Government has set up massive goals for solar power generation, Solar share being 100 GW out of 175GW from Renewable Energy. As it truly has a large potential for renewable energy and the in the coming years, India is set to be one of the largest solar power producers with the generation being used across Homes, Industries, agriculture, etc. Northeast being part of the journey keeping feet’s forward in achieving so.

The total capacity of Solar installed in India till date is nearly 40 GW and out of which 4 GW is Rooftop Solar Plants. In Northeast the need is to go for Maximum Rooftop Solar’s as the land over are here majorly fertile, giving very rare pieces of waste land in the all 8 states in Northeast. We need to actively increase the Rooftop installations overall, and Northeast can be a part of this as plenty rooftop are available with needs that can be fulfilled with Rooftop Solar’s easily. Such example is, Govt prepared and marching the people of NE with having targeted solar power capacity expansion of 590 MW by 2020 in the state of Assam by means of multiple models of solar power generation. And so forth for the other NE states.

Coming to rooftops, Roofs (typical Assam-type house commonly built in North-eastern India, due to weather and rains) are easily available with Metallic sheets, so the installations time is also less and easy to go for the Rooftop Solar. Peoples are needed to be educated more about solar and it is successful in NE too. Government have also worked since long for promoting Rooftop Solar to maximum extend through GOA/SNA’s/DISCOMS , and it can be seen in the tenders floated by the State’s major of them being Rooftop ones in every states of NE region recent examples are Assam state have floated tendered (Awarded & To Be Awarded) an approx of 17 MW as of Rooftop plants (On grid & Off Grid combined). Meghalaya actively working in the same with an approx. capacity of 6 MWp in the next coming few months rest of the 6 states too working fiercely with large rooftop solar installations.

Along with this large ground mounted projects are also being constructed where after evaluating every factors it was found that the installations are possible for benefits of the state and peoples, like in Assam already foundation stone of Ground mounted 70 MWp have been laid, Plant of 100 MWp & 25 MWp Capacity have been tendered in Assam to set up in OPEX with 25 years PPA. Other states too working on identifying such places where Ground mounting large projects will be feasible keeping in mind the environment.

The capacity of the solar parks shall be 500 MW at least for General states as per MNRE. However, smaller parks are also considered in States where there is shortage of non agricultural land like NE states, thus making it possible to implement these projects.

With PM KUSUM schemes being promoted, Farmers involving themselves (No. of farmers is large here) is the most important part so that benefit provided by the government is well utilised by them, utilising the power required for water pumps in day by Solar as the agricultural activity is carried out during day , helping in better progress of them with state progressing, further reducing T&D losses.

Along with this the projects floated by GOI & States have been working on Health centres too to get them with Solar Powered with energy storage for emergency situations/ blood banks, on Police stations and other needy places. As north-eastern states are always surrounded by natural calamities / heavy rain the tress is there a lot & make damages to the power lines and thus creating issue for short while no matter how hard the Power department works day in day out.

And other alternatives are also looked upon, like there are large water bodies in NE. And tapping the power from Floating seems to be a viable option too when we have land constraints. Some pilot floating plants have been installed, and recently APDCL (Assam Utility) has also floated tender for floating solar, and there is huge capacity to be tapped from floating in NE. Once installed these projects will further speak themselves with live examples and further implementations in other states/places will be much easier.

Furthermore, local developers need to come up to be a part of this green energy movement – Install, Manage and Operate these plants to its maximum efficiency. Skilled labours are needed to be devolved more; they will be the main backbone to run these plants in long run effectively. And continuous investment in the technologically advanced components like focus on MPPT Inverters/ Structures/ Higher efficiency Modules are needed to get the best generations & to decrease the BOS costs and make the whole exercise to be fruitful. In addition, net-metering regulations have been notified by respective state regulatory commissions of these States & Rooftop solar policies have also been notified by States. Making it easier to implement the projects, constant support like this is needed from the Govt end to make it possible.

Thus, clearly northeast is marching toward the green movement will increasing its Solar PV Plant capacity and complementing its title of “where sunlight hits first in India” with starting the solar generation of the day in India.

