India installed 3GW of solar capacity in the first quarter of the year, a 50% increase from Q1 2021, according to a new report from research firm Mercom India Research.
During Q1 2022 large-scale solar added 2.7GW, a 53% year-over-year increase and accounted for 85% of total installations, with the remaining 15% from rooftop solar.
With the basic customs duty (BCD) taking effect in 1 April 2022, solar modules imports significantly increased with developers stockpiling them ahead of BCD and procured more than 10GW of modules during Q1 2022.
Renewables accounted for nearly 81% of new power capacity added during the first quarter of the year, 68% coming from solar PV.
Rajasthan led solar installations during Q1 2022 and became the first state to pass 10GW of cumulative large-scale solar PV as of March 2022 and accounts for almost a quarter of total installations in India.
Total installed solar capacity in India sits at 52GW, of which around 45GW is from large-scale solar, and according to Mercom’s report total installations for the year will not reach 80GW and miss its 100GW target for this year.
Tenders were halved during Q1 2022 to 5GW compared to last year’s Q1, and is also down 18% from Q4 2021 which sat at 6GW.