Rooftops – Indian Solar’s New Frontier

Post 2009, Solar has been buzzing with medium as well as large projects and has recently crossed 6500MW at the end of March 2016, though installed capacity with rooftops currently at less than 0.25% of installed capacity. JNNSM and Gujarat projects accounted for almost a GW within a couple of years and propelled India into the big leagues.

This is however in deep contrast to global standards where roof’s account for majority of installations. Below is a chart that defies belief especially since solar is a distributed solution albeit used a centralized one in India to replace coal and fossil fuel dependent plants. Large ground mounted plants bringing with it the hassles of (AT&C) losses currently around 25% estimated to cause approx. Rs. 75,000 crore loss yearly for discoms. So for every 1 KWh generated only 0.75KWh reaches the consumer which isn’t the case with rooftop solar where there is no waste due to Transmission or Wheeling distances and inefficiencies.

Solar roof are a dire need for the nation as it reduces the CAD and brings in energy security to a growing populace desirous of safe, clean and consistent energy to increase the economic growth rate. Every unit of energy delivered is a force multiplier of magnitude in elevating the economic standards of the receiver.

Poor attention has been paid to this method of generation specifically since its not a medium of control or political benefit. Very few states recognize the importance of delivering off grid and independent energy delivery systems that reduce dependence on inefficient delivery mechanisms.

For the nation to grow, it needs to be supported by sufficient infrastructure and incentives to the common man whereas too much attention has been paid to large schemes and not enough to direct delivery. Solar rooftops is one such casualty of a populistic mindset but its undergoing changes a step at a time.

2015 has seen some dramatic changes in policy especially in Karnataka and Maharashtra. Maharashtra a state that refused to have anything to do with solar under the previous government is now looking at a huge target but implementation is still tightly controlled by the state owned generator.

Karnataka launched the most progressive rooftop FIT policy in the country by offering a huge premium for solar rooftop generation and to date has signed rooftop PPAs more than 800 MW in sizes varying from 1 KW to 1MW. Yet due to the greed of locals hawking their offtake agreements just few MWs have been installed.

Gujarat has a rooftop policy but refuses to approve proposals given that it has already met its RPO targets for years, TN, AP, Telangana all are yet to get off the ground.

There is an urgent need to standardize the FIT (Feed In Tariff) across states as well as simplify regulations and procedures. The paltry target achievement of 166 MW is testament to the fact that the current policies aren’t working even sub-optimally. Dependence upon subsidy or government offtake can’t sustain the field on its own, barriers need to be removed, single window clearances with timely subsidy payouts are sorely needed

Refer to the table for installations upto Feb 2016

Another concern is the load shedding in certain states during Solar Generation Peak hours that renders any unused generation wasted especially since load shedding is a daytime phenomenon. The rooftop industry with just 166MW installed across the country is still very nascent and has a long way to go yet with educating the user being the highest hurdle to cross.

SECI is doing its part with the new 500MW Solar Rooftop tender which is pushing solar energy to homes and offices. The Central Financial Assistance (CFA) i.e. Subsidy which was dropped last year has been reintroduced but rightly excluded government and private industries.

No  CFA   is  applicable   for   any   type   of   Government   buildings,  Government   institutions/Government organizations including PSUs. Only achievement linked Incentives/awards will be eligible.

Under the TN Chief Minister’s Solar Rooftop Capital Incentive scheme, the Tamil Nadu Government provides a capital subsidy of Rs. 20,000 per kilowatt for grid-connected domestic solar PV systems in addition to the 30% subsidy scheme of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) of the Government of India. For individual homes or flats, the solar system capacity shall be 1 kW. For residential flats solar system capacity of 5 kW, 10 kW and multiples thereof can be applied for common usage as group application.

Kerala’s 10,000 rooftops was a really innovative scheme which highlighted the distributed nature and advantage of solar, though after that the state has come to a standstill due to certain issues. The current subsidy disbursed is barely above 50% which says a lot given that it’s a prosperous state and yet barely 6000 house’s have installed solar

Almost Rs. 5000 crore has been set aside for Solar rooftops and with the center now moving towards incentivizing the home owner, we should see some movement in this segment. For India to be energy secure, roof based solar coupled with storage is the only viable solution for the future.

– Ritesh Pothan

Published in RE BOOSTER JUNE/JULY 2016