India has pledged a mammoth Rs. 5,000 crore for solar rooftops in residential and institutional areas in the next five years. This is a historic step in generating clean energy for the world’s second largest population.
The government seeks to provide a capital subsidy of 30% to general category states and 70% to special category states in North East India. A similar scheme saw Germany revolutionize its power dependency structure. Today, 40% of Germany’s total energy generation is accounted for by solar energy. India’s paltry 6% stands nowhere near as of now.
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The assurances and promises made by the Indian government at the recently concluded Paris climate talks are finally taking shape. India aims at producing 100, 000 MW of electricity from solar panels by the year 2022.
In an attempt to encourage the use of renewable sources of energy, and mainly solar energy as most of India gets good amount of sunshine throughout the year, 26 states have already released net metering (which is a two-directional energy meter) but the response has been somewhat cold. The high set-up cost (settling somewhere around Rs. 5.5 lakh without batteries and Rs. 1.5 lakh with batteries) is being viewed as the sole deterrent.
States like Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, and Rajasthan have already made solar rooftops mandatory for all government buildings. In Kerala, financial incentives are being awarded for installation of solar rooftop panels. Haryana too has made solar rooftops compulsory for all new buildings.
Interestingly, regular payments to consumers who chose to adopt the new system in Germany ensured a full-scale success of the scheme in the country. In India, additional incentives from the government, bank loans for solar rooftop installation, and state-wise provisions for use of solar energy are a few efforts aimed to promoting the technology in the country. But with power distribution companies failing to make payments on time, the solar scheme does face some level of threat.
(Featured Image Credit: firstgreen.co)
