Commercial solar rooftops dominate as India nears 6 GW

Bridge to India figures show dominance of Chinese inverters, which supplied almost 80% of installs from July last year to the end of June.

September 16, 2020 Uma Gupta

Payment upfront and direct ownership continues to be the preferred option for Indian rooftop solar, according to Bridge To India.

Image: Amp Energy

India reached 5,953 MW of rooftop solar generation capacity at the end of June, with 1,140 MW added since July last year, according to the latest rooftop solar map released by consultant Bridge To India.

Of the cumulative total, commercial and industrial (C&I) arrays contributed 4,373 MW, residential 804 MW and public sector installs 776 MW with the capital expenditure (capex) payment upfront model amounting to 69% (4,102 MW) of purchases. The balance of purchases were by organizations who own and install arrays on rented, third-party rooftops in return for electricity receipts, under the operating expenditure (opex) approach. In the year to July, capex purchases made up 61% of the 1,140 MW figure.

Leading states

Maharashtra is India’s rooftop solar capital, with 851 MW of generation capacity made up of 784 MW of C&I systems, and 67 MW of public sector arrays. Rajasthan, with 526 MW of rooftop capacity, ranks next, followed by Tamil Nadu, with 481 MW. Commercial and industrial arrays supplied 92% of the rooftop market across those three states.

Himachal Pradesh, with just 15 MW of rooftop capacity, and Bihar (27 MW) brought up the rear in the state figures.

Capex

In installer terms, Hyderabad-based Fourth Partner Energy claimed 7.5% of the market to the end of June, marginally ahead of Mumbai’s Tata Power (7%), with Ahmedabad company Prozeal Infra taking 3.7% of the trade and Mumbai’s Mahindra Susten 3.6%.

Singapore-based Cleantech Solar continued to dominate the third-party rooftop segment, accounting for a 15.3% share of a 443 MW market from July to June. It was followed by Gurgaon’s Amplus Solar (13.6%) and Fourth Partner (13.4%).

Chinese manufacturers continued to dominate the inverter market over the latest full-year, with Growatt supplying around 23.3% of the year’s 1,140 MW market, followed by Sungrow (22.9%) and Solis (13.9%). Goodwe (12.2%) and Huawei (6.8%) were the other two Chinese manufacturers which ranked among the top six suppliers. Taiwanese company Delta rounded out the top six, with an 8.6% slice of the market.

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