Recently, India's renewable energy installed capacity crossed the 200 gigawatt ("GW") mark. And, solar power played a major role therein with the lion's share (of 97.86 GW) being attributable to it.1 While the growth story for utility scale solar projects and, more recently, even the large- scale commercial and industrial open access solar projects has been splendid, the same cannot be said for rooftop/decentralized solar projects.
India realized the role distributed solar can play in our clean energy story, early on; and thus, the 'Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission' ("JNNSM") launched in 2010 envisaged development of such projects. In 2015, the Government of India's ("GoI") target for rooftop solar was 40 GW to be achieved by 2022.2 Unfortunately, the installed grid connected rooftop solar capacity achieved until December, 2024, was a meagre 15.67GW.3
GoI's desire to promote distributed solar projects cannot really be questioned in light of various schemes launched by it. In addition to the push through the JNNSM, GoI notified the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthaan Mahabhiyaan in March, 2019 with an aim to provide financial support to farmers for installation of standalone solar pumps and solar power plants and solarization of existing grid- connected agriculture pumps to add 30.80 GW of solar capacity by 2022. Thereafter, on February 29, 2024, the PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana was notified by the GoI ("Muft Bijli Yojana").4
Growth of distributed solar has been bleak thus far, despite GOI's policy push. Some of the main reasons for the same appear to be:
- lack of clarity on regulatory requirements for setting up rooftop solar power plants within states. Despite almost all states issuing net and/or gross metering policies for rooftop solar power plants, grid connection regulations/processes for such project remain challenging in most parts of the country;
- unwillingness of power distribution companies ("DISCOMS") to promote them, as the growth of these means, revenue loss for them;
- delay in grant of regulatory approvals for setting up these plants;
- additional charges (such as, network charge, grid support charge) being levied on these projects; and
- limited financing options for such projects.
It now seems that with the issuance of Muft Bijli Yojana, the GoI intends to strongly target the residential sector for setting up solar rooftop projects. As of date, the reported progress of this policy is very impressive. Greater awareness and better implementation of the policy and the gamut of incentives being offered to the various stakeholders such as consumers, DISCOMS, local bodies (such as, municipal corporations and gram panchayat), perhaps are some reasons for its success.
Though, GoI's heart with respect to distributed solar seems to in the right place, the on-ground reality has been different. Incentivising the DISCOMs to adopt distributed solar with adequate financial support, ensuring steady availability of quality domestic modules, net meters and other equipment and addressing some of the issues discussed above may help the distributed solar sector grow finally!
Footnotes
2. https://pib.gov.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=122567
3. https://mnre.gov.in/en/physical-progress/
4. https://writer.zoho.com/writer/open/cq6egcf1867d7bd61414b9a6081ae6b20b49a/bookmarks/3
Originally published by SolarQuarter Global India Volume 17.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
