In the first quarter of 2024, India’s rooftop solars had a decline of 26% year over year. This has just reached 367 MW this year, compared to last year it was 485 MW in the first quarter. Installations of solar fell 10% and then year after year it declined by 24% from 2023. India’s increasing solar capacity was 10.8 GW as of March 2024.
There were some significant reasons for which a decline in installations was faced. Firstly, the reduction in installations was the result of oversubscription faced by customers under the PM Surya – Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana. Secondly, the costs of modules were rising because of domestic content requirements, which impacted the Surya Gujarat program and resulted in a reduced capacity.
The industrial sector capacity comprises about 57 percent of installations. Other sectors like Commercial, residential, and government had a capacity of 28 percent, 14 percent, and 1.1 percent respectively.
States like Gujarat, Maharashtra, Haryana, Kerala, and Karnataka had a boom in the installation of rooftop solar panels. These 5 states had installations of about 67 percent in the first quarter of 2024.
These delays could extend more because the supply of inverters and some of the components had shortages. There was a lack of skilled workers for the installations. The government and the companies are worried about the demand for installing solar panels.
Our Perspective
As demand is rising, the government should hire workers for the installation process as soon as possible. The programmes and policies which the government is initiating should have particular limits so that there would be no such problems like oversubscription.
