Solar power in India
Encyclopedia
India is densely populated and has high solar insolation
, an ideal combination for using solar power
in India. India is already a leader in wind power generation
. In the solar energy sector, some large projects have been proposed, and a 35,000 km2 area of the Thar Desert
has been set aside for solar power projects, sufficient to generate 700 GW to 2,100 GW.
In July 2009, India unveiled a 19 billion plan to produce 20 GW of solar power by 2020. Under the plan, the use of solar-powered equipment and applications would be made compulsory in all government buildings, as well as hospitals and hotels. On November 18, 2009, it was reported that India was ready to launch its National Solar Mission
under the National Action Plan on Climate Change, with plans to generate 1,000 MW of power by 2013.
reception, on only its land area, is about 5 Petawatt-hours per year (PWh/yr) (i.e. 5 trillion kWh
/yr or about 600 TW). The daily average solar energy incident over India varies from 4 to 7 kWh/m2 with about 1500–2000 sunshine hours per year (depending upon location), which is far more than current total energy consumption. For example, assuming the efficiency of PV modules were as low as 10%, this would still be a thousand times greater than the domestic electricity demand projected for 2015.
approximately 6.4 MW-yr of power as of 2005. However, as of October 2009, India is currently ranked number one along with the United States in terms of solar energy production per watt installed.
Projects currently planned include 3000 villages of Orissa
, which will be lighted with solar power by 2014.
Solar driers are used to dry harvests before storage.
has the largest deployment of rooftop solar water heaters in India. These heaters will generate an energy equivalent of 200 MW every day .
Bangalore is also the first city in the country to put in place an incentive mechanism by providing a rebate (which has just been increased to 50) on monthly electricity bills for residents using roof-top thermal systems. These systems are now mandatory for all new structures.
Pune, another city in the western part of India, has also recently made installation of solar water heaters in new buildings mandatory.
and therefore a big potential consumer base
density. In one of the analyzed scenarios, India can make renewable resources such as solar the backbone of its economy by 2050, reining in its long-term carbon emissions without compromising its economic growth potential.
and the establishment of a clean energy fund. It is an increase of from the previous budget. This new budget has also encouraged private solar companies by reducing customs duty on solar panels by 5% and exempting excise duty on solar photovoltaic panels. This is expected to reduce the cost of a roof-top solar panel installation by 15–20%. The budget also proposed a coal tax of 1 per metric ton on domestic and imported coal used for power generation. Additionally, the government has initiated a Renewable Energy Certificate (REC) scheme, which is designed to drive investment in low-carbon energy projects.
The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE)provides 70 percent subsidy on the installation cost of a solar photovoltaic power plant in North-East states and 30 percentage subsidy on other regions. The detailed outlay of the National Solar Mission highlights various targets set by the government to increase solar energy in the country's energy portfolio.
Insolation
Insolation is a measure of solar radiation energy received on a given surface area in a given time. It is commonly expressed as average irradiance in watts per square meter or kilowatt-hours per square meter per day...
, an ideal combination for using solar power
Solar power
Solar energy, radiant light and heat from the sun, has been harnessed by humans since ancient times using a range of ever-evolving technologies. Solar radiation, along with secondary solar-powered resources such as wind and wave power, hydroelectricity and biomass, account for most of the available...
in India. India is already a leader in wind power generation
Wind power in India
The development of wind power in India began in the 1990s, and has significantly increased in the last few years. Although a relative newcomer to the wind industry compared with Denmark or the US, India has the fifth largest installed wind power capacity in the world...
. In the solar energy sector, some large projects have been proposed, and a 35,000 km2 area of the Thar Desert
Thar Desert
The Thar Desert |Punjab]] province. The Cholistan Desert adjoins the Thar desert spreading into Pakistani Punjab province.-Location and description:...
has been set aside for solar power projects, sufficient to generate 700 GW to 2,100 GW.
In July 2009, India unveiled a 19 billion plan to produce 20 GW of solar power by 2020. Under the plan, the use of solar-powered equipment and applications would be made compulsory in all government buildings, as well as hospitals and hotels. On November 18, 2009, it was reported that India was ready to launch its National Solar Mission
Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission
The Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission is a major initiative of the Government of India and State Governments to promote ecologically sustainable growth while addressing India’s energy security challenges. It will also constitute a major contribution by India to the global effort to meet the...
under the National Action Plan on Climate Change, with plans to generate 1,000 MW of power by 2013.
Current status
With about 300 clear, sunny days in a year, India's theoretical solar powerSolar power
Solar energy, radiant light and heat from the sun, has been harnessed by humans since ancient times using a range of ever-evolving technologies. Solar radiation, along with secondary solar-powered resources such as wind and wave power, hydroelectricity and biomass, account for most of the available...
reception, on only its land area, is about 5 Petawatt-hours per year (PWh/yr) (i.e. 5 trillion kWh
Watt-hour
The kilowatt hour, or kilowatt-hour, is a unit of energy equal to 1000 watt hours or 3.6 megajoules.For constant power, energy in watt hours is the product of power in watts and time in hours...
