Mumbai: India’s rooftop solar market has added capacity at the fastest pace this year and crossed 1 gigawatt (GW) in total installed capacity, according to Bridge To India, a renewable energy-focused consultancy and research firm.

India has added 513 megawatt (MW) of rooftop solar capacity over the past 12 months, a growth of 113%, taking total installed capacity to 1,020 MW or 1 GW, Bridge To India said in a report on Wednesday.

The rooftop sector is expected to reach a total capacity of 12.7 GW by 2021. The cost of rooftop solar has fallen by 12% per annum for the last four years.

India has a target of setting up 100 GW of solar capacity by 2022. Of this, 40 GW is to come from rooftop solar and 60 GW from grid connected solar projects.

“Rooftop solar has been a side-story in the Indian solar sector so far but that is beginning to change now. The sector is growing rapidly and beginning to realise its potential thanks largely to increasing cost competitiveness of rooftop solar power versus grid power," said Vinay Rustagi, managing director, Bridge To India.

CleanMax Solar, Amplus Solar, Cleantech Solar, Azure Power, Rays Power Experts and Hero Future Energies are some of the leading companies offering rooftop solar projects.

“We expect rooftop solar to outpace growth in the utility solar market in the coming years. The government has announced attractive policies such as net metering, subsidies for select customers and cheaper debt financing for the sector although there is huge scope for improvement on every front," Rustagi said.

Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Gujarat are the states leading in total installed capacity of the rooftop sector.

India’s total solar capacity has crossed 9 GW, of this rooftop solar is 1 GW.

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