India added 1.3 GW of rooftop solar in first nine months of 2021

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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.

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