Assessment and suggestive interventions for harnessing rooftop solar energy: a comparison between chennai and Bhopal

Abstract

As the population increases and urbanisation occurs, the demand for energy goes up. India, with 7.1% GDP growth rate in 2016 is the third largest growing economy in the world. It is also home to 18% of the world’s population, while accounting for 6% of the primary energy consumption in the world (International Energy Agency, 2015) 31.16% of India is living in its cities (Census, 2011) depicting a major growing demand for energy. Despite the economic dependency of India on coal and oil, India recognises its contribution to global climate change. India has pledged in the 2015 Paris Accord to increase the role of non-fossil fuel sources of energy, led by solar and wind to 40% of the energy mix by 2030. Similar initiative is seen where the Smart City Mission guidelines insists 10% energy requirement to be met by solar. The National Solar Mission is also a step towards the same. While such initiatives actively target solar energy harnessing, it is only recently that rooftop solar energy harnessing has been targeted in the policy and such programs. Land is a finite resource with a lot of demand for development. A study in IIT Kanpur calculated if 20% of roofs (2 room households only) are considered an estimated production of 25,000 MW can be achieved. Yet the share of rooftop solar energy in total solar production is a mere 10-12% (Bridge to India, 2017). Rooftop solar energy has benefits such as decarbonising the electricity sector, tackling land constraints and reducing air pollution. The National Solar Mission offers 30% capital subsidy for rooftop solar projects along with state incentives. A limited polling by Greenpeace results showed 55% interest in adopting rooftop solar. Yet the country’s leading metros are failing to achieve their rooftops solar targets. The study aims to understand the reason for such a disparity by assessing the barriers to effective implementation in terms of inducement and enforcement of solar policy and formulate a regulatory framework for the effective implementation of rooftop solar system, through the study of Chennai and Bhopal city. The outcome expected from the thesis is to visualise strategies that will help realising India’s targets. To also strengthen the policy and regulatory framework and provide citizens with a strong regulatory backing to aid in the inducement of rooftop solar energy harnessing.