Fever of ‘Solar’ is gradually taking momentum in the North East, although it is still behind the national average. The state nodal agencies are taking initiatives with the schemes (subsidy) from MNRE to increase The and popularize the ‘solar rooftop in the north east’. Almost every states in the north east are working on solar rooftop and other solar projects. However, the achievement ratio of these schemes need further improvement. The major factors affecting the same are –

• The ecosystem needs to develop further. The grid power is very erratic in most of the places except for the capital towns. This is a challenge for promoting ‘grid-connected solar rooftop’ where subsidy is available today. The users in those places looks for an ‘off-grid’ system but non availability of subsidy in ‘off-grid’ works as a deterrent factor. Therefore, the subsidy should be extended for small off-grid system (up to 5KW max.) ELSE the Govts./ DISCOM should ensure stable grid so that public can take benefit of MNRE subsidy.
• Resources – availability of trained manpower, local warehouse, good quality mounting structures (GI), DC cables, connectors etc. are very critical factors for its growth.
• The awareness among people is one major factor. Due to the weather conditions there is a perception that solar solutions cannot work properly in NE. But the fact is that the average Solar Insolation/ radiation of NE is 3.5 to 4.5 kWh/m2 /d per square meter. This is lower than the national average but higher than many countries in the world who are effectively using solar energy today. So there is a need for creating awareness by way of commercial advertisements, exhibitions etc.
• Awareness and availability of finance are two very important factors in the growth of industrial and commercial solar rooftop in NE.

The most relevant factor that have ruled Solar Rooftop Installations is size of Government Procurement. Though recently small number of projects have come from private sector but they mostly have been from big Industries who installed them as a part of their centralized procurement. So, Government has to include more renewable energy projects in their procurement.

A large scale public awareness campaign from all stakeholder could boost the movement which is missing till date.

Increased availability of skilled man power will remove the hindrances faced in a quality solar system installation. Also being a solar technician will become a source of mass employment in the region.

Government’s emphasis on ON GRID system should change to Hybrid Systems specially for northeast Region as the region have an acute power shortage.

Further, Technical specifications should be different with higher module size for the North east due to less solar irradiation hours in the region. This is an important factor as with reduced module wattage, batteries do not charge and most systems fail in course of time.

I would also like to suggest Government to allow 50% of the allowed subsidy to Commercial and Industrial Sector in Northeast Region to promote Solar and other renewable energy sources. It will act as a catalyst for mass installations in the region. Local Discoms can also allow a rebate on electrical tariff to people installing solar rooftops without subsidy including both residential and Industrial beneficiaries to promote the installations.

1. We have seen that in recent years the growth of solar energy domain in North East markets had been phenomenal due to active support shown by government policies including Subsidized solar system installation programmes.
2. There is an utmost need of increase in Domestic manufacturing units of raw materials, components and products to cut down import duty expenses on PV solar modules. There is also a lack of closer industry government co operation for the technology to achieve scale.
3. Newly incorporated enterprises / entrepreneurs should be given a platform to be empaneled by the Government.
4. Increase in state’s Investment in research and development of this technology would play a vital role towards the goal.
5. Focus should also be given to solar power park. State should also boost solar projects spread on the canal Branches of our mighty river.

It has been seen that, the Northeast India has been adopting renewable energy at a very fast pace. India as a hole is also emerging in the global arena as a leading producer of renewable energy. In its efforts to move further towards sustainable development, the government of India has set certain target to achieve by the end of 2022 and Northeast India too is contributing its part to this national target.

The solar journey stated at Northeast start a little late then the other state, whatever the reason was, but today northeast India is all geared up to give a better and greener energy to the people of this part of the country. To make solar energy popular among the masses was to make the people understand how easy and effective it is to generate power and the best way was to show them how power can be generated from their own roofs, this is how the journey started at northeast with all the Nodal agencies of all the northeast state started working hand to hand with MNRE and stated to promote and generate solar power from rooftops, Nodal agencies in the state of Assam, Manipur , Meghalaya had been quiet instrumental in making rooftop solar reach to the masses and efforts are on to further make it big, that day is not far off when we would see solar power run northeast.

