Mercom India Research has released its latest India Solar Market Leaderboard 1H 2021. The report reveals the Indian solar industry’s market leaders from the first half (1H) of the calendar year (CY) 2021.

The report includes major players’ market shares and shipment rankings across the Indian solar supply chain in 1H 2021.

India installed around 4.6 GW of solar capacity in 1H 2021, a 251% growth compared to 1.2 GW added in the same period last year. The country has a robust pipeline of utility-scale solar projects with 52.8 GW capacity at the end of 1H 2021, with auctions pending for another 27.8 GW of capacity.

Large-scale Solar

In 1H 2021, large-scale solar, with 3.7 GW capacity, represented 81% of overall solar installations. Solar accounted for 53% of new power capacity additions in 1H 2021, the highest ever for any year.

According to the report, the top ten large-scale solar developers garnered 67% of the overall market share in 1H 2021. The Adani Group led utility-scale project installations, with its portfolio doubling after acquiring four operational and under-development assets.

EPC

Among utility-scale solar Engineering, Procurement, Construction (EPC) service providers, Mahindra Susten topped the chart in 1H 2021. Vikram Solar and Belectric were next.

Rooftop Solar

According to Mercom, India installed 862 MW of rooftop solar capacity in 1H 2021. Installations in 1H had already surpassed the total rooftop solar capacity of 719 MW installed in all of 2020 when the Covid-19 lockdown took its toll.

The top ten rooftop solar installers accounted for 34% of the overall rooftop solar market share. Tata Power Solar topped the list in 1H 2021, followed by Fourth Partner Energy.

Solar Inverter Suppliers

Sungrow was the top solar inverter supplier in 1H 2021, closely followed by Sineng Electric and TBEA Energy. Five inverter suppliers shipped over 1 GW capacity to India during the period.

Inverter suppliers have time until December 31, 2021, to secure the self-certification of solar photovoltaic inverters. Last year, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy also issued draft guidelines for streamlining the technical specifications for solar grid-tied inverters.

Module Suppliers

The top ten solar module suppliers represented 77% of the overall market share in 1H 2021. LONGi was the leading module supplier.

The report reveals that the market is gradually shifting towards mono technology. However, polycrystalline solar modules still hold a majority share of the installations.

Mounting Structures

In 1H 2021and cumulatively, Purshotam Profiles was the top supplier of solar mounting structures. Other leading suppliers of mounting structures included SNS Corporation, ISHKON Industries, Strolar, and Ganges Internationale.

Mounting structures’ manufacturers for solar modules faced a severe shortage in a critical raw material – steel. The price volatility of this essential metal and the disruption in supply also created a challenge for manufacturers to supply the mounting structures to solar projects within the scheduled timeline.

Open Access Solar

The top five open access solar developers accounted for 66% of the total market share. CleanMax Solar led in terms of installations.

In 1H 2021, the solar open access market installations reached 628 MW, a 12-fold growth compared to 47 MW installed in the same period last year. However, open access developers believe implementing a multi-year tariff across states would provide certainty on the policy front to help the Indian market grow.

Solar Robotic Cleaning

Sol-Bright was the top supplier of solar robotic cleaning systems in 1H 2021.

Get the complete list of market leaders with installation and supply data in the full report here.