India’s solar targets are on the horizon

KJ Shah, CMD, Zodiac Energy Limited

“With the help of solar powered irrigation on huge parcels of land, electricity can be cultivated and the farm output can be increased”

According to KJ Shah, CMD, Zodiac Energy Limited, India needs to revamp the power sector by changing and improving the existing generating facilities as well as adding new generating capacities.

Transformation in Indian power sector
The Indian power sector is facing many challenges since independence due to:
• Free energy to farm sector and local governance bodies and piling up of huge losses eroding their net worth
• Inadequate capacity; lack of funds from government as well as financial institutions
• Low capacity utilisation due to ineffective maintenance
• High T&D losses
• Inadequate transmission network
• Lack of fuel linkage and high cost of fuel

Now, the Government of India is determined to improve the health of utilities and has introduced the UDAY scheme. India is a signatory to COP21 and has promised to reduce the GHG as per the agreed level. Also, India being a developing economy, it grows at more than seven per cent every year and would continue to grow at the same pace for near to medium term. Hence, India needs to revamp the power sector by changing and improving the existing generating facilities as well as adding new generating capacities.

Energy demand for all regions and sectors
Certainly! For any country to grow organically and robustly, the energy demand for all the region and sectors should be addressed properly.

The game changing initiative
The Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission with its revised target of 175 GW by 2022 is the one of the great initiatives taken by the government

Contribution to solar sector
The main focus of Zodiac Energy Limited is rooftop solar power and we have contributed significantly by installing more than 1,500 systems aggregating more than 17,500 KW of rooftop systems across the country in residential, commercial, industrial, government and social sectors. We believe that the decentralised generation of solar power will reduce the burden on transmission grids and also cut down the huge T&D losses. We will focus all our efforts toward that direction.

Potential of solar powered irrigation
The solar powered irrigation will help farmers to have cheap and clean source of electricity and also, it will help the government to cut down huge losses of DISCOMs and subsidies that it needs to shell out to keep them floated. With the help of solar powered irrigation on huge parcels of land, which are not cultivable due to lack of water, electricity can be cultivated and the farm output can be increased.

Achieving solar power targets
India has great potential for solar power installations and the ambitious targets are achievable. However, the following needs to be addressed on immediate basis.

• India needs to have stable policies. Flip-flop in the policies every now and then will create roadblocks in achieving the targets.
• Developing the robust manufacturing base of solar products and creating the eco-system for the same.
• Changing the mindset of DISCOMs to adopt the solar power and removing hurdles in integration of solar power into the system.