Utility-scale solar power in India

1. Capacity installed.

A. 10 year trend in solar

installed capacity
  capacity(MW) added(MW)
2010 161  
2011 461 300
2012 1205 744
2013 2319 1114
2014 2632 313
2015 3744 1112
2016 6763 3019
2017 12289 5526
2018 21651 9362
2019 28181 6530
2020 34627 6446

10 YEAR TREND IN SOLAR

40000 10000

35000 9000
8000
30000
7000
25000 6000
20000 5000

15000 4000
3000
10000
2000
5000 1000
0 0
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020

installed capacity(MW) capacity added(MW)

 B. key drivers in capacity addition
 Government pushing solar adoption to reach its goal of 175GW renewable energy by
Dec 2022.
 Reducing cost of solar PPA’s (purchasing power agreements)
 Tax incentives by government

C. challenges in recent years

 25% safeguard duty imposed on PV cells from china and Malaysia, to protect Indian
market, but this is prohibitively expensive for Indian buyers
 5% GST has been imposed on PV cells. This is incongruent with the government position
regarding solar.
 10% depreciation of the rupee against the dollar has also resulted in lower purchasing
capacity of Indian buyers
 Covid has disrupted execution of under-construction solar capacity.

2. Market opportunity

A. Upcoming auctions:

 Upcoming auctions from government directly can be checked from SECI website. The
information is posted 2-4 months in advance.
 Upcoming auctions throughout India are covered by MERCOM India website. Auctions like
those by public PSU’s, by private players, etc. It is a reliable website.

B. Industrial demand (captive power)

 India’s power consumption is increasing year on year, indicating improvement in economic

activity.
 Usage is typically around 100 BU (Billion Units) and peak power demand is around 150GW.
 Exact month wise figures can be taken from IBEF website.

C. Equipment manufacturing opportunity

Government is pushing Indian manufacturers to overhaul their supply chains and reduce
dependency on solar module imports.

India’s manufacturing capacity at present:

 solar cells stands at 3 GW(approximately) (~18 companies) and

 modules at ~10 GW (175+ companies)

Global supply is 20% cheaper, Indian supply chain must catch up.
Part 3 not done.

[3.Policy and regulatory outlook

a. Price discovery process adopted by regulatory authorities
i. The auction process adopted by regulators
ii. Recent price discovery trends and challenges
iii. Tariff support by regulatory authorities
b. Transmission infrastructure availability
c. Solar parks]

Souces:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_in_India
2. IBEF
3. SECI
4. Mercomindia website
5. Bridge to india website
6. mnre.gov.in
7. cea.nic.in