With 8.8 gigawatt (GW) of capacity addition projected for the year ahead, India is set to become the third biggest solar market globally in 2017, overtaking Japan, according to the India Solar Handbook 2017 released by Bridge to India (BTI).
As per Livemint, the report by BTI, a consulting firm in India’s clean technology market, said solar capacity in the country is expected to touch 18.7GW by the end of 2017, which is about 5 per cent of global solar capacity.
As of March 2017, India had installed 12.2GW of utility scale solar. In June 2015, the government had revised India’s solar power target to 100GW from 20GW, by 2022.
The report said the “total new solar capacity addition in the next five years is expected at 56GW”. This, however, implies that India would fall short of its 100GW target.
According to the BTI report, about 79GW of solar capacity is expected to be added globally in 2017, with Asian countries continuing to dominate the industry while Europe continues to fall in rankings.
In India, the states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have emerged as the fastest growing in terms of solar power capacity addition. In 2017 nearly 60 per cent of total new capacity addition is expected to come from the southern states, the report added.
