Pump Up The Tempo

The thrust for solar will continue in 2017 and will in fact mark India’s entry to the list of largest markets in the world. With large scale capacity allocations, increasing investment, falling module prices and declining tariffs, the sector is expected to grow 80 per cent more than 2016.

- Rahul Kamat

Year 2016 was a watershed year for solar sector in India, with more than 10.5 GW of solar projects awarded by various agencies. Tariff’s nosedived and more than 20 GW tendered during the year means a lot in terms of the government’s commitment towards the 100 GW mission. Also, enthusiastic participation from all major independent power producers (IPP’s) showed their commitment towards green and clean energy mission. Overall, the year was a mixed bag of low tariff’s making it difficult for developers to think of higher internal rate of return (IRR) but falling module prices allowed them to be positive and bullish.

In terms of project development pipeline, ReNew Power is on top with a robust pipeline accounting for nearly 10 per cent of the market share. Adani is in a close second place with 9 per cent, while Greenko comes next with 8 per cent. Adani is poised to become the largest Indian solar developer - both in terms of operational and under development projects in the near future. Apart from these, about 110 project developers have pipelines of 5 MW or more planned or under way.

So far, India’s solar story suggests that the mission envisaged by the current government is on track. According to reports, India’s solar market is set to grow at rate of 90 per cent in 2017, and to reach about 18 GW in total capacity. Which means, the country will add a total of 9 GW of solar capacity in 2017, including about 1.1 GW of rooflop solar installations. A total of about 14 GW of solar projects are currently under development and tenders for about 6 GW are still to be auctioned.