Lots have to be still worked into to make Rooftop solar area, it has been seen that EPC contractors in northeast has to get each and every thing from outside northeast which is time consuming, extra money needed on transportation, geographical weather constrain, that’s the reason why northeast India need manufactures that can make materials ready to contactors on time and better price. More financial institutions should come forward to give financial assistance to customers in for of loan to set up RTS plants at nominal rate of interest. All these state has subsidies offered up to 70% in residential, Institutional and social sectors, but that not enough certain subsidy should be offered to the industrial sector as well, so that bigger rooftop plants can come in.

The tomorrow looks very bright for northeast and with so much of effort going in by the people of this part of the country northeast will lit bright and contribute its part to the notional building.

Karnataka has installed 221 MW on solar rooftops, of which most of the installations are in Bangalore. As per the local Electricity Supply Company in Bangalore, there are only 1800 solar rooftop buildings in the city, even though the cost of solar panels and inverters have come down dramatically in the last four years. 

A major part of it is due to the frequent change of state and central solar rooftop policies, which has created confusion among developers and the consumers. Recently, MNRE has announced subsidies for solar rooftop systems for domestic consumers, but the framework to implement the subsidy scheme has not been formulated yet, causing many end-users to differ their installations for future dates.  

Second, solar consumers who had experienced long procedural delays during commissioning or getting their monthly billings are reluctant to recommend to their neighbours to go for solar. it’s important to instil confidence in end consumers that there won’t be any administrative hurdles from DISCOM in commissioning and smooth operation of the plant. 

Thirdly, for many who are interested in solar, but don’t have a suitable roof should be given an option to go for virtual net-metering, in which group of consumers collectively own a solar rooftop system installed elsewhere, but their electricity bills will be pro-rata credited.
Fourth, all the new service connection meters to be configured for bidirectional energy measurement with or without solar. This could improve solar commissioning from 45 days to 10 days. 

Lastly, Indian banks have been reluctant to give loans to the Solar rooftop domestic segment. Most customers expect loans to be collateral-free like that of car loans. 

In order to achieve the target of 2022 and beyond, MNRE and state government should take a more comprehensive approach to incentivize the state ESCOM’s and banking sector to promote solar rooftop systems.

First and foremost we need a consistent policy with unwavering support to increase rooftop penetration. This means a longer term policy with a 7-10 year horizon and not a yearly PPA price update that gets invariably delayed by 3-5 months (March to August) which are prime solar months. Solar is seasonal business and typically July to October business is dull in India due to monsoon rains. This leaves very little time in a year to do business. Also the subsidy announcement by MNRE has put the market in flux as the subsidy delivery mechanism, approval process and timelines are still not clear. So the market is now on a wait and watch mode until clarity on subsidy is given.

Meanwhile many MSME solar companies have closed down due to lumpy business and lack of working capital support. Specific support for MSME system integrators need to be
in place to both prevent unqualified players from entering the market and also give the right incentives for qualified players.

Second on the implementation side we need the grit to remove all roadblocks at all cost. This calls for a 100% transparent online process with committed timelines from application to interconnection approvals. This is being implemented now by BESCOM after ironing out several kinks.

We need a policy to be a clearing to let the market forces have it their way rather than a policy and implementation paralysis with stumps growth. The expectations on Karnataka and Central government to fix these kinks are high as the clock keeps ticking. Karnataka government has always been pro-business and pro-environment and needs to continue a leadership role in increasing rooftop installation by closing down these issues as soon as possible.”

Solar Rooftop installations comes in different applications and variants for homes, apartments, offices and industries. Most common are the grid connected rooftop solar system which works in sync with utility or distribution company grid and supports the user through notified policies as net metering or gross metering. Another alternative is off-grid system wherein batteries are used to store the solar energy and then this electricity is utilized any-time during the day or night and is used more in suburbs of cities or interior towns where electricity utility supply is weak. 

Future technologies: Newer system technologies are there now, which work without requiring battery reference or grid reference for generating solar power for loads, making them cost effective. These will be the change of tomorrow over time making user independent.

