Solar Is in Comfortable Position, Does Not Require Hand Holding

Dev Arora – Founder and CEO, 8 Minutes Future Energy Pvt Ltd expresses enthusiasm over the solar sector’s performance in India, with investments on the rise and storage being the next big thing to look out for, in an interview with Monica Chaturvedi Charna...

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Kindly give an overview of the genesis and growth pattern of solar in India and globally.

Solar has been around since the 1950s, but it actually grabbed attention in India in 2008. In the next 3 years, it graduated to a different level, and as of today, it has become a buzzword. There were a lot of reasons for bringing solar extensively in India, including the Kyoto Protocol, RPOs, high cost of imported coal, etc. Even globally, it had started on similar lines. The governments across the world started investing in solar because of the obligation to keep the temperatures low and mitigate green house gas emissions. Even the Indian government took heed and announced the JNNSM target.

However, the major trigger point why solar picked up in India was the financial incentives. Once the government and the international community started investing in the Indian solar market because of the mandate, there was an increase in demand for production of panels. This increase in demand led to a decrease in prices. The inflection point was that the price of solar had to be cheaper than conventional electricity prices being paid by the customers. Once that happened, solar no more needed to be a social impact tool or a climate change agent. In fact, it became a financial tool. By 2014, solar hit grid parity and became a financially viable option for all kinds of investments.

Going by the growth trend, do you think the 100 GW target of solar by 2022 is an achievable target?

I think of it not as a target but as a mindset. The government has a vision of generating 40% of power through clean energy, which is a mindset. Solar has already reached a level where consumers are getting a 20-30% discount on energy bills (from Rs 8/unit tariff in Delhi to Rs 6.5/unit). Globally, solar will be a dominant source of energy for everyone in the next 5 years.