/yr or about 600 TW). The daily average solar energy incident over India varies from 4 to 7 kWh/m2 with about 1500–2000 sunshine hours per year (depending upon location), which is far more than current total energy consumption. For example, assuming the efficiency of PV modules were as low as 10%, this would still be a thousand times greater than the domestic electricity demand projected for 2015.
Installed capacity
The amount of solar energy produced in India is less than 1% of the total energy demand. The grid-interactive solar power as of December 2010 was merely 10 MW. Government-funded solar energy in India only accounted forapproximately 6.4 MW-yr of power as of 2005. However, as of October 2009, India is currently ranked number one along with the United States in terms of solar energy production per watt installed.
| Name of Plant | DC Peak Power (MW) | GW·h /year | Capacity factor | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adani Bitta Solar Plant,Gujarat | 40 | To be Completed December 2011 | ||
| Sivaganga Photovoltaic Plant | 5 | Completed December 2010 | ||
| Kolar Photovoltaic Plant | 3 | Completed May 2010 | ||
| Itnal Photovoltaic Plant, Belgaum | 3 | Completed April 2010 | ||
| Azure Power - Photovoltaic Plant | 2 | 2009 | ||
| Chesdin Power - Biomass and Solar Photovoltaic Plants | 4.1 | Completes December 2011 | ||
| Jamuria Photovoltaic Plant | 2 | 2009 | ||
| NDPC Photovoltaic Plant | 1 | 2010 | ||
| Thyagaraj stadium Plant-Delhi | 1 | April, 2010 | ||
| Gandhinagar Solar Plant | 1 | January 21, 2011 | ||
| Tata - Mulshi, Maharashtra | 3 | Commissioned April 2011 | ||
| Azure Power - Sabarkantha, Gujarat | 10 | Commissioned June 2011 | ||
| Moser Baer - Patan, Gujarat | 30 | To Be Commissioned July 2011 | ||
| Tata - Mayiladuthurai, Tamil Nadu | 1 | Commissioned July 2011 | ||
| REHPL - Sadeipali, (Bolangir) Orissa | 1 | Commissioned July 2011 | ||
| Tata - Patapur, Orissa | 1 | Commissioned August 2011 | ||
| Tata - Osmanabad, Maharastra | 1 | Commissioned 1st Aug 2011 | ||
| Abengoa - Gwal Pahari, Haryana | 3 | Commissioned September 2011 | ||
| Chandraleela Power Energy - Narnaul, Haryana | 0.8 | To be Completed December 2011 | ||
| Green Infra Solar Energy Limited - Rajkot, Gujarat | 10 | Commissioned November 2011 | ||
| Total | 122.9 |
Still unaffordable
Solar power is currently prohibitive due to high initial costs of deployment. To spawn a thriving solar market, the technology needs to be competitively cheaper (i.e. attaining cost parity with fossil or nuclear energy). India is heavily dependent on coal and foreign oil, a phenomenon likely to continue until non-fossil/renewable energy technology becomes economically viable in the country. The cost of production ranges from 15 to 30 per unit compared to around 5 to 8 per unit for conventional thermal energy.jhalapSolar engineering training
The Australian government has awarded UNSW 5.2 million to train next-generation solar energy engineers from Asia-Pacific nations, specifically India and China, as part of the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate (APP). Certain programmes are designed to target for rural solar usage development.Rural electrification
Lack of electricity infrastructure is one of the main hurdles in the development of rural India. India's grid system is considerably under-developed, with major sections of its populace still surviving off-grid. As of 2004 there are about 80,000 unelectrified villages in the country. Of these villages, 18,000 could not be electrified through extension of the conventional grid. A target for electrifying 5,000 such villages was set for the Tenth National Five Year Plan (2002–2007). As of 2004, more than 2,700 villages and hamlets had been electrified, mainly using solar photovoltaic systems. Developments in cheap solar technology are considered as a potential alternative that allows an electricity infrastructure consisting of a network of local-grid clusters with distributed electricity generation. It could allow bypassing (or at least relieving) the need to install expensive, lossy, long-distance, centralised power delivery systems and yet bring cheap electricity to the masses.Projects currently planned include 3000 villages of Orissa
Orissa
Orissa , officially Odisha since Nov 2011, is a state of India, located on the east coast of India, by the Bay of Bengal. It is the modern name of the ancient nation of Kalinga, which was invaded by the Maurya Emperor Ashoka in 261 BC. The modern state of Orissa was established on 1 April...
, which will be lighted with solar power by 2014.
