India's solar capacity touches 28 GW

Kolkata: India has come up as the third largest solar market in the world only after China and the US. India's solar installations in the calendar year 2018 (CY18) reached 8.3 GW, including large scale and rooftop solar capacity, much to the pleasure of the Narendra Modi government, renewable energy being one of its pet projects. The country's cumulative solar capacity in CY18 stood at nearly 28 GW, suggested the latest report by Mercom India, an arm of the global clean energy consulting firm- Mercom Capital Group.

The report titled 'Indian Solar Market Leader board 2019' mentioned that the top 10 large-scale developers accounted for 60 per cent of the market share in 2018, with all others making up the remaining 40 per cent.

"Much has changed in the Indian solar industry over the last year. There was some re-shuffling when it came to suppliers after the imposition of the safeguard duty while others have consolidated their positions," said Raj Prabhu, CEO of Mercom Capital Group.

In 2018, the top 10 rooftop solar installers accounted for just 30 per cent of installed capacity in India, reflecting the fragmented nature of the sector. Other rooftop developers constituted 70 per cent of installations. According to the Mercom India Solar Market Update, rooftop installations grew by a whopping 66 per cent year-over-year (YoY) with cumulative installations totaling nearly 3.3 GW at the end of 2018. Rooftop solar installations for 2018 amounted to 1.7 GW.

When it comes to Indian companies engaged in the field, Adani maintained its position as the top project developer, in terms of cumulative installations, while ACME Solar was the developer with the most large-scale solar installations in 2018. Adani was the second largest developer in 2018. There are nearly 80 large-scale project developers with a pipeline of 5 MW or more in India. ACME Solar had the largest project pipeline at the end of 2018 closely followed by SB Energy (SoftBank) and Azure Power.

Among rooftop installers, Tata Power led cumulative installations while Clean-Max Solar was the top rooftop installer. Sterling and Wilson was the top EPC company cumulatively and in 2018. ABB continues to lead solar inverter supply.