India is lucky to have a large renewable solar energy potential. The country receives 5,000 trillion kWh solar energy yearly, which is equivalent to 4-7 kWh/m2/day of solar energy over most parts of the country. Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has reported that the approximate solar energy potential of India is around 750 GW (assuming 3% wasteland made available) [1]. A report by NITI Aayog projects a much higher solar energy potential which is greater than 10,000 GW [2].
India has achieved remarkable growth in increasing the renewable energy (RE) capacity during the past few years. According to MNRE, the share of renewable power in the country’s total energy capacity has increased from 10% in 2014-15 to 23% by December 31st , 2019 - a jump of 130%. As on June 2023, out of the total power capacity of 417.7 GW, India has achieved the RE capacity of 179.3 GW which is 43% of the total power capacity [3]. It is claimed by the government that the recent RE capacity addition by India was the fastest in world. A noteworthy achievement indeed !
Further, the government has an ambitious plan of raising the RE capacity to 500 GW till 2030 [4]. This means that the RE capacity needs to be increased by around 45 GW every year during the coming 7 years. The large solar energy potential available in India provides ample opportunity to take a great leap forward in this sector. Currently, India’s solar power capacity stands at 67 GW [3]. This needs to be augmented manyfold, which is certainly a great challenge.
In this context, it is encouraging to learn from the latest report published by the Council for Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) that over 250 million households across India have the potential to deploy a massive 637 GW of solar energy capacity on rooftops [5]! The CEEW report is the outcome of the India Residential Energy Survey (IRES) which was supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies. The survey used the ‘bottom-up’ analysis of the data obtained from 21 states covering 97% population.
Source: Mapping India’s Residential Rooftop Solar Potential, Council for Energy, Environment and Water, Nov. 2023
The revelation of the astronomically high rooftop solar (RTS) potential estimated by CEEW is indeed good news. Currently, India is reported to be successful in tapping only around 11 GW of the RTS capacity, of which only 2.7 GW is from the residential sector.
The CEEW report clarifies that the 637 GW potential is the estimated ‘technical’ potential. The report further points out that this ‘technical’ potential gets downsized by nearly one-fifth to 118 GW (which the report terms as ‘economic’ potential) after factoring the current electricity consumption of the Indian households, which happens to be in the lower consumption range. For a developing country like India, most of the residential consumers fall into low-consumption slabs and RTS system may not be economically feasible for them - without financial support. The CEEW report states that the ‘economic’ potential further reduces to a mere 11GW when no capital subsidy is considered.
The IRES Survey done by CEEW observes that nearly 85% of the technical potential is concentrated in RTS systems size between 0-3 kW, out of which 30% comes from the 0-1 kW system size. Unfortunately, the latter size is not recognised in the subsidy scheme of the government. With a view to unlock the solar potential in the residential sector, the CEEW report provides following useful recommendations:
- Government needs to introduce ‘targeted’ capital subsidies for RTS systems of size 0-3 kW.
- For unlocking untapped potential, the policy and regulatory framework should look beyond the traditional models. Due considerations should be given to the households having less than 1 kW size.
- Introduce low-cost financing options and a separate line of credit for residential consumers.
- Increase awareness campaigns to popularise RTS.
The present author believes that time is ripe for India to take a quantum jump in increasing its RTS potential. Three main factors support this proposition. Firstly, as confirmed by the CEEW report, there exists a huge ‘technical’ and ‘economical’ RTS potential in India. Secondly, the government encourages setting up of RTS facility and even provides subsidies for this purpose. Thirdly, the availability of net metering facility has made the adoption of RTS system more attractive.
Some offices of public sector undertakings, hotels, resorts, malls, schools/colleges, railway station buildings have taken the initiative and installed rooftop solar systems. However, the contribution of residential housing societies seems insignificant in RTS installations. Millions of residential housing societies exist in India. It is reported that some 50,000 housing societies are registered within the Mumbai Metropolitan Region and 20,000 in the Pune region. It is true that not all societies may find it viable to install rooftop solar because of space constraints and certain other technical reasons.
However, a majority of the existing and new residential societies and complexes would certainly find RTS beneficial in the long run. In the case of tall buildings, where space constraint is one of the major barriers, rooftop solar may become attractive even to take care of the power requirements of common utilities such as lighting pathways and common areas, pumping water, lifts, etc.
The estimation of high economical potential of 118 GW augurs well for India’s renewable energy transition and will greatly help in achieving the target of 500 GW of RE capacity by 2030. The need of the hour is to create rigorous awareness amongst public on the need to install RTS system. Also, the central and state governments need to provide subsidies to the deserving residential societies/individuals to undertake the work of RTS in their premises. A massive public awareness campaign needs to be launched through public media/social media on this issue. NGOs working in different parts of the India can also be roped in the campaign.
References
- Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), Annual Report 2019-20, https://mnre.gov.in/
- NITY Aayog, India’s Renewable Electricity Roadmap 2030: Towards Acclerated Renewable Energy Requirements, February 2015. 111p.
https://library.niti.gov.in/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=79533&shelfbrowse_itemnumber=90677#shelfbrowser - Ministry of Power, Power Sector at a Glance (as on June 12, 2023)
https://powermin.gov.in/en/content/power-sector-glance-all-india#:~:text=Performance%20of%20Electricity%20Generation%20(Including%20RE)&text=The%20generation%20during%202022%2D23,a%20growth%20of%20about%208.87%25 - “India to achieve 500 GW renewables target before 2030 deadline: RK Singh” Economic Times, September 23, 20230, Read more at:
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/renewables/india-to-achieve-500-gw-renewables-target-before-2030-deadline-rk-singh/articleshow/103936965.cms - Sachin Zachariah, Bhawna Tyagi, and Neeraj Kuldeep “Mapping India’s Residential Rooftop Solar Potential” A Bottom-up Assessment Using Primary Data, Published by Council for Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), November 2023.