New report says India nearing 7 GW of rooftop solar

New report says India nearing 7 GW of rooftop solar

Bridge To India’s latest report shows India installed a cumulative rooftop solar capacity of 6,792 MW as of December 31, 2020. Capital expenditure (capex) model, wherein consumers own the system, accounted for a majority of this capacity (72%). 

India’s cumulative installed capacity of rooftop solar stood at 6,792 MW as of December 31, 2020, with 1,352 MW having been added in the year 2020. The commercial and industrial (C&I) sector is the biggest adopter of rooftop solar, accounting for 71% (4,842 MW) of the cumulative installed capacity. Residential rooftops aggregated to 1,107 MW and public sector installations 843 MW—according to the latest rooftop solar map produced by Bridge To India.

The capital expenditure (Capex) model—wherein consumers finance and own the system and hire an EPC company for the installation—amounted to 72% (4905 MW) of cumulative installations. The balance of installations (1887 MW) were in Opex (operating expenditure) mode, wherein a third-party company (developer/RESCO) owns, installs and operates the system at consumer premises.

Maharashtra is India’s rooftop solar capital, with 958 MW of generation capacity made up of 872 MW of C&I systems and 86 MW of public sector arrays. With 556 MW of rooftop capacity, Rajasthan ranks next, followed by Tamil Nadu, with 537 MW. 

Annual installations

In the year 2020, Maharashtra led with new capacity addition of 147 MW out of the nationwide installation of 1352 MW. It was followed by Karnataka (81 MW), then Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu (74 MW each).

Capex mode installations stood at 988 MW (73%) and Opex mode 364 MW (27%)

In EPC installations, Mumbai’s Tata Power led with 7.8% of the market, closely followed by Hyderabad-based Fourth Partner Energy (7.4%). Mumbai’s Mahindra Susten (3.4%) installed the third most capacity.

In Opex (developer-mode) installations, Fourth Partner Energy claimed 19% of the market, followed by Singapore-based Cleantech Solar (14%) and Gurgaon’s Amplus Solar (10%).

Chinese manufacturers continued to dominate the inverter market, with Growatt supplying around 17.8% of the year’s 1352 MW market, followed by Solis (17.4%) and GoodWe (17.2%).