Largest Solar Companies Making a Mark in Indian Solar market in 2017

At the end of 2017, India’s total solar installed capacity stood at 19,500 MW which included rooftop solar installation of 2100 MW. The year itself saw a humongous 9,200 MW solar capacity addition, increasing by 94% from that in 2016.

Let’s have a look at the major suppliers who made these numbers possible.

Canadian Solar, First Solar, and JA Solar were the largest module suppliers in India in Q4 2017, capturing a whopping 50% share of the total Indian market. First Solar moved one step up from being the third largest module supplier in 2016. Trina Solar was replaced by JA Solar that ranked fifth in 2016.

On the domestic front, Mundra Solar and Vikram Solar were the largest manufacturers by production during the quarter. Adani Solar is also expanding aggressively in the Indian module market ramping up huge production capacities.

Replacing ABB as the largest inverter supplier in India was Sungrow, accounting for 27% market share in India during the fourth quarter. Other large inverter suppliers were TMEIC (20% market share) and Huawei (16%). The top three inverter suppliers in India were ABB (35% Market share), TMEIC (17%) and Hitachi (16%). It is to be noted how prominent names like ABB and SMA Solar are losing leading market share positions in India. Sungrow is a large Chinese inverter company which also ranked amongst the ten largest solar inverter companies in the world in 2017. Sungrow has become very prominent in the Asia- Pacific market lately. Huawei, the Chinese telecom giant, has also made a commendable progress in the global inverter market.

India has a huge demand for central inverters because of a large number of utility-scale projects. Though central inverters are preferred for their low upfront and maintenance cost, India is also witnessing a surging demand for string inverters rising from just 1% in 2016 to ~9% in 2017. Both Sungrow and Huawei are the biggest supporters of string inverters for the utility-scale segment.

Problems related to land acquisition and transmission have remained a big headache in India. The module prices also increased by ~6% in the last quarter of 2017.

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