Sunny days ahead

The government, even while abiding by the WTO ruling, is planning a scheme to subsidise both local as well as foreign manufacturers, says

- R. Srinivasan

The country has set an ambitious 100 GW by 2022 solar target, out of which the rooftop segment target is 40 GW. As per a Bridge to India report, over the past two years, the rooftop solar market in India has grown at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 90%. As of 31 March 2016 the cumulative installed capacity stands at 740 MW. While Tamil Nadu leads in installations due to high consumer awareness and lack of reliable grid power, Gujarat is in second place since here the rooftop market has been primarily driven by state government initiatives and Maharashtra is third since it is driven by high consumer tariffs across all consumer categories.

In fact the solar rooftop trend has caught on in schools, educational institutions, airports, ports and even online marketplace Snap deal warehouses. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy is even roping in religious gurus to ensure that their ashrams are powered by solar energy. In a recent press release, Snap deal, India’s largest online marketplace, announced plans to utilise solar energy in a big way as an integral part of its daily operations. The green initiative will kick off at Snap deal warehouses and following this initiative, the centres will decrease power consumption by producing nearly 1 MW at peak through solar panels and generate 1.5 million units per year. Even the V O Chidambaranar Port has inked a Memorandum of Understanding with Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) to install a five MW solar power plant at an estimated cost of Rs 30 crore, which is expected to be completed by March 2017. The expected annual power generation would be 7.5 million units and reduction of carbon emissions from the project will be 8,025 metric tonnes per year. A release said that as part of the Green Port initiative, it has already commissioned a 100 KW solar power plant at the port’s administrative building in August.