of Power, and CERC are working together to design an enabling environment. He requested wind developers to install good quality weather stations which can provide reliable weather data to the IMD, and for greater use of AI to sharpen predictability and accuracy of the forecasts. He further acknowledged the need for a good ancillary market, and committed to facilitate it in collaboration with the MNRE, MoP, and CERC. Shri Sarangi also addressed the gate closure issues saying that CERC is currently working on resolving them.
Congratulating WIPPA on its advocacy role in the industry, he promised policy predictability, and policy certainty from the MNRE, and sought stronger centre-state-developer collaboration to work towards unlocking the potential published by National Institute of Wind Energy (NIWE). He concluded by promising all wind developers, “𝐴𝑙𝑙 𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑠𝑦𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑚 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑏𝑒 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑣𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑑 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑀𝑁𝑅𝐸, 𝑆𝐸𝐶𝐼, 𝐼𝑅𝐸𝐷𝐴 ; 𝑤𝑒 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑢𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑙𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑦𝑜𝑢.”
Shri Akash Tripathi, MD of the Solar Energy Corporation of India Limited, in his industry overview at WIPPA’s Foundation Day celebrations spoke about how despite wind’s complimentary advantages to solar power, and indigenous supply chain, the wind industry will find it difficult to add 10 GW per annum unless the industry re-aligns its strategies wrt the RE integration into the grid, FDRE adoption with optimal solar-wind-BESS mix and RE-RTC combinations, wind with PSP and wind with BESS. On his part, he promised more independent wind tenders, and also acknowledged the industry’s demand that the DSM bands should be for prospective bids, and not retrospective bids, but urged developers to invest in high-end forecasting tools, and consider repowering to mitigate the ROW challenges. He ended his address promising amended offshore bids to tap the 70 GW offshore potential of India.
WIPPA Foundation Day 2026 marked two exclusive roundtables of policy-makers and industry leaders, one with the investors’ community, and the other, with the lenders’ community.
The first, Roundtable with Investors, had been helmed by Shri Pankaj Agarwal, Secretary, Ministry of Power, Shri Santosh Sarangi, Secretary, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), Shri Akash Tripathi, MD of Solar Energy Corporation of India Limited. Issues keenly discussed with the senior government officials included evacuation infrastructure, DSM made prospective for C&I PPAs too, surge in cost of capital on account of unsigned PPAs, ISTS waiver, need for regulatory certainty.
The second roundtable, Roundtable with Lenders, with senior policy makers such as Shri GHANSHYAM PRASAD, Chairperson of Central Electricity Authority (Cea), Shri K.K.Gupta, COO of Central Transmission Utility of India Limited, Shri P. K. Dash, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) Scientist, alongside industry leaders and the lending community, lenders reaffirmed strong confidence in the sector with adequate debt capital available, while grid-related concerns were met with firm assurances that capacity in the pipeline is well ahead of what the country’s renewable energy ambitions demand. Pratyush Thakur, WIPPA’s Governing Body Member, and India Country Head of Blueleaf Energy, who moderated the session, summarized the discussion as follows — “I had the privilege of moderating the lenders’ roundtable at WIPPA’s Foundation Day attended by senior leaders from leading domestic and international banks, as well as key infrastructure financing institutions. All lenders showed confidence in the sector and indicated that there was enough debt capital to support India’s renewable energy plans. They highlighted concerns around grid-related risks, particularly delays and curtailment.
For detailed video coverage of the event and key addresses, access the official recordings: