Search

India with a fast growing demand for electricity and increasing consideration to emissions reduction is investing strongly in renewable electricity generation. Among renewables, the Central and State Governments have set aspirational targets for on-grid solar electricity and legislated several supporting policies to realise these targets. As a result of the favourable political environment, the development of on-grid solar, in terms of the rate of growth in installed capacity, has been increasing in the recent years, and it is expected to continue in the future. This paper aims to investigate the impact of historical transitions of India's electricity sector on the ongoing development of on-grid solar electricity and to explore the prospect of solar sector development in the future. First of all, we investigate how the historical transformation of governmental intervention's approach intertwined with the gradual shift of the source of generation has paved the way for the current achievements in on-grid solar electricity. Second, we envision the future challenges and opportunities for the development of solar sector by looking ahead and discussing the continuity of government's support and the prospective competitions between different sources. We conclude the paper with some required steps to be taken in order to secure the achievement of the targets in solar electricity in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A decade before conversion of solar energy into electricity was quite expensive compare with other renewable energy or conventional fossil fired generated power. For making solar energy as a main stream source of power generation Indian government has taken several initiatives in last 5–6 years. Presently, the deployment of the solar power project in India is governed by both central and state government under the various schemes. These schemes are mainly includes, Feed-in-Tariff (FiT), Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO), long term Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs), Renewable Energy Certificates (REC), Accelerated Depreciation (AD) benefit and reverse bidding/auctions etc. As an effect of this competitive market environment, the tariff of solar power has come down from INR 17 or US $ 0.27 1 1 In year 2010, US $ 1=INR 45. (year 2010) to less than INR 6 or US $ 0.092 2 2 In year 2015, US $ 1=INR 65. (year 2015). This decremented solar tariff may achieve grid parity soon but also has raised the question of sustainability of the solar power project as well. Additionally, this multi-policy environment of both central and state government has created lots of confusion among the solar power project developers to select scheme and make their investment viable as per other power generation business. This paper summarizes various schemes under the current policy framework in terms of viability of the solar power projects in India. It also includes issues related with the sustainability of the solar power project taken under the competitive bidding process with remarkable lowered tariff than benchmarked tariff (ceiling price)in India (i.e. INR 7 or US $ 0.107). This study will help project developers and other stakeholders to understand the issues related with viability of the project in current multi-policy environment for better planning before investing in the field of solar Power business. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]