India installed 3.2 GW of solar power projects during the calendar year (CY) 2020. Large-scale solar, with 2.5 GW capacity addition, accounted for 78% of the total annual installations, according to India Solar Market Leaderboard 2021 report by consulting firm Mercom Capital Group.
The Mercom report stated the nation had a robust pipeline of 47.5 GW of utility-scale projects under development at the end of 2020, with another 24.5 GW of tenders pending auction.
The report covers market share and shipment rankings across the Indian solar supply chain for 2020. It shows a shuffle in leadership positions in seven categories during the year characterized by Covid-induced disruption.
Leading developers and EPC partners
The top ten large-scale project developers, led by Adani, accounted for 69% of the projects installed in 2020.
Engineering, procurement, construction (EPC) service providers saw many projects pushed into 2021 due to delays caused by the Covid-induced disruption and issues in land acquisition, evacuation, etc.
Sterling & Wilson was the preferred EPC partner, followed by Tata Power Solar.
Rooftop installations totaled 719 MW in 2020, a 35% drop year-over-year. The top ten players installed 66% of the rooftop solar addition. Tata Power Solar led the installations, followed by Fourth Partner.
Open-access installations grew 56% increase year-on-year due to the increasing interest from corporates. Rays Power Experts, Amplus Solar and CleanMax led open-access project development.
Suppliers
The increase in customs duty on solar inverters didn’t dent market shares of foreign suppliers as many of them already have manufacturing units in India. China’s Sungrow supplied the biggest chunk of central inverters. Rival Huawei led in string inverter supplies, followed by Growatt, GoodWe, and Solis.
The top ten module suppliers, including several Indian manufacturers, accounted for over 68% of the market in 2020. China’s Trina Solar led in terms of cumulative shipments.
Solar mounting structures saw many new players make their place among the top ten suppliers. Domestic manufacturer SNS Corporation supplied most solar mounting structures in 2020, followed by rivals Purshotam Profiles, Strolar and Ganges Internationale Solar. China’s Arctech Solar and USA’s NEXTracker dominated the solar tracker market.
Domestic player Solabot Technologies took the biggest share of solar panel-cleaning robot sales.
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An impressive portfolio of 253 solar power projects with an aggregate capacity of 10.8 GWp across geographies has positioned Sterling and Wilson Solar Limited as the leading solar EPC solutions provider in the world.