According to the "India 2023 and fourth quarter Rooftop PV Market Report" released by Mercom India Research, India installed 1.7GW of rooftop PV systems in 2023, which is the second highest annual installed capacity of rooftop PV in the country on record.

However, with many commercial and industrial (C&I) consumers delaying the installation of PV systems while waiting for the price of PV modules to stabilize, India's installed PV system capacity growth rate in 2023 is only 3.7%. Mercom India Research expects that lower prices of PV modules in early 2024 will help reduce the installation cost of PV systems.

Priya Sanjay, Managing Director, Mercom India Research, explaining why commercial and industrial (C&I) consumers are delaying the installation of PV systems in 2023, said: "Prices for PV modules in the first half of 2023 remain high, while there is a lot of confusion among some consumers about the suitability of ALMM(approved models and manufacturer list) for rooftop PV projects."

Earlier this month, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy suspended the order to reapply the ALMM regulations from April 1, 2024. The department had earlier confirmed the re-implementation of the ALMM regulations, but granted exemptions for open PV projects and PV projects in the late stages of construction, as well as rooftop PV projects without subsidies.

By the end of December 2023, the cumulative installed capacity of rooftop PV systems in India will reach 10.5GW. The installed capacity of residential rooftop PV systems accounts for more than half of the new rooftop PV systems added in India in 2023. The report also found that thanks to the decline in the price of photovoltaic modules, the installation cost of rooftop photovoltaic systems fell by 10% quarter-on-quarter and 21.6% year-on-year.

The installed capacity of rooftop PV systems in India in Q4 2023 was 406MW, down 5.8% compared to the previous quarter and down 15.9% compared to the 483MW installed in Q4 2022.

"This is due to the fact that the price of PV modules started to fall in the second half of 2023, and installers are delaying the installation of rooftop PV systems while waiting for the cost to stabilize," said Priya Sanjay. Editor/Xu Shengpeng