Indian solar market witness healthy competition in H1 of 2018

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Indian solar market witness healthy competition in H1 of 2018

Indian solar market witness healthy competition in H1 of 2018

Industry News
Nov 01,18

New leaders are emerging in the highly competitive Indian solar market, while some of the more established companies maintained their leadership position in the first half of 2018, says Mercom report.

Indian solar market witness healthy competition in H1 of 2018

India’s solar market leaders see healthy competition during first half of 2018, according to a report “India Solar Market Leaderboard 1H 2018” released by Mercom Communications India, a subsidiary of global clean energy communications and consulting firm Mercom Capital Group. The report covers market shares and shipment rankings across the Indian solar supply chain in the first half of 2018.

During the first half (1H) of calendar year (CY) 2018, India installed 4.9 GW of solar power across the country, consolidating its position as the second largest solar market in the world behind China during 1H 2018, and the fifth largest solar market in the world for total cumulative installations. The Indian solar market continues to be one of the most important in the world.

The newly released India Solar Market Leaderboard 1H 2018 reveals the market leaders. The report covers market share and shipment rankings across the Indian solar supply chain in 1H 2018. “New leaders are emerging in the highly competitive Indian solar market, while some of the more established companies maintained their leadership position in the first half of 2018,” said Raj Prabhu, CEO of Mercom Capital Group.

Adani leads the pack

According to the report, the top 10 large-scale developers accounted for 55 percent market share in 1H 2018, with all others making up the remaining 45 percent of the market share. There were also approximately 300 utility-scale project developers in the country with projects of at least 5 MW or more in operation.

Adani remained the largest project developer in terms of total cumulative installations, as well as the top installer in terms of capacity installed through the end of 1H 2018.

There are around 70 large-scale project developers with a pipeline of 5 MW or more in India. ReNew Power had the largest project pipeline at the end of 1H 2018.

Sixteen percent of solar installations in 1H 2018 were in the rooftop solar sector, standing at 805 MW. Rooftop installations rose by 55 percent YoY with cumulative installations totaling nearly 2,410 MW as of June 2018.

In 1H 2018, the top 10 installers made up only 27 percent of all rooftop projects installed in India, leaving all other rooftop developers with 73 percent of the share, a reflection of the fragmented nature of the market.Sterling and Wilson was the top EPC company cumulatively and in 1H 2018.

Tata Power Solar had the largest cumulative rooftop portfolio, and CleanMax emerged as the top rooftop installer in 1H 2018.

ABB leads the solar inverter market in India. As of 1H 2018, ABB remained at the top of the list in terms of solar inverter shipments to the country.

In 1H 2018, the top five module suppliers accounted for over 37 percent of the market. At the end of June 2018, Trina Solar was the leading module supplier to India in terms of cumulative shipments while ZnShine was the top supplier in 1H 2018.

There are over 50 suppliers of solar mounting structures active in the Indian market, the top supplier being Ganges Internationale. There are over 30 suppliers of solar trackers active in the Indian market. As of 1H 2018, approximately 4 GW of trackers have been supplied for project development. NEXTracker and Artech Solar lead the pack with cumulative shipments. L&T was the top supplier in 1H 2018.

Global corporate funding in solar reaches $ 6.7 bn

Meanwhile, according to Mercom, total corporate funding (including venture capital funding, public market and debt financing) in the first nine months (9M) of 2018 came to $6.7 billion, slightly lower than the $7.1 billion raised during the same period in 2017. There were 103 deals in 9M 2018 compared to 143 deals in 9M 2017.

“Decline in solar demand around the globe has had a strong effect on corporate financing activity in solar especially with most solar company stocks in the negative territory at the end of the third quarter. M&A activity on the other hand has remained robust especially project acquisitions,” said Raj Prabhu.

Global VC funding (venture capital, private equity, and corporate venture capital) for the solar sector in 9M 2018 totaled $889 million, a 10 percent decrease compared to the $985 million raised in 9M 2017. VC funding for the solar sector held steady in Q3 2018 with $359 million raised in 12 deals compared to the $370 million raised in 15 deals in Q2 2018.

The top VC deal in the third quarter of 2018 was the $200 million raised Cypress Creek Renewables. It was followed by Nexamp’s $54 million, Cleantech Solar’s $50 million, Arcadia Power’s $25 million, and the $10 million raised by Pegasus Solar. A total of 25 VC investors participated in solar funding in the third quarter of 2018.

Solar public market funding was higher in 9M 2018 with $1.8 billion raised in 14 deals compared to $1 billion raised in 23 deals in

9M 2017.Debt financing activity in the first nine months of 2018 declined by almost 21 percent to $4 billion in 40 deals compared to 9M 2017 when $5.1 billion was raised in 51 deals.

Announced large-scale project funding in 9M 2018 crossed $11 billion for the development of 137 projects. For the third quarter of 2018 alone, announced large-scale project funding came in at more than $3 billion in 39 deals.

Announced residential and commercial solar funds totaled $1 billion in 9M 2018, compared to the $2.2 billion raised during the same period of 2017.

The first nine months of 2018 saw a total of 64 solar M&A transactions, compared to the 59 transactions seen in 9M 2017. Of the 18 total transactions in Q3 2018, nine involved solar downstream companies, six involved BOS companies, two were with service providers, and one was with a module manufacturer.

There were 166 large-scale project acquisitions in 9M 2018 aggregating over 23.6 GW, compared to 161 project acquisitions totaling 14.6 GW during 9M 2017.Project developers were the most active acquirers in Q3 2018, purchasing 22 projects totaling 8.5 GW, followed by investment firms with 21 projects totaling 2.86 GW.

Article Courtesy: Mercom Capital Group

Mercom Capital Group is a global communications and consulting firm focused exclusively on clean energy and financial communications. Mercom’s consulting division advises cleantech companies on new market entry, custom market intelligence and overall strategic decision making. Mercom’s consulting division also delivers highly respected industry market intelligence reports covering solar energy and battery storage/smart grid/efficiency.

Table 1: 1H 2018 India solar market share leaders

Companies	Leaders in
Adani	Top utility-scale project developer by installed capacity
CleanMax Solar	Top rooftop installer
Sterling & Wilson	Top utility-scale EPC player
ABB	Top inventer supplier
ZnShine Solar	Top solar module supplier
L&T Construction	Top solar tracker supplier

Source: Mercom India Market Share Leaderboard

Notable India deals

VC funding: Cygni Energy - a manufacturer of efficient solar controllers for domestic homes and SOHO applications - raised $6.4M through a combination of equity and debt. The equity funding was led by early-stage venture capital firm Endiya Partners and the debt by IndusInd Bank. Similarly, SenseHawk - a cloud-based enterprise platform leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) analytics on data collected from autonomous systems such as drones - raised $2 million from SAIF Partners and other angel investors.

Project funding: Phelan Energy Group raised $40 million for a 50 MW solar project in Rajasthan from the Power Finance Corporation.

M&A: CLP India - a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hong Kong-based CLP Holdings - acquired a 49 percent stake in two of Suzlon’s solar projects in India totaling 70 MW.