India third largest solar market in the world: Mercom Communications

India emerged as the third largest solar market in the world in 2017 behind China and the US, Mercom Communications India said in a report.

"In 2017, India emerged as the third largest solar market ...having grown at a CAGR of approximately 170 per cent since 2010," it said.

As per the report, India set a new record with 9.6 GW of solar installations in 2017, which was more than double the 4.3 GW installed in 2016.

The robust growth boosted the country's total solar installed capacity to 19.6 GW as of December 2017, it added.

"In 2017, larger players started consolidating their positions at the top as India quickly emerged as one of the most important solar markets in the world for suppliers and vendors,"Mercom Capital Group CEO Raj Prabhu said.

As of 2017-end, large-scale project development accounted for 92 per cent of the all-time cumulative solar installations in India with 19.6 GW, and 2017 alone made up 90 per cent of such installations with 8.6 GW.

Of the total 1.6 GW cumulative solar rooftop installations in India by 2017, 995 MW was installed last year.

Mercom Communications India is an arm of global clean energy consulting firm Mercom Capital Group.