Govt may not achieve even half of 2022 solar energy target
The Indian government has a huge target of generating 40 gigawatt (GW) of energy through solar rooftop panel by 2022, but is not expected to achieve even half of it by December 2021, consulting firm Bridge To India (BTI) said in a report released on Friday. The infographic report, India Solar Rooftop Map, said the country’s rooftop solar capacity had reached just 1.4GW as of March 2017 and is expected to cross the 2GW-mark in 2017-18. In 2015, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government increased its solar power target from 20GW to 100GW by 2022. Of the 100 GW, 40 GW is expected to be from solar rooftop. The report said it expects, “India to have a total rooftop solar capacity of 13.2 GW by 2021(December).” The BTI report said India had added 678 megawatt (MW) of rooftop solar capacity in 2016-17, growing at 81% Y-o-Y (year-on-year), reaching total installed capacity of 1,396 MW. “Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Karnataka contributed to 40% of total rooftop solar capacity addition in the country,” the report added. “Indian rooftop solar market is finally beginning to realise its potential. Industrial and commercial customers remain the biggest market segment. These customers can make excellent savings from cheaper solar energy and also reduce their carbon footprint. Public sector segment is also expected to show robust growth in the coming years because of strong government push combined with 25-30% capital subsidies,” said Vinay Rustagi, who is BTI’s managing director. Rustagi, however, added that, “Unfortunately, net metering still remains a sore point for the market with DISCOMs (distribution companies) and state agencies either ill-equipped or unwilling to adopt rooftop solar.” The report said improving economics of rooftop solar, government tenders and improving net-metering implementation across key states would be the biggest drivers for the segment
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