India’s solar PV additions hit record 10 GW in Q1 - Mercom

India commissioned more than 10 GW of new solar parks in the first quarter of 2024 in what was its strongest trimester in terms of solar deployment to date, according to data by Mercom India Research.

The fresh solar capacity was responsible for 66% of the country’s new power capacity additions in January-March, representing a surge of 400% in annual terms and 414% sequentially. The bulk of the newly-commissioned plants, or 9.7 GW, were large-scale installations.

The uptick in deployments came as some delayed projects entered operations. At the same time, developers were able to import lower-priced photovoltaic (PV) modules as compared to the previous quarters and commissioned some projects earlier than planned to take advantage of the decreased equipment prices, Mercom India’s managing director Priya Sanjay explained.

By state, Rajasthan and Gujarat were the leaders in terms of large-scale quarterly PV additions, accounting for 38% and 35% of the deployments, respectively.

At the end of March, India’s cumulative installed PV capacity stood at 82 GW. The country’s large-scale solar projects in the pipeline amounted to 143 GW.

“There is a substantial pipeline of large-scale projects scheduled for 2024, positioning India for a record-breaking year by a significant margin,” said Mercom Capital Group’s CEO Raj Prabhu.

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