Market drivers: However, to enable this market grow faster newer drivers should be considered for marketing other than government subsidies or net metering/gross metering incentives. The government should only give permission to sync with grid. Thereafter, the driving force should be marketing, with focus on –

• Focus on savings on electricity bills for marketing tool, as return of investment at prevailing tariffs is about 5 to 6 years for residential and under 5 years for industrial. 
• Focus on savings against future increase in electricity bills improving return on investment.
• Focus on protecting the environment, reducing carbon emission reduction at power plants important for future healthy life of our children. 
• Focus on helping the country’s economy as by making an investment decision it also helps industry
• Focus on enabling such saved energy being made available for use by farmers and other users who are short of it.
• Focus on quality products and services long term and helping Indian companies.
• Focus on using solar for standalone powering of future electric vehicles which is a tremendous opportunity for entrepreneurship and solar industry.

The above will enable this sector grow faster with higher acceptance and making homes and industries self-reliant, and farmers having better access to power as energy saved is energy produced.

The below points are suggested after having faced practical difficulties as a Solar EPC Entrepreneur.

• The solar water heater industry is enjoying a steady business . One of the reasons is that the BESCOM ( EB) doesn’t give an Energy Meter without a tax invoice of a MNRE approved Solar Water Heater. The same should be applicable for Solar Rooftops
• The paperwork should become simple. Just one application form should suffice 
• The above rules could be exempted for houses smaller than 1000 sq feet

As a Solar Industry veteran who has seen and participated in the growth of Solar PV in Bangalore and India, I have a few important concerns that have to be addressed to further grow Solar Rooftop.

1. Solar industry is not alone in facing the tough credit scenario in the country. Solar Power Systems financing from Banks suffers one important impediment. The impediment is the insistence of Banks for collateral security for the solar loan.This affects both the Industry that wants Solar on its rooftop and a Solar Power provider who can do this as a service.  So asking Banks to extend Solar PV systems loans on the system itself as a Primary security and no collateral will be a huge boost.

2. After the above suggestion of Solar Loans without collateral is accepted, then a second factor that will boost Solar Rooftop is the ‘Renewable Power Obligation’ of consumers that will mean that Industry will have an additional reason to install solar Rooftop. Without making available Funding to install Solar rooftop to burden Industry with ‘Renewable Power Obligation’ would be very unfair.

3. The Government has a wonderful scheme called the Phase II- Grid Connected Solar Rooftop Programme by which there is a ‘Central Financial Assistance’  to residential sector, but the building owner has to apply to local Discom for the subsidy and the DISCOM will pay the approved ‘Solar EPC’ (Installer) the Subsidy, the building owner pays only 70% of the cost. The catch here is the approved Solar Provider or installer who has to win the bid for price. The red tape on this and selection based on price alone makes one deeply skeptical that such a scheme will succeed. A switch to “Direct Benefit Transfer” to the building owner based on the “Approved Cost of Solar system up to 3 KW would be the ideal solution.

Karnataka state is a pioneer in introducing policies that encourage renewables and the rooftop solar segment is no different. One of the earliest and most rewarding programs for setting up grid connected rooftop solar began in Karnataka. Despite this great policy incentive, the growth in capacities is nominal compared to the potential available. Karnataka currently has 215 MWs of rooftop solar and Bangalore accounts for 125 MW of that. BESCOM intends to achieve installed rooftop capacities of 1 GW by 2021-22. It seems unlikely at this stage but not entirely impossible. To make that happen BESCOM has to take the lead.

Changing the paradigm The distribution company employees’ outlook has to change with regard to encouraging rooftop PV installations. It is pertinent to note here that a study conducted by CEEW has concluded that there is a net positive benefit in terms of revenues for distribution companies when consumers set-up rooftop projects. For a start, a similar study can be commissioned by CEEW or other research agencies for BESCOM to see how it can help improve operations and revenues for BESCOM. This should bring about a drastic change in the way BESCOM or the other Escoms in the State perceive rooftop additions.

