India’s solar market witnessed the emergence of new leaders in the calendar year 2023, according to Mercom’s recently released India Solar Market Leaderboard 2024, showcasing intense competition for market dominance.

The report provides insight into notable shifts in market share across ten categories over the past calendar year, highlighting which companies are gaining traction and which ones fell behind.

India added around 7.5 GW of solar capacity in 2023, significantly lower than the 13.4 GW installed in 2022, as deadline extensions and policy uncertainty pushed companies to delay projects. Delayed transmission construction timelines and grid connectivity issues in states like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Gujarat also contributed to the decline, according to Mercom India Research.

“The market is widening right now. If you are looking at the rooftop or open access projects, the market has been expanding, providing opportunities to new players,” said Priya Sanjay, Managing Director at Mercom India.

Large-scale solar projects accounted for the lion’s share at 77.2% of total installations. Meanwhile, the country’s cumulative installed solar capacity reached approximately 72 GW by the end of 2023.

Adani Green Energy remained the top developer for large solar projects in 2023, with the most installed capacity. NTPC Renewable Energy and ReNew followed closely. NTPC Renewable Energy had the most under-development capacity at the end of 2023.

Together, the top ten developers contributed 88.2% of the new large-scale solar capacity.

Adani Green Energy also emerged as one of the leading global large-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) project developers during the July 2022 to June 2023 period in Mercom Capital Group’s Leading Global Large-Scale Solar PV Developers report.

Oriano led among EPC service providers, followed by Waaree Renewable Technologies and Prozeal Green Energy.

Developers imported more modules towards the end of 2023, anticipating the reimposition of the Approved List of Models and Manufacturers (ALMM) regulation and taking advantage of the lower module prices during that period, according to Mercom Research.

The high shipments of modules and other components were also due to the strong solar project pipeline, as India anticipates its best year for solar in 2024.

Jinko Solar led the module supply category, with LONGi Green Energy Technology and JA Solar following suit. Waaree Energies was the only domestic manufacturer among the top five suppliers. The top ten module suppliers collectively controlled 73% of the market.

Other domestic manufacturers like Vikram Solar and ReNew are also expected to expand their manufacturing capacities to meet the rising demand for domestically produced modules under the Domestic Content Requirement (DCR) policy.

Arctech was the top supplier of solar trackers in 2023.

Goodluck India led the solar module mounting structure supply category, followed by Arctech and GameChange Solar. The top ten suppliers covered 95.3% of the shipments.

Solar open access capacity grew significantly in 2023, with O2 Power leading as the top developer. Continuum Green Energy and CleanMax Enviro Energy ranked second and third, respectively. The top ten developers held around 56.7% of the market share.

“Under the open access segment, projects, there’s a growing demand for larger projects, as corporates try to meet their net-zero targets. New EPC companies specializing in these projects are emerging to meet the increasing demand,” said Sanjay.

Aegeus Technologies dominated the market for robotic module cleaning equipment in India in 2023.

Higher Saturation in the Rooftop Solar Market

On the rooftop solar front, over 1.7 GW of capacity was added in 2023. Tata Power Solar continued to lead in rooftop solar development, with Amplus Solar and Roofsol Energy coming in second and third.

The top ten developers in this sector accounted for 55.7% of the market. When compared with large-scale solar developers, where the top ten make up 88.2% of the market share, the rooftop solar market remained saturated with higher competition.

Central Inverters Regain Market Share

The report also showed a reversal in market preference for inverters. For the first time in over two years, central inverters made up 55.2% of total shipments, while string inverters accounted for 44.8%.

Sungrow Power Supply maintained its position as the leading supplier of solar inverters, with TBEA Energy India leading in string inverter shipments. Sungrow led the central inverter supply, followed by FIMER India and Sineng Electric.

With India targeting 280 GW of solar installations by 2030 and the government’s strong policy support through production-linked incentive schemes, the solar market is expected to remain dynamic, with further new leaders emerging in the coming years.

Mercom’s Market Leaderboard report, published twice a year, covers the market landscape across the entire supply chain. For the detailed and comprehensive report, click here.

Mercom’s Market Share Tracker also gives quarterly data insights into the solar market landscape and the top players.