Why India should make hay while the sun shines

On the day of the consecration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke of a plan for roof-top solarisation to promote the solar route as a clean and green energy medium. A few days later, the Union Finance Minister announced a scheme for roof-top solarisation in her 2024–25 interim budget speech, adding that one crore households would get 300 units of free electricity every month through it. She provided a seed capital of Rs 10,000 crore. This important initiative somehow got underplayed in the midst of the fervour created by the inauguration of the temple. Consider the following: The Council on Energy, Environment, and Water (CEEW) believes that the initiative has the potential to support the installation of 20–25 GW of rooftop solar capacity. The CEEW also projects potential savings of around two lakh crore rupees for electricity distribution companies over the next twenty five years. While a number of steps have been taken to boost solar energy and they have yielded results, there have also been many challenges along the way. Some of these have been dealt with; others remain to be tackled. But there is no doubting the government’s resolve, as the development of solar energy remains a priority in the country’s National Action Plan on Climate Change. The creation of the National Solar Mission is an indication of the seriousness of that resolve. The potential for solar power in the country, bestowed with ample sunshine for the better part of the year, is enormous. The government estimates it to be around 5,000 trillion kilowatts per hour (kWh) per year. Even if a fraction of this is captured, it would be sufficient to meet all of the country’s power requirements. On the day of the consecration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke of a plan for roof-top solarisation to promote the solar route as a clean and green energy medium. A few days later, the Union Finance Minister announced a scheme for roof-top solarisation in her 2024–25 interim budget speech, adding that one crore households would get 300 units of free electricity every month through it. She provided a seed capital of Rs 10,000 crore. This important initiative somehow got underplayed in the midst of the fervour created by the inauguration of the temple. Consider the following: The Council on Energy, Environment, and Water (CEEW) believes that the initiative has the potential to support the installation of 20–25 GW of rooftop solar capacity. The CEEW also projects potential savings of around two lakh crore rupees for electricity distribution companies over the next twenty five years. While a number of steps have been taken to boost solar energy and they have yielded results, there have also been many challenges along the way. Some of these have been dealt with; others remain to be tackled. But there is no doubting the government’s resolve, as the development of solar energy remains a priority in the country’s National Action Plan on Climate Change. The creation of the National Solar Mission is an indication of the seriousness of that resolve. The potential for solar power in the country, bestowed with ample sunshine for the better part of the year, is enormous. The government estimates it to be around 5,000 trillion kilowatts per hour (kWh) per year. Even if a fraction of this is captured, it would be sufficient to meet all of the country’s power requirements. Over the last few years, the government has been on an overdrive to establish solar parks in various parts of the country. The idea, mooted in December 2014, was driven by a desire to set up at least 25 such parks, each with a capacity of at least 500 MW, by 2019. The target, though, remained unfulfilled for a variety of reasons—though that has not deterred the government from pushing ahead. As a result, India is home to some of the biggest solar parks in the world. For example, the Bhadla Industrial Solar Park in Rajasthan is the world’s largest solar park (to date), with a total capacity of 2,245 MW. The Pavagada solar park in Karnataka, with 2,050 MW of operational capacity, is the second largest industrial solar park in the world. But the solar parks, although grand in appearance and equipped with the benefits that come from economy of scale, have their own problems, not the least being the need for large tracts of land. Land acquisition is a tricky and sensitive issue in the country, as we have seen in many instances. The delays in acquiring land are all too common, and this in turn leads to a significant escalation in costs. Roof-top solarisation, therefore, is a good option. In 2015, the Union government announced a scheme for grid-connected roof-top solar panels, but it was largely aimed at energy developers, financial institutions, entrepreneurs, and electricity distribution utilities. The latest announcement, while taking the idea forward, is targeted mainly at the individual consumer. On February 13, Prime Minister Modi, on the heels of the budget announcement, declared that the scheme would be called the PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana and would have an investment of Rs 75,000 crore. Urban local bodies and panchayats would be roped in to popularise the scheme at the grassroots level. Various incentives in the form of concessional bank loans and subsidies (which will go directly into the beneficiary’s bank accounts) would also be made available. Apart from the many initiatives and their performances, it is also a fact that the solar energy drive still has to acquire its promised potential, and some of the reasons for it are as follows: Inadequate research and development facilities; a lack of needed manufacturing infrastructure; huge initial investments and long payback periods; not enough awareness among the general public on the imperative to adopt solar energy; and cumbersome land acquisition processes. That said, there is optimism in the air. Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) estimated in its 2018 report that India would generate 75 per cent of its electricity from renewable energy sources by 2050. India ranks fifth in solar power deployment globally. Solar power usage increased by more than 11 times (from 2.6 GW in March 2014 to 30 GW in July 2019), and that usage continues to grow. With the right policies and a sustained focus on the implementation of solarisation to meet the power requirements, there is no reason why India cannot eventually achieve its full potential. The writer is an author and a public affairs analyst. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost_’s views._ Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News , India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.