India may complete 20GW solar installations during the fiscal year

According to consulting firm Bridge to India, in its newer "India Solar Map (2017)", although the total installed solar PV in India will reach 20GW this year, its annual installed capacity is expected to drop to 5GW.

India's PV installations have grown by more than 84% in the past four quarters, with new installations reaching 7.5 GW in 12 months. Of these, 57% came from three southern states - Telangana, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

Greenko and ReNew Power are still two developers with more installed in the table, and Acme is in third place. According to the solar map of Bridge to India, there are currently 7 developers in the Indian market with more than 1 GW of projects, including commissioned and reserved projects.

Bridge to India Director Vinay Rustagi said: "The current solar industry in India is in a very delicate period. We have experienced an unusual increase of more than 80% in the past three years."

“However, the outlook for the market looks a bit weak. When the price of electricity drops below INR 2.42/kWh [US$0.038], the growth rate of solar power demand is gradually slowing down, and solar power becomes a cheaper way of energy in India. Solar capacity growth is expected to slow to around 5GW per year. Therefore, we expect investors to shift their focus to the secondary market with a large number of acquisition/M&A transaction reserves."

Another 10GW of solar projects have been allocated and are in different stages of development. More than half of the project's reserves (62%) were collected in four southern states – Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

The top three component suppliers in the market are from China, namely Trina Solar (16.6%), JA Solar (9.2%) and Artes Solar (8.7%). Waaree is a larger Indian domestic manufacturer, followed by Vikram Solar and Tata Solar. There have been some changes in this ranking, and the market share of Indian manufacturers has increased marginally, but Chinese manufacturers still dominate the supply market with more than 80% market share. The huge fluctuations that the Indian PV industry has felt for the first time is the news that Chinese suppliers have recently cancelled contracts in the Indian market.

For investors, ABB ranked the supplier ranking with a market share of 26.7%, followed by TMEIC and SMA, each with a 15% market share.