ReNew Power, NLC India, and Azure Power emerged as the top utility-scale solar project developers in India in terms of installed capacity in the calendar year (CY) 2019, according to Mercom’s recently released report: India Solar Market Leaderboard 2020. Together, these three developers accounted for nearly 35% of total large-scale installations in 2019.

The top ten utility-scale project developers in 2019 accounted for approximately 70% of installed capacity. Total large-scale capacity additions amounted to 6.2 GW, of which the top ten developers contributed about 4.3 GW. Large-scale solar installations represented 85% of total installations, and rooftop solar made up the remaining 15%.

While three companies installed more than 500 MW, none of the developers installed more than a GW in a year when utility-scale solar installations declined year-over-year (YoY) by 7%.

India’s solar installations, including both rooftop and large-scale recorded in the calendar year 2019, stood at around 7.3 GW, a 12% decline YoY, and the country’s cumulative installed solar capacity rose to 35.7 GW.

According to the report, Adani, ACME Solar, and ReNew Power were the top three utility-scale solar project developers in terms of overall cumulative installed capacity as of December 2019. Three developers in India have installed more than 2 GW each, and another five developers have installed more than 1 GW of large-scale projects each.

In terms of the utility-scale project pipeline, Azure Power had the largest development pipeline followed by SB Energy, NTPC, ACME Solar, and ReNew Power. Three developers have a project pipeline of more than 2 GW, and four developers have a pipeline of over 1 GW each.

In the first half of 2019 (1H 2019), Azure Power was the top project developer, according to Mercom’s India Market Leaderboard 1H 2019.

India’s cumulative large-scale installation capacity reached approximately 31.3 GW by the end of 2019. Land acquisition, transmission, and successfully acquiring approvals remain a challenge to commission large-scale projects on time.

In 2019, Karnataka was the top state for solar installations, followed by Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu. Karnataka accounted for 29% of the total installed solar capacity in 2019.

Mercom’s India Solar Market Leaderboard 2020 report goes into a detailed breakdown of top developers, capacity additions, and their growth profile.

A complete list of developers and their portfolio is available through Mercom’s India Solar Market Share Tracker.