REVOLUTION ON THE ROOFTOP

THE GOVERNMENT'S ROOFTOP SOLAR PLANS FINALLY TAKE OFF AS 12 MILLION HOUSEHOLDS REGISTER FOR THE PM-SURYA GHAR: MUFT BIJLI YOJANA. NOT ONLY WILL IT MEAN SAVINGS FOR HOUSEHOLDS, IT WILL ALSO TAKE THE COUNTRY ONE STEP CLOSER TO MEETING ITS RENEWABLE ENERGY TARGETS

- AJAY SUKUMARAN

For the past two years since Bengaluru resident C.M. Dinakar installed a 4 kilowatt (kW) solar power plant on the roof of his house in the city's Basaveshwara Nagar locality, he hasn't had to worry about his electricity bill. In fact, he's using more power these days. Dinakar's rooftop solar system, which cost him Rs 3 lakh, generates an average of 16 units of electricity a day-more than what his household consumes daily. The excess is sold to the power grid. Even though Karnataka introduced a free electricity scheme for households last year, he's happy with the heavy upfront investment he made on solar photovoltaic (or solar cell) panels to generate his own power. It's better than putting money in a fixed deposit, feels Dinakar, an electrical engineer.

Till recently, people like Dinakar were part of a small tribe. This is because rooftop solar (RTS) hadn't caught on in India. In 2014, the government had initiated a Rooftop Solar Programme, which aimed at generating 40 gigawatts (GW) from rooftops by 2022. The target proved elusive-by November 2023, the cumulative installed capacity was estimated at 10.4 GW, with 2.65 GW on residential rooftops, the rest from large-scale institutional arrays. The 2014 programme faltered due to lack of awareness, high initial costs, issues with grid stability and limited skilled workforce. With about half a million residential RTS installations across India at the beginning of this year according to industry estimates, a course correction was needed.