The economic slowdown in India and the subsequent lack of investments are affecting the renewable energy sector, including the solar power segment, says leading data and analytics company GlobalData on Tuesday.
The Ministry of New & Renewable Energy (MNRE) in India set a target of 8.5 gigawatts (GW) of solar installations for the financial year (FY) 2019-2020 from which the sector installed around 3.5 GW up to October 2019, representing 41% of the target installation for the year.
'The annual target for FY 2018-2019 was 11 GW, out of which the sector installed around 6.5 GW, contributing around 59% of the targeted installations,' GlobalData said.
One of the primary reasons for the drop in installations was due to the lack of investment in the sector because of the economic slowdown.
Commenting on the latest GlobalData's report, Mohit Prasad, project manager at GlobalData, said the economic slowdown is impacting the rooftop solar PV sector, which was the leading sector during the previous year.
'The sector has been hit by the slowdown, with installations dropping by 43.6% in the quarter ended September 2019, on a year-on-year basis. The sector has achieved installations worth 482.45 megawatts (MW) up to the end of October against the financial year target of 1,000 MW,' Prasad explained.
'The corporate and commercial customers, who are the key players in the solar rooftop space, are witnessing drop in their sales, and subsequently in their investments and new rooftop solar installations,' he added.
By Gulsen Cagatay
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr