The total installed costs of utility-scale solar PV in India is as low as $793 per kilowatt
India is now the lowest-cost producer of solar power globally, according to a report by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). The IRENA report titled ‘Renewable Power Generation Costs in 2018’, revealed that the total installed costs of utility-scale solar PV in India is as low as $793 per kilowatt (kW) in 2018 which is 27 per cent lower than for projects commissioned in 2017. Canada has the highest cost at $2,427 per kW, according to the list published by IRENA.
India is now the forerunner in producing solar power at lowest cost globally and is far ahead of other nations in low average production costs, a report said. Beating countries like China, which usually is the cheapest manufacturer of everything, India has also left behind the US, UK, Canada and France among others. While the global average of installing utility-scale solar PV projects was $1210 for a kilowatt, the same was found to be as low as $793/kW in India in 2018, the report by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) said. India’s neighbour China also saw very competitive installation costs of $879/kW compared to the highest rate of $2,427 per kW in Canada. Among European countries, Italy saw very competitive installation costs for 2018 at $870/kW.
“India was estimated to have the lowest total installed costs for new utility-scale solar PV projects that were commissioned in 2018 at USD 793/kW, 27% lower than for projects commissioned in 2017,” IRENA said in its May 2019 released report. Also, India is the only country where the cost of setting up solar PV projects between 2010 and 2018 have dropped dramatically and at the fastest pace by 80% compared to other eight major markets including China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US.
Typically, the cost of hardware including inverters account for more than half of the total cost of setting up a solar PV project in India.
According to experts, India’s status of lowest-cost producer of solar power has multiple reasons. India has high solar potential that leads to improved asset utilization and the country imports majority of hardware for installation from China which is cheaper and helps cut the cost by a huge margin.
As the cost of land and labor is cheaper than the rest of the world, it also contributes to low-cost production of solar power in India.
The highest cost of setting up solar projects were found in:
- Canada at $2,427/kW;
- Russian Federation at $2,302/kW;
- Japan at $2,101/kW;
- South Africa at $1,617/kW and
- Australia at $1,554/kW.Other countries with comparatively low production ratesApart from India, China and Italy, where the setting up costs of utility-scale solar PV plants were low, France at $1,074/kW and Germany at $1,113/kW have also the lowest installation costs in G20 countries.