Agricultural support
Solar PV water pumping systems are used for irrigation and drinking water. The majority of the pumps are fitted with a 200–3,000 watt motor that are powered with 1,800 Wp PV array which can deliver about 140,000 liters of water per day from a total head of 10 meters. By 30 September, 2006, a total of 7,068 solar PV water pumping systems had been installed.Solar driers are used to dry harvests before storage.
Solar water heaters
BangaloreBangalore
Bengaluru , formerly called Bengaluru is the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka. Bangalore is nicknamed the Garden City and was once called a pensioner's paradise. Located on the Deccan Plateau in the south-eastern part of Karnataka, Bangalore is India's third most populous city and...
has the largest deployment of rooftop solar water heaters in India. These heaters will generate an energy equivalent of 200 MW every day .
Bangalore is also the first city in the country to put in place an incentive mechanism by providing a rebate (which has just been increased to 50) on monthly electricity bills for residents using roof-top thermal systems. These systems are now mandatory for all new structures.
Pune, another city in the western part of India, has also recently made installation of solar water heaters in new buildings mandatory.
Land scarcity
Land is a scarce resource in India and per capita land availability is low. Dedication of land area for exclusive installation of solar arrays might have to compete with other necessities that require land. The amount of land required for utility-scale solar power plants—currently approximately 1 km2 for every 20–60 megawatts (MW) generated—could pose a strain on India's available land resource. The architecture more suitable for most of India would be a highly-distributed set of individual rooftop power generation systems, all connected via a local grid. However, erecting such an infrastructure, which does not enjoy the economies of scale possible in mass, utility-scale, solar panel deployment, needs the market price of solar technology deployment to substantially decline, so that it attracts the individual and average family size household consumer. That might be possible in the future, because PV is projected to continue its current cost reductions for the next decades and be able to compete with fossil fuel.Slow progress
While the world has progressed substantially in production of basic silicon mono-crystalline photovoltaic cells, India has fallen short of achieving the worldwide momentum. India is now in 7th place worldwide in PV cell production and 9th place in solar thermal systems, with nations such as Japan, China, and the US currently ranked far ahead. Globally, solar is the fastest growing source of energy (though from a very small base) with an annual average growth of 35%, as seen during the past few years.Latent potential
Some noted think-tanks recommend that India should adopt a policy of developing solar power as a dominant component of the renewable energy mix, since being a densely populated region in the sunny tropical belt, the subcontinent has the ideal combination of both high solar insolationInsolation
Insolation is a measure of solar radiation energy received on a given surface area in a given time. It is commonly expressed as average irradiance in watts per square meter or kilowatt-hours per square meter per day...
and therefore a big potential consumer base
Consumer
Consumer is a broad label for any individuals or households that use goods generated within the economy. The concept of a consumer occurs in different contexts, so that the usage and significance of the term may vary.-Economics and marketing:...
density. In one of the analyzed scenarios, India can make renewable resources such as solar the backbone of its economy by 2050, reining in its long-term carbon emissions without compromising its economic growth potential.
Government support
The government of India is promoting the use of solar energy through various strategies. In the latest budget for 2010/11, the government has announced an allocation of towards the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar MissionJawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission
The Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission is a major initiative of the Government of India and State Governments to promote ecologically sustainable growth while addressing India’s energy security challenges. It will also constitute a major contribution by India to the global effort to meet the...
and the establishment of a clean energy fund. It is an increase of from the previous budget. This new budget has also encouraged private solar companies by reducing customs duty on solar panels by 5% and exempting excise duty on solar photovoltaic panels. This is expected to reduce the cost of a roof-top solar panel installation by 15–20%. The budget also proposed a coal tax of 1 per metric ton on domestic and imported coal used for power generation. Additionally, the government has initiated a Renewable Energy Certificate (REC) scheme, which is designed to drive investment in low-carbon energy projects.
The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE)provides 70 percent subsidy on the installation cost of a solar photovoltaic power plant in North-East states and 30 percentage subsidy on other regions. The detailed outlay of the National Solar Mission highlights various targets set by the government to increase solar energy in the country's energy portfolio.
See also
- Electricity sector in India
- Renewable energy in IndiaRenewable energy in IndiaRenewable energy in India is a sector that is still undeveloped. India was the first country in the world to set up a ministry of non-conventional energy resources, in early 1980s. However its success has been very spotty. In recent years India has been lagging behind other nations in the use of...
- Wind power in IndiaWind power in IndiaThe development of wind power in India began in the 1990s, and has significantly increased in the last few years. Although a relative newcomer to the wind industry compared with Denmark or the US, India has the fifth largest installed wind power capacity in the world...
External links
- India´s "New Solar Mission" opens doors for fast development for the Concentrated Solar Thermal industry worldwide.
- India's rural poor give up on power grid, go solar
- Highlights of Rajasthan Solar Policy 2011
- Solar to light up Rural India
- Interactive Solar Resource Map of India
- Solar Panel Manufacturing as a business opportunity in India
- Solar electricity estimator for Indian subcontinent territory