Solar electricity is joining the national power grid, affordably
The promise of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission is based on a sound footing, which is that India?s solar power reception is about 5,000 trillion kWh per year (as compared to total energy generation of 811 billion kWh in 2010-11), with most parts of India receiving 4-7 kWh per sq m per day. The plan is supported by analyst reports, like one by KPMG which projects that market and technology conditions will bring ?grid parity? between solar power and conventional electricity as early as 2017-18. Giving credibility to such projections, the new and renewable energy minister told Rajya Sabha last month that the price of power generated from solar lanterns came down to R11 from R18 in 2010 itself, when JNNSM started. He said it was
likely to come down to the rate at which conventional electricity is generated by 2013. The question is whether our government is committed to long-term support for the sector by way of offering policy certainty, pushing for connectivity between solar plants and the national grid, and appearing credible to potential investors. Happily, we have been seeing positive developments on all these fronts.
When the ministry invited bids to produce 350 MW of solar
power to be fed into the power lines, not only did they came in at as low as R10 a unit but the first batch of 150 MW has already achieved financial closure. This indicates a reduced need for subsidies to make the sector viable. Plus, grid connectivity is already in place in states like Rajasthan, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu.