Opinion & Analysis

The International Solar Alliance signals India’s hope to be a global competitor in emerging technologies and cement its place as an institution builder. But how does India’s vision translate into domestic policy? Has India led by example? 

There is a need to innovate and pay attention to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), SMEs, and residential society consumers to activate the next leg of growth in the rooftop solar market.

India’s entire solar industry is dependent on Chinese imports to function. Hence, there is a comprehensive need to relook at the current policies and focus on building wafers and ingots capacity that will be used to manufacture the cells and eventually, modules.

The government needs to rationalize and ensure uniformity of Deviation Settlement Mechanism (DSM) regulations across the country for the seamless integration of renewable energy. 

The global hybrid energy market, including energy storage, is projected to touch $40 billion by 2025. It is an opportunity that India has capitalized upon, earlier than others.

India is running the world’s largest renewable energy expansion program with a mind-boggling target of 450 GW by 2030. Can the country with a growing energy demand do more than this? Can it do what developed countries should have done years ago?

The ‘175 GW by 2022’ renewable energy target seems unachievable, necessitating the benchmark be moved to ‘450 GW by 2030’ instead. But even that will require the sector to move back to the front foot from 2021.

The near-term outlook for electric vehicles (EVs) remains bleak owing to supply and demand headwinds coupled with the expectation of sluggish investment to scale up the support ecosystem.

Market dynamics may again alter the global supply-demand picture for solar modules, leading to an increase in prices or price stabilization.

With the inclusion of battery energy storage into new building codes and safety standards, it’s obvious just how mainstream storage is today.