Demand origination The biggest challenge that Banks face in approving loans or RESCO operators face in taking up projects which are sub-scale is the fragmented nature of the roofs and profile of consumers. BESCOM has a natural advantage of being the service provider of first resort to a majority of electricity consumers in its jurisdiction. So BESCOM can take a natural lead to aggregate demand for such RESCO or EPC players. State government buildings, BESCOM’s own buildings including its sub-stations, Courts, Municipalities etc., are all low hanging fruits. BESCOM can also encourage industrial clusters or large apartment complexes to approach it to procure or run a process on their behalf.

Awareness and Policy certainty are the two other very important factors that BESCOM has to ensure. It should conduct awareness programs in different geographies of its jurisdiction. Consumer forums should be provided material to be distributed across, Banks can be encouraged to set-up loan melas near BESCOM offices to provide loans to residential consumers for adopting solar. BESCOM can list and advertise frequently the list of approved service providers or RESCO players through whom consumers can purchase equipment or services for rooftop solar. Policy certainty on net gross metering options and connectivity approvals ensure that all stakeholders know what to expect when they set-up the systems. This will help estimate accurately the benefits both long an short term of setting up such systems and this will encourage consumers to embrace solar more confidently.

The solar industry has developed rapidly to enter the mainstream over the past decade reaching approx. 34 GW in Sep 2019. This success has attracted both serious as well as opportunistic investors. Due to the fragmented nature of the industry it is fairly hard to differentiate the two. For institutional players such as AMP Energy India, our biggest challenge has been that the nonutility market continues to be cost focused. While achieving a low tariff is important for consumers, it is also important to ensure that the developer delivers high-quality reliable energy systems so that the consumer is assured of reliable and high-quality supply of energy throughout the life of the system.

At AMP Energy India, we are extremely focussed on providing integrated renewable energy solutions to our customers. We customise our energy solutions to the client needs and brings this focus starting from the design stage through to project implementation and operations. Apart from being a one stop shop for customers, it is also important to follow a robust risk mitigation framework, aggregate volumes to drive economies of scale in costs, Creating high quality assets, right sizing the debt leverage and financial engineering to drive the returns, It is also essential to maintain high standards of corporate governance and following globally accepted ESG standards as we partner with reputed corporates.

The Indian Solar sector is going through a challenging phase where the tariff under competitive bidding is finding new lows and discovering tariff levels which are among the lowest globally. In such a situation when the markets are consolidating the market leaders are emerging due to their inherent leadership traits.

Innovative approach to drive business growth and discover new business models is the key in surviving the competition. The Solar assets must be grown to larger portfolio in order to reap the benefits of economies of scale. Such a growth can come by growing through both organic and inorganic routes.

Lower financing costs will provide the correct leverages in order to match the competitive reverse bidding tariffs without compromising on the quality of solar assets built to last its full life cycle and further reducing the Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE).

The vision of a market leader should be long term as solar power is slated to grow exponentially in future bringing many disruptive changes in the power industry and paving way towards the economic development of the country. India is taking power sector as central to its security and economic requirements with the government setting aggressive and ambitious targets. In such a situation, companies with long-term vision to grow in this sector will have the advantage.

There is a pressure on solar plant profitability due to reducing tariffs impacting investors’ return. The fine balance between growth and profitability have to be maintained in order to keep the business competitive. This balance while selecting the projects is very important for a sustainable growth of business.

With the growth in computing power, technology is providing innovative paths to bring efficiencies in solar power generation, distribution and its management. Such advancement on the technological front needs to be adopted early to have the first mover advantage albeit with some risks. Building collaborative approach to address such technology advancements and working with partners who are experts in such fields will provide the necessary impetus to become a global leader in solar energy.

Solar sector has emerged as one of the fastest growing sectors among renewables, exceeding installed capacity of 31.5 GW, including both ground-mounted and rooftop installations. Utility scale projects have been at the forefront of this development, because the solar tariff prices have fallen over the years. This falling tariff has put tremendous pressure among all segments of the solar PV value chain to continuously innovate ways to be sustainable yet profitable. Financiers, Developers and Utility businesses are all looking for a viable financial model to maximize a solar project’s return. There is growing focus on determining and fine-tuning the long-term costs and economics of managing these plants over its lifetime. This has presented both opportunity and threat to the market leaders within the industry, who are striving to balance costs and performance.

