As India makes its way to third place in the global solar market ranking, it still remains heavily reliant on solar imports. In terms of inverters, Switzerland’s ABB is a clear market leader, with the company’s latest data showing that it has passed a 5 GW milestone.

Bringing together senior leadership of ABB India and Azure Power, an event marking this achievement was held at ABB’s production plant in Bengaluru, which was inaugurated last September, doubling the firm’s inverter manufacturing capacity in the country.

“Quality products and innovative solutions are key to continue the momentum of growth of Indian renewable energy installations with digitalization adding the competitive edge. This makes ABB a natural choice to keep pace with the energy revolution sweeping the sector,” Sanjeev Sharma, Managing Director, ABB India, said on the occasion.

ABB’s solar inverter product portfolio ranges from 2 kW to 2 MW, including 2 kW to 120 kW string inverters optimized for residential rooftop usage and 250 kW to 2 MW central inverters for cost-efficient multi-megawatt power plants.

“Azure Power has demonstrated its strong project development, engineering, and execution capabilities with the support of leading technology partners such as ABB. Their best in class technology and solutions complement our strategy of superior operating performance of our long term energy contracts,” said Inderpreet S Wadhwa, Chairman and CEO, Azure Power, India’s independent utility-scale solar power producer with a rooftop solar project portfolio of 100 MW across 14 states.

In 2015, ABB achieved another milestone in India, when it became the first company to double its solar inverter installed base to 2 GW in a span of five months. Today, according to the company’s data, ABB’s end-to-end portfolio for solar energy including solar inverters, powers about 50% of the various solar projects in the country.

The company’s 5 GW announcement comes on the heels of the latest Indian Solar Map by analyst firm Bridge to India, showing that India is on course to add 8 GW of new PV capacity this year, with Trina Solar cornering a 25.7% market share on the module supply side, and ABB at the top of the inverter charts with a 28.6% market share.