Solar Power Companies in India Growing by the Day but a Long Way to Go

Solar Power in India is the Biggest Opportunity of the 21st Century

Solar Power in India is growing at a rapid clip with the strong government support through the ambitious Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM).Rapidly Falling Costs,Massive Power Deficits,Huge Growing Energy Demand and Peak Oil all make Solar Energy in India  one of the biggest energy opportunities in the 21st Century.People are slowly recognizing this large Green Money Making Opportunity with companies like Suntech,Siemens and Trina Solar entering into partnership with local players.Suntech has tied up with independent power producer IPP while Siemens has tied up for solar thermal energy with the Adani Conglomerate.This is just the initial trickle with large foreign companies waiting to flood the Indian market.There have been some initial hiccups in Debt Financing of  Solar Energy in India but I expect the long term secular growth story to be unaffected. Solar Power Companies in India can be divided into various categories based on solar equipment manufacturing,independent power producer,renewable arms of large power companies etc.I have already covered the Top Solar Module Production Companies in my Solar Panels in India article.Here is the list once again.

Top 10  List of Major Solar Panel Domestic Companies

1) Tata BP Solar

2) Moser Baer

3) Solar Semiconductor

4) IndoSolar

5) Topsun Solar

6) Titan Energy

7) PLG Power

8 ) Maharishi Solar

9) Kotak Urja

10)Photon Energy Systems

Note there are some other solar module producers as well.Note most of these companies import solar cells which are the main technology differentiators as there is very little addition in solar module production part of the supply chain.

Major State Run Companies  entering Solar Energy Production

Besides Private Companies,Indian State Owned Companies known as Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) are also planning huge investments into the Solar Sector both as a social sector obligation and as a future investment.NTPC and BHEL are leading the charge with NTPC’s trading arm playing a crucial role in providing subsidies under JNNSM.

1) NTPC

2) BPCL

3) HPCL

4) IOC

5) ONGC

6) BHEL

7) BEL

8) Webel Solar

Note BHEL,BEL and Webel are planning/manufacturing solar equipment such as polysilicon,cells,modules while the other companies are planning to set up large scale solar plants in different states of India.

List of Major Solar Energy Supporting Indian States

Some Indian States have been heavily supportive of Solar Energy on their own.Rajasthan and Gujarat the 2 western most states of India with huge amounts of solar radiation have implemented solar subsides at the state level attracting massive investor interest .Other states like Punjab and Haryana are also trying to get their act together.Andhra Pradesh,Tamil Nadu,Maharashtra and West Bengal are the other major states to watch out for.Here is the list of states in the order of priority .

1) Gujarat

2) Rajasthan

3) Andhra Pradesh

4) Punjab

5) Tamil Nadu

6) Maharashtra

7)  West Bengal

8) Haryana

Summary

The Indian Solar Energy Market is attracting huge investor interest due to the massive potential.However none of the Indian solar manufacturing companies comes anywhere near world class in scale,technology or manufacturing prowess currently.That is not to say that solar companies in India can’t become  world beaters especially taking advantage of the huge domestic market that is going to develop soon.Note Indian Wind Energy Companies are also too small to be counted on the world stage except for Suzlon which seems to be hemorrhaging.There are numerous small and big private companies that are taking interest in setting up solar plants.However these companies are too small and numerous to be listed here..Solar Power Companies in India will continue to grow as their exists a lot of space for a number of players.However becoming big players on the world solar stage will take a long time for these companies.