Will Delhi Reach Its Solar Target With A New Rooftop Solar Program

In spite of aggressive attempts by the government to promote adoption of rooftop solar in India, the country has failed to achieve the desired potential. Now, in an attempt to boost rooftop solar power generation in the Indian capital city, the ministry has come up with a rooftop demand aggregation program for its domestic consumers.

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Given, the scarcity of land available in land-locked cities of India, rooftop solar has been promoted in major cities of India. But despite, several subsidies and incentives by the Indian government, rooftop sector failed to gain attention amongst masses. It is because of lack of proper education and awareness in the sector. Indians are generally dissuaded by the high amount of initial investment and fail to look at the long term benefits of going solar. In the west, houses which have rooftop solar systems installed have a higher market value. The same level of awareness is required in the Indian cities.

Delhi aims to generate 2000 MW of solar energy by 2025 and is also trying to lift up rooftop solar power generation. In this regard, a workshop was conducted by Delhi’s Department of Power, discussing the opportunities and challenges faced by Renewable Energy Service Company (RESCO) developers in the city and the means to overcome those.

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The whole motive of the discussion was to explore ways to reduce the capital cost for residential customers who decide to go solar. Delhi has a huge untapped potential for rooftop solar given a large number of residential and government buildings in the city. The Delhi government is trying to boost the adoption of renewable energy in all the sectors. The Renewable Energy Service Company model or RESCO mode as it is popularly known as is expected to generate an aggregated demand of 40 MW. The aggregation program is expected to benefit consumers like residential, schools, hospitals, and municipal segments. These customers can expect facilitation of easy financing among other potential barriers, as a possible outcome of this program.