India's solar installations soared 123% to 9.6GW

About 90% of the solar projects were large-scale.

The solar installation total was 123% higher than the 4,313 MW added in 2016 and boosted the country’s cumulative solar capacity to 19.6 GW as of December 31, 2017, according to Mercom Communications India.

Large-scale solar projects accounted for the bulk of installations in 2017, nabbing about 90 percent (8,634 MW) of the total, with the remaining 10 percent (995 MW) coming from rooftop solar installations, Mercom found.

Approximately 10.6 GW of large-scale solar projects were under construction, with another 4.3 GW of tenders pending auction as of December 31, 2017.

In 2017, the states of Karnataka and Telangana installed the highest amounts of utility-scale solar capacity, adding roughly 2.1 GW each. Together, they accounted for approximately 50 percent of the total capacity added in India in 2017, Mercom researchers found. Andhra Pradesh was ranked third with 1,225 MW of solar installed. During Q4 2017, Karnataka led the pack in terms of new solar installations with 948 MW of additions, followed by Telangana, which installed 695 MW. Most other states recorded less than 200 MW of installations during the period.

The report found that, in terms of cumulative installations, Telangana became the first Indian state to surpass the 3 GW mark in 2017. Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu had the largest project pipeline with over 2 GW.