Future of Solar Energy Sector in India

Abstract

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

India has done a tremendous job and become one of the countries with large production of energy from renewables. As of 31 March, 2020, 35.86% of India’s installed electricity generating capacity is from Renewable sources with most of capacity comes from solar photovoltaic and wind power owing to abundance, availability and ease of harnessing for electrical power generation. As country is running one of the largest and most ambitious renewable energy capacity expansion programs which aims to achieve 100 GW of solar power. At present grid connected solar PV sector is majorly dominated by ground based large scale utility projects. But ground based installation are also have some limitations for acquiring large chunk of land in some cases.

Solar electricity generation is one of very few low-carbon energy technologies with the potential to grow to very large scale. As a consequence, massive expansion of global solar generating capacity to multi-terawatt scale is very likely an essential component of a workable strategy to mitigate climate change risk. Recent years have seen rapid growth in installed solar generating capacity, great improvements in technology, price, and performance, and the development of creative business models that have spurred investment in residential solar systems. Nonetheless, further advances are needed to enable a dramatic increase in the solar contribution at socially acceptable costs. Achieving this role for solar energy will ultimately require that solar technologies become cost-competitive with fossil generation, appropriately penalized for carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, with — most likely — substantially reduced subsidies.

This study examines the current state of Indian solar electricity generation, the several technological approaches that have been and could be followed to convert sunlight to electricity, and the market and policy environments the solar industry has faced. my objective is to assess solar energy’s current and potential competitive position and to identify changes in Indian government policies that could more efficiently and effectively support the industry’s robust, long-term growth.

This study considers grid-connected electricity generation by photovoltaic (PV) and concentrated solar (or solar thermal) power (CSP) systems. These two technologies differ in important ways. A CSP plant is a single largescale installation, typically with a generating capacity of 100 megawatts (MW) or more, that can be designed to store thermal energy and use it to generate power in hours with little or no sunshine. PV systems, by contrast, can be installed at many scales — from utility plants with capacity in excess of 1 MW to residential rooftop installations with capacities under 10 kilowatts (kW) — and their output responds rapidly to changes in solar radiation. In addition, PV can use all incident solar radiation while CSP uses only direct irradiance and is therefore more sensitive to the scattering effects of clouds, haze, and dust.