India added 10.4 GW solar power capacity in 2017-18



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India added more than 10.4 GW (10,400MW) of solar power capacity during the financial year 2017-18, according to the latest Solar Map from consultancy firm Bridge to India.

Of the 10.4 GW deployed, 9.1GW came from utility-scale capacity, a rise of 72 per cent over the previous year. This is also more than the combined capacity addition in other sources like coal (4.6GW) and wind (1.7GW).

Open access solar also grew dramatically by 1.7GW, up 275 per cent year-on-year, says the report, adding that total PV capacity reached 24.4GW as of March this year.

Karnataka now leads the states having deployed 4.1GW capacity during the year. It is followed by Telangana, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

Adani, ReNew and Acme were the top three developers with total installed capacity of 2.3 GW during the year.

Canadian Solar (12.9 per cent market share), JA Solar (11.4 per cent) and Trina Solar (7.9 per cent) were the top three module suppliers in the year. Tata Power Solar was the only Indian firm to make it to the top 10 solar power producers and domestic firms had just 11.42 per cent market share.

Power minister R K Singh recently said he intended to make future bids for renewables to have up to a 50-per cent manufacturing component. The ministry of new and renewable energy has also touted the idea of a 100GW tender to be linked with manufacturing in the future.

According to the Solar Map, rooftop capacity reached 2.4GW as of March 2018 with just over 1GW estimated to have been installed in FY 2017-18.

Meanwhile, off-grid solar installations reached 691MW with capacity addition of 217MW in the year.

“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,” Vinay Rustagi, managing director, Bridge to India, said.

Source: DOMAIN B