India saw an increase of 7.3 GW of capacity in its solar energy generation in 2019. The new solar projects form a part of a larger transition to renewable energy to meet the country¡¯s energy demands, as a total of 23.7 GW of solar energy projects are still under construction.
The trend is highlighted in a recent report by Mercom Communications India, a subsidiary of global clean energy consulting firm Mercom Capital Group. The report is titled 'India Solar Market Leaderboard 2020' and has been revealed on Wednesday.
The report provides insights into the market share as well as the shipment rankings of the Indian solar supply chain in 2019. A total of 7.3 GW of solar power was installed across the country, as per the report.
This consolidates India¡¯s position as the world¡¯s third largest market for solar energy. In addition to the increase in energy generation capacity in 2019, India also has 23.7 GW of solar energy projects currently under work as well as 31.5 GW of tenders pending auction.
Within the market, the top ten large-scale project developers accounted for 68 percent of the market share in 2019. Among these, ReNew Power was the top utility-scale developer in 2019. Meanwhile, Azure Power owns the largest project pipeline as per the report.
Then there were the engineering, procurement, construction (EPC) service providers like Mahindra Susten and L&T, which held the top two positions respectively. However, most of their projects were moved to 2020 due to various reasons.
To put things into perspective, know that solar energy accounted for 41 percent of new power capacity additions in India in 2019. In comparison, coal power generation additions accounted for 44 percent.
A similar push for clean energy is being observed across the world since the past couple of years. In 2018, the world added a total of 171 GW of power capacity through renewable sources, close to half of India¡¯s total (renewable + non renewable) production of 350.16 GW in the same year.
A similar increase in the use of renewable sources for energy generation can power a country like India with the world¡¯s third largest energy requirement for an entire year. Large-scale solar installations will help with this.
In 2019, the new large scale solar installations accounted for 85 percent i.e. 6.2 GW of the total 7.3 GW. With a lot of such projects still under development, it is only a matter of time when the use of renewable energy surpasses the use of fossil fuels for majority of the country.