India Tops With 10 GW Of PV Installation In A Single Year For First Time Ever

Posted By Parveen

According to the latest Solar Map from solar consultancy firm Bridge, India is now leading the solar installation projects by installing 10 GW of solar during the financial year 2017-18 for the first time ever. India has surpassed the previous estimations of PV installation by around 3.3 GW which was assumed at 7.1 GW by GTM Research solar analysts. Earlier Bridge also forecasted that India will be able to install just 6 GW in 2018 down from 9.3 GW in 2017 following recent trade conflicts but India is beating out all estimates at quite a good pace.

Courtesy- GTM Estimates

India has deployed 10.4 GW of solar system in 2017-18 of which 9.1 GW was in the utility-scale capacity, a rise of 72% over previous year and was higher than all other major sources (coal 4.6 GW and wind 1.7 GW). The open access solar also grew at a tremendous rate of 275% year-on-year by 1.7 GW. India’s total PV capacity has now reached at 24.4 GW as of March 2018.

Karnataka is leading state in India to deploy the highest capacity of solar installed at 4.1 GW in 2017-18. In sequence Telangana, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu are the following states in installed solar capacity.

Karnataka now leads the pack of states having had a blockbusting year with 4.1GW deployed. It is followed by Telangana, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

ReNew, Adani, and Acme was the biggest players in developing solar systems in India with a combined installed capacity of 2.3 GW during this year. Also, Canadian Solar (12.9%), JA Solar (11.4%) and Trina Solar (7.9%) were the main suppliers of installed solar panels.

India added 10.4 GW solar power capacity in 2017-18

“The Indian solar market has grown spectacularly over the last four years. But we are still at only 24.4GW, way short of the 100GW target. It is not going to be easy as activity is expected to slow down in the current year before picking up again in 2019-20. While falling prices and government support have helped in boosted demand, supply-side factors like land and transmission still remain a concern.”, said Vinay Rustagi, Managing Director, Bridge to India.

Tata Power Solar was the only Indian organization to make to the list of top 10 developers in India and it had only 11.42% market share. It is pertinent given reports today that power minister R.K. Singh intends to make future bids for renewables have up to a 50% manufacturing component. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has also touted the idea of a 100 GW tender to be linked with manufacturing in the future, although Bridge to India’s weekly newsletter this week described the idea as “lacking in credibility”.

Bridge to India also suggested: “By announcing such radical schemes, MNRE may be trying to deflect attention from recent problems and shore up confidence in the sector.”

According to Solar Map, Indian has achieved the roof-top capacity of 2.4 GW as of March 2018 with just over 1 GW estimated to have been installed in FY 2017-18. Meanwhile, off-grid solar installations reached 691 MW with capacity addition of 217 MW in the year.

“Growth in rooftop solar slowed down marginally in the year due to GST and safeguard related uncertainty,” the study says.

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