As India adds over 1 GW of solar in the last year, Rajasthan emerges as the leading investment choice

The past financial year has seen a marked uptake in solar activities in India with new capacity installations and many new allocations and policy announcements. Rajasthan has emerged as a preferred investment choice and will likely remain so in the coming years. Please download our free India Solar Handbook 2015 for more information (LINK).

From Jan 2015 till date, nearly 1.1 GW of utility scale solar capacity has been added in India and another 75 MW capacity was added through rooftop installations
Out of this 1.1 GW, 555 MW was added under NSM Phase II Batch I; the remaining under different state policies
The top three states in terms of capacity addition in the last year were Rajasthan (295 MW), Madhya Pradesh (220 MW) and Punjab (167 MW)

The cumulative solar capacity in India as of May 31, 2015 stood at 4.4 GW (including 350 MW of rooftop solar). While in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh maximum capacity was added under NSM projects, in Punjab the state solar policy was the key driver. New allocations which will start converting in the next 1-2 years include Punjab phase II (250 MW allocations), Karnataka Phase II (500 MW allocations), Andhra Pradesh (500 MW allocations), Telangana (500 MW allocations), Uttar Pradesh (115 MW), and Bihar (130 MW). Hence, in total about 2 GW of new capacity from state allocations is expected in the next 1-2 years.

In the rooftop segment, as of May 31, 2015 only 350 MW was installed. Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu are the leading states. Maharashtra has India’s highest industrial and commercial tariffs. Tamil Nadu has been facing power supply shortages and has a high consumer awareness with respect to renewables and private power purchase agreements.