Indian Economy News

India's rooftop solar capacity to touch 6.5 GW by 2020: Study

Kolkata: India's rooftop solar capacity has touched 525 mw this year, according to consulting and knowledge service provider Bridge to India.

In a report the firm said that over the past 12 months, solar capacity installation in the country was almost equal to the cumulative of what was added in the last three years.

According to Bridge to India, India's rooftop solar industry has grown 66% from last year despite lack of specific rooftop initiatives, unlike the utility-scale solar segment. This growth is directly linked to improved project economics and is expected to continue accumulating up to 6.5 gw of installed capacity until 2020, it said.

Among states, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Gujarat lead in total installed capacity in that order. Tamil Nadu's good performance, especially in the industrial segment, can be attributed to high consumer awareness, high industrial and commercial tariffs, and wide gap between energy demand and supply in the highly industrialised state.

"The map also highlights that India is fast approaching nationwide grid parity for all rooftop segments, particularly the commercial and industrial segments. Six new states have achieved grid parity for commercial consumers, bringing the total number of grid parity states to 19. Similarly, six new states have also achieved grid parity in the industrial segment, increasing the total number of grid parity states to 17. However, while none of the states have achieved grid parity for residential segment, the gap between solar and grid tariffs has reduced substantially. The consultancy has identified rising grid tariffs and falling costs of solar to be the reasons for the reduction in gap between solar and grid tariffs," the study said.

Vinay Rustagi, managing director, BTI, said, "This capacity addition comes at a time when the government has gradually started withdrawing the capital subsidies and the market grew mostly on its own fundamentals. Going forward, we expect tremendous growth opportunities in the rooftop solar market in India in the next few years for both existing and new companies, fuelled mainly by reducing solar costs, increasing grid tariffs, increased customer awareness, robust policy support, and on-ground implementation of net-metering across all states."

BTI said the rooftop solar sector has the ability to grow independent of government assistance, and the increase in net-metering capable states from nine, as of last year, to 23 now and seven UTs this year will help accelerate the market's growth next year.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.

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