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Key to net-zero strategy, India’s solar power capacity grew by over 6,000 times in past 12 yrs

India’s progress with solar power can be attributed to a combination of policy interventions, favourable market conditions, and getting approximately 300 sunny days a year.

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New Delhi: At COP27, India released its Long-Term Low Emission Development Strategy that outlined how the country will transition away from fossil fuels to achieve net-zero emissions by 2070. Much of this strategy depends on diversifying India’s energy sources, chief among them solar.

The 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference or Conference of the Parties (COP27) was held at Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt, from 6 to 18 November.

India has made great strides in scaling up its installed solar capacity. According to the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, India had achieved an installed capacity of 48.087 gigawatts (GW) by 31 December 2021. This number has since grown to nearly 62 GW as of November 2022, according to the latest Central Electricity Authority data.

By the end of the year, India hopes to achieve 100 GW of installed solar capacity under the National Solar Mission (NSM).

“Tenders have been finalised and Letter of Intents (LoI) have been issued for around 40.869 GW and tenders have been issued but LoI is yet to be issued for around 20.518 GW. Thus, it is expected that the target capacity of 100 GW could be fully achieved by the end of 2022,” says the MNRE’s annual report.

India’s solar thrust will also have an impact on the global expansion of renewables, says the International Energy Agency (IEA). The IEA is an international energy forum providing analysis, data, and policy recommendations.

In its Renewables 2022 report, the IEA said, “In India, new (renewable) installations are set to double over our forecast period, led by solar photovoltaics (PV, panels) and driven by competitive auctions implemented to achieve the government’s ambitious target of 500 GW of non-fossil capacity by 2030,” adding, “Solar PV manufacturing investment in India and the United States is expected to reach almost $25 billion over 2022-2027, a sevenfold increase compared with the last five years.”

So how did India achieve such progress with solar PV installations? ThePrint briefly explains.


Also Read: India’s cleanest city to issue its 1st green bonds to fund solar power plant. ‘Have Indore’s trust’


Behind India’s progress & success with solar power 

Simply put, India’s progress with solar power can be attributed to a combination of policy interventions, favourable market conditions, and the fact that India gets approximately 300 sunny days a year — ideal for solar power to thrive.

In 2010, India introduced the first phase of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission — the third phase of which is underway right now — setting the ball rolling for solar power in India. The same year, India had just 10 megawatts (MW) of installed solar energy capacity. One GW is equal to 1,000 megawatts. The scheme sought to “set up an enabling environment for solar technology penetration in the country both at a centralised and decentralised level.”

According to a decadal review of India’s solar power policy by the Council on Energy, Environment, and Water, the NSM jumpstarted India’s expansion into solar by addressing risks in investment and facilitating long-term power purchase agreements with project proponents. Back then, the cost of one unit of solar power was around Rs 10 to 12 — many times higher than the cost of conventional electricity. Costs have since fallen by over 80 per cent, to around Rs 2-3 per unit as of 2020.

Other measures that helped India ease into solar power included “introducing solar parks when deployment became slow and tough, increasing renewable purchase obligation (RPO) targets to create the necessary demand, creating and backing the Solar Energy Corporation of India to address counterparty risks,” among others, the CEEW said.

RPOs are state level targets to ensure renewables are a part of the energy mix. A scheme to set up solar parks — large scale utility projects aimed at generating large quantities of electricity — have made land acquisition easier, further facilitating the growth of solar energy. However, the government’s aim to set up 25 solar parks of 500 MW each is likely to remain unfulfilled because of limited land availability.

Experts also say some part of India’s success with solar has to do with China. China is the world’s largest exporter of solar PV panels. Until this year, India imported a bulk of its solar PV panels from China because of their low cost.

“India’s dependence on imports of PV cells can be ascertained from the fact that its imports were worth US$1.5 billion in 2020 while experiencing a US$1.4 billion in trade deficit, exhibiting a 83% dependence on China,” said Rahul Mazumdar and Mayank Khurana, economists with India Exim Bank, in an article in The Economic Times.

India is now among the cheapest markets for solar energy, attracting considerable private capital. In April this year, the government imposed a steep import duty on solar PVs, in an attempt to scale up domestic manufacturing.

(Edited by Anumeha Saxena)


Also Read: In a historic first, rich countries will pay for losses and damages caused by climate change


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