NEW DELHI: “We have this handy fusion reactor in the sky called the sun, you don’t have to do anything, it just works.” Anand Srivastava reiterates this Elon Musk quote to himself and to everyone around him. This electrical engineer from IIT-Delhi is the co-founder of SunSure Energy, a company that builds solar energy assets for industry, commercial and utility sectors. He left his job at JP Morgan in Brazil to work towards developing the solar sector in India. Entrepreneurs like him, with plans of solar-electrifying villages and making urban homes sustainable, fight structured norms that can’t tap the potential of the alternative energy source.
As Anand puts it, the lack of government help to actually implement net metering, and difficulty in securing exemptions like subsidies for household installers, increase the total cost and make the pricing uncompetitive. The government also imposes an eligibility criterion in their tenders, that only a company with a high annual turnover can secure their orders, thereby slashing scope of innovation
“Why don’t offer financing for a solar installation, like they do for cars,” asks Jasmeet Khurana, a Market Intelligence Consultant at solar consultancy Bridge to India. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy offers a 30 per cent subsidy to domestic consumers. “But people don’t know how and where to apply and are also unaware that they can’t apply for one after having installed the system,” says Khurana. Delhi has 300 sunny days and the rooftop space available for solar panels is estimated to be 31 sq/km, giving Delhi a solar energy potential of 2500 MWp2. The cabinet approved Delhi’s Solar Energy Policy in June. It aims to make Delhi a solar city through generation of 1,000 megawatt of power by 2020. Rajneesh Srivastava, who heads energy efficiency and renewal energy management centre, Department of Power, Govt of NCT of Delhi, says the new solar policy is going to facilitate group and virtual net-metering.
In the former, if one has high-connected load in one house but no space, panels can be set up on another property where there is less load and both places can draw power from the same grid without any transportation charge. In virtual net-metering, public buildings that don’t have much connected load can install solar panels on your behalf. It will be mandatory for all government buildings with a minimum shadow free rooftop area of 500 m2 to install a solar PV plant. Also, a plant that is up to 3 meters won’t be considered an addition to the height of the building and won’t be taxed.
Namit Arora, a member of the Dialogue and Development Commission (DDC) think tank, led the drafting of Delhi’s solar energy policy. “There has never been a better time for the citizens of Delhi to embrace solar power,” says Arora. “The Delhi state government now provides a generation based incentive or Rs 2 per unit (kWh) to residential consumers. The state will also facilitate a central government capital subsidy of 30 percent. Delhiites can simply call their distribution company or a third-party solar developer to get solar energy, start saving on their energy bills, and help the environment.” It seems, only a handful know what the sun is really worth.