Indian cities require policy reforms to reach rooftop solar targets

While the country has made some improvements in utility-scale solar electricity targets, the adoption of rooftop solar in cities needs policy reforms and more in order to achieve rooftop solar targets.

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy had decided to establish 40GW of rooftop solar (RTS) power by 2022 to fulfil its total targeted solar capacity of 100 GW, India could only establish 6 GW by October 2021.

India’s solar energy capacity has increased 17 times in the last seven years, now standing at approximately 45 GW.

J R Bhatt, Adviser and Scientist in the Ministry of Environment, while presenting India’s third Biennial Update Report (BUR), referred to the significant uptake of its solar programme at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow on 7th November last year. However, when one looks at the various targets fixed for the change to solar, it becomes clear that there is still a long distance to be covered.

An independent analysis by the Council for Energy, Environment, and Water (CEEW) had indicated earlier that India’s total installed solar power capacity would need to grow to 5630 gigawatts (GW) if India is committed to achieving net-zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2070.

Analysing the Prime Minister’s pledge at the Glasgow summit to boost India’s non-fossil energy capacity to 500 GW by 2030, a report from the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) cites a projection made by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) for India’s energy mix for 2030.

According to the projections, India’s installed capacity of solar energy must grow to 280 GW by 2030.

In Delhi, the rapid transit Delhi Metro is near to sourcing 100% of its power demands from its solar installations. It also obtains extra power from a 750 MW solar park based out of Madhya Pradesh — Rewa Ultra Mega Solar Limited, and its stride towards solarisation will enable the firm to save 41 crores.

Delhi government schools also show an encouraging picture. 150 of these schools have 21 MW of solar installations, allowing them to save Rs 8.8 crore and earn Rs 8.5 crore by selling excess power yearly.

Gujarat, one of the first states to develop solar generation capacity, now has an installed capacity of 4400+ MW. In 2018, the Gujarat government began the half-a-decade-long process of establishing 200 MW of solar rooftops on all of its six airports owned by the Airports Authority of India (AAI).

Rajasthan had the highest number of solar installations, with up to 8.2 GW capacity in October 2021.

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Also read: India's solar generation grows 30% YoY to 22 billion unit in Q1 2022