Indian state governments keep announcing poorly thought out solar policies which fail to get implemented due to poor execution and planning. Haryana had come out with a solar policy making it mandatory for solar installations for a commercial/residential construction with a minimum area. But that scheme turned out to be a cropper, as the central government reduced the subsidy for rooftop solar installations from 30% to 15%. The state government has obviously not consulted the center before coming out with this policy. Tamil Nadu is famous for announcing a 3000 MW policy and then making a mess of it, as poor transmission infrastructure and funding led to its downfall.

Now Punjab joins the list with its policy of buying solar power from famers failing to take off. The government had announced that they would buy power from farmers with at 1 MW solar installation for Rs 7.04/unit. However, they did not think it through in terms of implementation. They did not analyze how a farmer would come up with the equity capital for an Rs 6-7 Crore project. They also did not think about the fact that a farmer would have little knowledge about a solar farm in terms of project financing, feasibility etc. As a result the whole scheme has become a dud.

The problem lies with the policy makers and the Indian governance system which is led by the IAS officers. There is almost no expertise in government officials as most come to the system either through exams or favors. Mediocrity rules the government departments with cesspool of corruption. Accountability hardly exists and failures do not cause any firings. The problems being faced by renewable energy in India is a problem of the whole system on which it is built on. If the government had better and decently educated officials, then most of these issues would not arise. However, we are stuck with a system where the government is full of educated illiterates.