Despite several incentives, installation of solar panels on residential rooftops have lagged far behind India’s ambitious targets, a new survey has found
Solar rooftop installations in residential areas of Indian cities have failed to make good progress. (Photo by Murphy Z. Mike)
India might be playing a leadership role in bringing the world together for the International Solar Alliance, but it is struggling with the adoption of solar rooftops in its metro cities, a recent study has shown.
Despite friendly policies and net metering guidelines in several states and a subsidy of 30% offered by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), the installation of solar rooftop systems has been dismal in leading metros in the country, especially in Chennai and Mumbai, according to a recent study by Greenpeace India. According to the analysis, titled Indian cities slacking on rooftop solar, Delhi, which offers metered connections and a generation-based subsidy in its solar policy, has also failed to shine. See: Residential solar rooftop fails to shine
The analysis says that while India has made good progress in reaching its 60 GW utility scale solar electricity targets, deployment is particularly slow in the residential rooftops sector. The Indian government has earmarked 40 GW as the rooftop solar target by 2022, but as of December 2016, only over 1 GW worth of installations have taken place.
Poor progress
As far as various metro cities are concerned, Delhi, which has a current estimated solar potential of 1.25 GW in buildings and has an official target of installing 1 GW by 2020 and 2 GW by 2025, has installed only 35.9 MW of solar rooftop capacity. Out of this, only 3 MW is from residential installations. Mumbai has also been slow in installing solar rooftops in residential buildings. Out of 1.72 GW estimated solar potential, as calculated by Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, the commercial capital of India has installed only 5 MW of residential solar.
Tamil Nadu, which offers Rs 20,000 subsidy for domestic consumers under the Chief Minister’s solar rooftop capital incentive scheme, has also not been able to make significant progress. The state has a rooftop solar target of 350 MW but not even 2 MW have been installed.
“Despite the national incentive in the form of a 30% capital subsidy, and a range of state incentives and schemes, rooftop solar is yet to take off in the same manner as large-scale solar. However, this does not mean India should lower its ambitious targets, as some have suggested. Rather, the government must step up and play a more proactive role in encouraging rooftop installations,” said Pujarini Sen, Climate and Energy Campaigner, Greenpeace India.
“This can be via innovative financing schemes, aggregating demand and incentivising city and state governments. The potential benefits in terms of reduced energy expenditure and cleaner air due to reduced demand on fossil fuels are too significant to be ignored,” Sen said. “As the convenor and a founding member of the International Solar Alliance, and a country with abundant solar potential, India’s commitment to clean energy must continue to be robust.”
Greenpeace also conducted a poll, which showed significant public interest in adopting solar power. Close to 55% of the 812 participants expressed willingness to invest and install solar. Despite this interest, awareness and various incentive schemes, the thrust on solar rooftops has largely been in the government, institutional and commercial buildings as opposed to homes.
Insufficient awareness
The report cites lack of familiarity with the process and fear of bureaucratic red tape as the main reasons for the slow uptake of solar rooftops in the residential sector. Other reasons are insufficient knowledge among citizens about the financial incentives and attractive return on investment, perception that large upfront capital investment is required and ineffective implementation of net metering in various states.
“There is still a widespread perception that installation of rooftop solar panels needs a large investment, and people are not always aware of the financial incentives available. If central and state governments are serious about boosting solar, they must do a better job of reaching out to resident welfare associations and community groups to encourage people to shed their inhibitions and embrace rooftop solar,” said Sen.
“It is all about sensitising people. It is mainly about the lack of awareness. With solar, people can actually get big gains on their electricity bills and the costing has also dropped,” Arjun SriHari, a founding member of 8Minutes, a solar developer company, told indiaclimatedialogue.net. “We at our end are trying to make people aware and help them plan and find solutions to install solar on their terraces.”
However, the challenges on ground are more complex. Developers stress that there is a problem of lack of uniform roofs in the country and the fact that roofs are often used for various purposes that doesn’t leave enough space to install big panels. A 10 KW solar plant that can power three air-conditioners and is sufficient for a three-bedroom apartment needs around 1,000 sq. ft. of terrace area.
Ved Prakash Goyal, an advisor to Applied Solar Power Management Pvt Ltd, which is part of the ENGIE group, the largest utility company in the world, told indiaclimatedialogue.net, “In India, everyone puts the water tank on the south side of the roof and it is the direction where you get maximum solar energy. Plus, you have various things on roofs which reduces the available area needed for solar.”
Financial security
“Financial security should be provided to solar developers by the state-owned utilities. The rooftop owner should be required to pay to DISCOMS and these power distribution companies should in turn pay the developer for the clean power generated. The moment a DISCOM comes into the picture, it will attract a lot of investors,” Goyal said.
The Indian government has also announced putting 18% tax on solar panels under the new Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime, though this number may be revised. While industry feels the currently proposed tax rate will increase cost of solar projects by 12%, Goyal says that this will not be an impediment as far as solar rooftops are concerned.
“The prices of solar modules are going down and it is expected that they might further decrease by roughly 5% in the next six months, so maybe the net effect of GST would be 1%. In any case solar energy is becoming cheaper to install and the time is ripe for the government to do the needful to boost it further. With the right steps, I can foresee a boom in residential solar rooftops in the next two years.”
India, where there is an issue of both land availability and air pollution, is also a country with over 300 million buildings and as many rooftops.
