After initial hiccups, a new sunrise in India
When launching the International Solar Alliance in 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said, “The sun is the source of all energy, the world must turn to solar, the power of our future.” Last week, a solar power plant in Tamil Nadu became the world’s largest such unit.
Still, despite being a sun-rich country, India has failed to tap its true potential. The endeavours range from a one-off photovoltaic solar project to an almost failed solarcooker propagation drive. Even with more than 300 sunny days a year, India’s solar energy programme had never really caught on till the launch of Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission in 2010. By the middle of 2013, the cumulative installed capacity had risen to 506.9 MW, from 17.8 MW in 2010. The wheel had been set in motion.
Two years ago, the Centre upped its solar energy targets. The installed capacity is now more than 10 times of that in 2010. With the addition of 1,964.76 MW in the first seven months of the current fiscal, the total solar power generation capacity in the country as on October 31 has risen to more than 8727.62 MW. The target up to March: 10,500 MW.
This is proof enough that India is on the right track. In its action plan to combat climate change submitted to the UN, India has promised to increase its renewable energy target to 175 GW, of which solar energy is expected to rise to 100 GW by 2022. Of this, as much as 40 GW is slated for rooftop solar.
India is witnessing a huge paradigm shift when it comes to solar power. Airports , the Delhi Metro, the Indian Railways, solarpowered toll plazas, farmers’ cooperatives, canal-top solar generation in Gujarat and even a solar-powered blood bank in Arunachal Pradesh, the list goes on. But the best opportunity that remains as-yet untapped is the ‘roof top solar’ .
Thousands of households that don’t have electricity need de-centralised solar power rather than the cost-intensive grid power. Even when government has announced solar parks, and several of them are indeed coming up in many states, it is the off-grid solar power that will and should pave the way for not just for those households in rural, hinterlands but for urban roof tops too, not to mention hundreds and thousands of government buildings. The government is promoting its Surya Mitra skill development scheme in a big way. This, however, is fraught with problems. Rural areas face an absence of point of sales for solar panels, post-sale maintenance and availability of spare parts.
A case in point is the Jammu and Kashmir’s Surya Mitra youth. Of the 26 persons who completed the training in February, many are still awaiting work. But they are hoping that things will change when the ‘Roof Top Technology’ policy is okayed.
Not just roof top solar, there is immense potential for research and development in the solar energy field. The challenge is to come up with technology suitable to Indian market requirements even when several private companies, both domestic and foreign, are eyeing a big pie