As of December 2023, the cumulative installed solar capacity stood at 72 GW. Of which, utility-scale projects accounted for 85.4 percent and rooftop solar accounted for 14.6 percent, the report said
India has reported a 44 percent fall in solar installations at 7.5 gigawatts in 2023 due to land acquisition-related issues, research firm Mercom Capital said.
According to the US-based research firm's latest report, a total of 13.4 GW of solar capacity was installed in the country in 2022.
As of December 2023, the cumulative installed solar capacity stood at 72 GW. Of which, utility-scale projects accounted for 85.4 percent and rooftop solar accounted for 14.6 percent, the report said.
"In 2023, large-scale solar installations fell 51 percent to 5.8 GW from 11.7 GW in 2022. Extensions granted to several large-scale projects and delays primarily due to land (acquisition) and transmission (connectivity) issues impacted capacity additions during the year. Large-scale solar accounted for 77.2 percent of annual solar capacity additions, and rooftop solar contributed 22.8 percent," it said.
Rajasthan, followed by Karnataka, and Gujarat were the top three states for cumulative large-scale solar capacity, accounting for 54.8 percent of installations in the country as of December 2023.
India's large-scale solar project pipeline stood at 105.3 GW, with another 70.6 GW of projects tendered and pending auction, the report said.
The country's installed renewable energy capacity, including large hydropower projects, stood at 179.5 GW, accounting for 42 percent of the overall power mix at the end of December 2023.
Solar energy projects accounted for 48.5 percent of all new power capacity installed last year.
As of December 2023, solar energy accounted for 16.9 percent of India's total installed power capacity and almost 40.1 percent of the total installed renewable energy capacity.