As Albert Einstein once famously said, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” This is precisely what is needed today to stay ahead in such a super price sensitive and competitive market. The three pillars, E, P and C all need optimization to be able to survive and thrive in this market.

• Value Engineering: Engineering is the foundation of a solar plant project, as 3-6 months of design efforts on a project yields 25 years of performance. Tariff trend has ensured that there is no place for gold plated specifications, and hence value engineering becomes critical. Usage of Aluminum winding transformer has enabled similar reliability, albeit with lower costs. Module cleaning Robot has improved plant performance over lifetime, though at higher Capex. Dual metal structure designs, with new materials have been explored and tested to reduce costs. Detailed geo analysis, including usage  of geospatial software for effective site analysis, thereby zoning the site to achieve optimization in foundation design. Usage of higher cluster size, higher Wp module, wind tunnel analysis for structure design are other areas through which lower costs have been achieved without compromising on the project performance.
• Procurement efficiency: The solar value chain is completely fragmented with most items procured from vendors. Vertical integration of the same for an EPC is not the solution to beat the market pricing. Instead value chain control, through long term partnership model is helping reap similar benefits . The preferred vendor model not only enables lower costs, but also better quality based on an ongoing trust and relationship between the parties. Efficiency in timely order closure to manage deliveries at site also enables shorter project durations, thereby limiting the project overheads.
• Execution quality: The long-term performance of a PV project is largely dependent on the quality of construction materials, processes and design conditions under which a PV project has been built. Price may be one of the governing factors for Developers decision on selection of EPC player, however the lower Capex with sub optimal plant construction would mean an outflow every year in terms of lower generation and hence loss in revenue, and/or multiple quality defects leading to warranty claims and increased cost of O&M. Thus, it has become a Developers imperative to go beyond the price and evaluate an EPC players capability holistically. We as an EPC player are delivering on our promise to be a long-term, reliable partner, by meeting this requirement of the developers, through our tighter quality controls at site. We are moving from a culture of quality inspectors to a culture where quality is owned by each individual working at site. Quality is rewarded at site and the benefits of ensuring quality are realized in short term through faster synchronization of PV projects & in long term through higher performance leading to better revenue realization.

The industry is reshuffling and when the dust settles, we will still be here because of the quality practices, the transparency that we maintain and the engineering strength that we bring to the table. 

1.37 billion people. Current share of global primary energy demand at 6%, estimated to grow to 11% by 2040 – this makes India’s demand for energy the fastest growing amongst all the major economies. Needless to say – renewable sources will play the primary role in helping our country meet this exponentially increasing demand for electricity.

India’s target is 100 GW Solar power by 2022, the market is ripe for utility scale players, distributed Solar developers and EPC contractors to contribute to this significantly. Recent sectoral research indicates over 300 solar firms are operational in the country.

At 4PEL, we believe the distributed solar segment will see consolidation in months to come. What will separate the wheat from the chaff, then?

• Regulatory prowess – deep rooted understanding of dynamic State regulations
• Offering the lowest total Cost of ownership while ensuring Quality is not compromised
• Ability to customise solar solutions
• Value added services like storage, power trading
• Offering innovative financial models to the client
• Dedicated service, O&M teams functioning round-the-clock to ensure maximised generation
• Execution expertise and stringent adherence to timelines
• Technological innovation to ensure Remote monitoring of plant’s generation

The Competitive Solar Market

Being the market leader in rooftop segment, competition is healthy and it motivates us improve our technologies and keeps us driving towards achieving our goal. Also we intend to stay focused more on our R&D in bringing new innovations to cater to the market needs for holistic approach. In India Delta has captured major airports, key metro and railway stations, government offices, public sectors and many more, with over 1500+GW of string and central grid-tied solar inverters.

Today’s solar market is subjugated by utility sector and mainly inclining towards large scale solar projects by positioning huge quantity of solar inverters. However commercial segment is expected to show its growth rate during the near future. The solar market is growing significantly and the government is also initiating to create awareness by involving private sector groups and promoting government schemes, policies, smart cities for residential and commercial sectors.