Solar in West Bengal

India’s eastern state of West Bengal has become a laggard in the installations of solar energy, despite being a pioneer in the solar energy manufacturing and installations. The state government owned WEBEL was one of the first manufacturers of solar energy panels in the country and there are still a number of solar lamp and solar panel makers in the state. However, solar energy has failed to develop in West Bengal like the rest of the industry. The reasons for the pathetic state of solar energy in the state are:

• Bad state of industrial development in the state
• Bad socio-political situation with frequent unrest
• Excess / stable supply of power
• State government has not come out with a good solar policy like other states.

Even as other states install gigawatts of solar energy to meet their energy demand, WB remains a laggard. This is in consonance with the industrial development which lags light years behind other progressive states. The government remains strained under a massive debt load and the governments have remained passive. There is some impetus in recent days by the government to come out of its fugue. The CM is trying to attract industry through investor meets and other incentives. However given the competition amongst states and the bad situation of the industrial houses, WB is failing to grow fast.

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Without growth in industrial demand, the energy demand also remains lackluster. While most of the fast growing solar states are those with power deficits, WB does not have a power problem.