India is close to having 6 GW of grid connected solar power capacity. On March 14, the Indian Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) said that 5,775.57 MW were installed in India as of March 7, 2016. The state of Rajasthan tops the country's solar list (1,264.35 MW), followed by Gujarat (1,024.15 MW) and Madhya Pradesh (678.58 MW).
Only one month earlier, the country had over 0.5 GW less solar power installed. On January 31, 2016, India's solar capacity was 5,248 MW, reported MNRE in mid-February. Then, MNRE was expecting India to add 3,790 MW until end of March, which means a total of 9,038 MW would be commissioned by the end of the country's 2015-16 fiscal year, which closes end of March.
In fiscal year 2016-17, the Indian government is aiming to add 12.16 GW new capacity, which would increase total installed PV power to 21.2 GW.
While Indian consultancy Bridge To India is also upbeat on the Indian solar market's growth prospects, it is more conservative than the government, despite the fact that the country has a solar pipeline of 23 GW, with 15 GW of tenders where bids were submitted and 8 GW of auctions that are still open. In a blog post on March 21, the consultants wrote, "Past experience has shown that there are significant timeline slippages in project implementation particularly in state tenders. Analysis shows that in the past nearly 40% of projects in state tenders are either significantly delayed or scrapped altogether." That's why Bridge to India believes that utility-scale systems, which have been the main driver of solar power in India so far, would lead to 4.8 GW in 2016 and 9 GW in 2017. The wildcard, however, are rooftop solar systems and PV systems that are installed on the open market.