From pv magazine India
India added 1.3 GW of rooftop solar capacity in the nine months to the end of September, a record volume for a nine-month window and a 202% rise on the same period of last year, according to Mercom India Research’s latest report on that segment of the market.
The July-to-September quarter, however, saw a 14% fall in new rooftop arrays, to 448 MW, compared with the preceding quarter's 521 MW.
Household
Residential rooftop systems dominated last quarter, as they had done in the April-to-June window, with commercial and industrial arrays contributing 44% of the Q3 numbers and government systems 2%.
“The rooftop market is showing signs of recovery … back to pre-Covid levels,” said Raj Prabhu, CEO of Texan analyst Mercom Capital Group. “However, the rise in component costs and availability of materials is weighing heavily on the market, throttling growth. States have continued to put up restrictions on rooftop solar, making new development challenging.”
The Mercom report found India reached a cumulative 6.7 GW of rooftop solar capacity by the end of September. The state of Gujarat accounts for 26% share of that figure, followed by Maharashtra (with 14%) and Rajasthan (10%).
It was Uttarakhand, though, which registered the highest compounded quarterly installation growth, according to the Mercom report, with a rate of 35%, followed by Maharashtra (31%) and Haryana (29%).
With solar equipment costs having been rising steadily since the second wave of Covid-19 broke in India, the report noted prices had risen 3.8% in the first three months of the year, 3% in April-to-June, and 2.3% in the last three-month period. Rooftop system costs have risen 9% in the last 12 months.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.