Solar Rooftop Attractiveness Index

India recently launched the solar rooftop attractiveness index called SARAL in which states are ranked according to their attractiveness in terms of investors putting up rooftop solar systems in those state. This follow various indices that the government of India has been developing over the past few years such as the Ease of Doing Business, etc. in which states are given points on different parameters and ranking. The idea behind these indices is to foster competition amongst the 30 or so states in India to become better than others, identifying gaps in different parameters and show an unbiased picture to the decision makers and leaders of these states.

As per the current ranking, Karnataka has been given the first rank followed by Telangana, Gujarat, and Andhra Pradesh. However, these rankings are backward-looking and do not mirror the current situation in these states. AP has become a pariah for all RE investors as the new government has planned to renege on existing PPAs with RE developers and is curtailing wind power plants for hours. Telangana has hardly got too many rooftop solar installations and that state has a power surplus situation. It will hardly want to install new rooftop solar capacities in such a situation. Karnataka faces the same situation as the regulator does not want any new solar power capacity on a scale to come up as it has met its RPO obligation.

For an investor, this index is probably of dubious value and he has to do his own due diligence before investing. The Indian government should push states to make harder reforms rather than putting up indices which are of little value to either states or investors. It can make better use of its money by helping states in forming the right regulations and enabling policies. Rooftop solar is now much cheaper than grid prices. It is only the red tape and opposition from utilities which is preventing its exponentials growth. It needs to focus on these issues rather than making another index. Probably a better index would be for distributed energy resources rather than narrowing it down to rooftop solar only.