“Solar accounted for over 50 per cent of new power capacity; rooftop solar grew by 66 per cent”

The domestic solar market saw an addition of 8,263 MW during 2018 — down 15.5 per cent compared to 9,782 MW in 2017.

This was mainly due to safeguard duty, GST issues, and land and transmission issues which took a toll on large-scale installations, according to Mercom India Research’s Q4 and Annual 2018 India Solar Market Update.

Total power capacity additions were 16.3 GW in 2018 across all generation sources. Of this, renewable energy accounted for nearly 70 per cent, with solar representing 50.7 per cent of new capacity and wind 14 per cent. Coal accounted for 27.5 per cent of new capacity added. “For the first time, solar made up over 50 per cent of new power capacity in 2018.