SOLAR ENERGY

A Future Outlook In India

This report “SOLAR ENERGY- A future outlook in India” covers

integral information on electricity sector in INDIA, problems
encountered and to be faced in future. It details how solar energy

can be effectively used as an alternative source of energy.

Firstly ,details about the electricity power sector in are described and then solar power
in India has been detailed.

India has a great potential to generate electricity from solar energy.

Some main drivers for solar power plants in India are:

1) To meet India’s growing energy demand – the non-renewable sources of energy may
not cope-up with that demand with its robust economic & population growth.
Renewable sources are one of the solutions this constant issue, in the long term.

2) Increased focus on Green technology – with increased focus in the recent years the idea of solar
plants will be encouraged ex: Solar water heating

3) Support from Government – Government is helping in the form of various subsidies, rebate on
interest to solar energy based industries, technology-transfer agreement with countries, to name a few.
This will attract more new players or established businesses to invest in solar plants. For ex: Wind
energy power sector saw good growth in the past, when subsidies were introduced.

4) India is also in a good position because of the intense heat. “Arid regions receive plentiful solar
radiation,” says Dr. M. N. Nahar, principal scientist of the Division of Agriculture and Energy at the
Central Arid Zone Research Institute (CAZRI). In computed global solar radiation of arid stations in
the Indian states of Rajasthan, Gujarat and Haryana, it was found that Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, receives
the maximum radiation at 6.27 kWh/m2 per day; the average daily duration of bright sunshine in
Jodhpur, Rajasthan is 8.9 hours.

Vaishali Garg (EEE 3rd year) Page 1

 SOLAR ENERGY
A Future Outlook In India

The preparation of this report about solar power

energy has been made possible with the help of many
individuals.Firstly , i am thankful to the Uttar Pradesh
Technical university for inculcating
a presentation on any latest topic in our curriculum.
My sincere thanks goes to my respective sir Mr.Y.C.
Gupta under whose guidance this report has been
prepared and to my parents for providing the basic
amenties.

VAISHALI
GARG
EEE (3rd year)

Vaishali Garg (EEE 3rd year) Page 2

 SOLAR ENERGY
A Future Outlook In India

• ELECTRICAL SECTOR IN INDIA

• GENERATION

• THERMAL POWER

• HYDRO POWER

• NUCLEAR POWER

• RENEWABLE POWER

• TRANSMISSION

• DISTRIBUTION

• POWER FOR ALL BY 2012

• SOLAR POWER IN INDIA

• ANNUAL INSOLATION

• PRESENT STATUS

• P V MANUFACTURE IN INDIA

• APPLICATIONS

• CHALLENGES

• CONCLUSION

Vaishali Garg (EEE 3rd year) Page 3

 SOLAR ENERGY
A Future Outlook In India

Electricity sector in India

The electricity sector in India is predominantly controlled by the Government of India's public sector
undertakings (PSUs). Major PSUs involved in the generation of electricity include National Thermal
Power Corporation (NTPC), National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) and Nuclear Power
Corporation of India (NPCI). Besides PSUs, several state-level corporations, such as Maharashtra
State Electricity Board (MSEB), are also involved in the generation and intra-state distribution of
electricity. The PowerGrid Corporation of India is responsible for the inter-state transmission of
electricity and the development of national grid.

The Ministry of Power is the apex body responsible for the development of electrical energy in India.
This ministry started functioning independently from 2 July, 1992; earlier, it was known as the
Ministry of Energy. The Union Minister of Power at present is Sushilkumar Shinde of the Congress
Party who took charge of the ministry on the 28th of May, 2009.

India is world's 6th largest energy consumer, accounting for 3.4% of global energy consumption. Due
to India's economic rise, the demand for energy has grown at an average of 3.6% per annum over the
past 30 years.[1] In March 2009, the installed power generation capacity of India stood at 147,000
MW[2] while the per capita power consumption stood at 612 kWH.[3] The country's annual power
production increased from about 190 billion kWH in 1986 to more than 680 billion kWH in 2006.[4]
The Indian government has set an ambitious target to add approximately 78,000 MW of installed
generation capacity by 2012.[5] The total demand for electricity in India is expected to cross 950,000
MW by 2030.[6]

About 75% of the electricity consumed in India is generated by thermal power plants, 21% by
hydroelectric power plants and 4% by nuclear power plants.[7] More than 50% of India's commercial
energy demand is met through the country's vast coal reserves.[1] The country has also invested heavily
in recent years on renewable sources of energy such as wind energy.[8] As of 2008, India's installed
wind power generation capacity stood at 9,655 MW.[9] Additionally, India has committed massive
amount of funds for the construction of various nuclear reactors which would generate at least 30,000
MW.[10] In July 2009, India unveiled a $19 billion plan to produce 20,000 MW of solar power by 2020.
[11]

Electricity losses in India during transmission and distribution are extremely high and vary between 30
to 45%.[12] In 2004-05, electricity demand outstripped supply by 7-11%.[13] Due to shortage of

Vaishali Garg (EEE 3rd year) Page 4

 SOLAR ENERGY
A Future Outlook In India

electricity, power cuts are common throughout India and this has adversely effected the country's
economic growth.[14][15] Theft of electricity, common in most parts of urban India, amounts to 1.5% of
India's GDP.[16][17] Despite an ambitious rural electrification program,[18] some 400 million Indians lose
electricity access during blackouts.[19] While 80 percent of Indian villages have at least an electricity
line, just 44 percent of rural households have access to electricity.[17] According to a sample of 97,882
households in 2002, electricity was the main source of lighting for 53% of rural households compared
to 36% in 1993.[20] Multi Commodity Exchange has sought permission to offer electricity future
markets.[21]

Generation

Grand Total Installed Capacity is 149,391.91 MW[22].

Thermal Power

Current installed capacity of Thermal Power (as of 12/2008) is 93,398.64 MW which is 64.7% of total
installed capacity.

• Current installed base of Coal Based Thermal Power is 77,458.88 MW which

comes to 53.3% of total installed base.
• Current installed base of Gas Based Thermal Power is 14,734.01 MW which is
10.5% of total installed base.
• Current installed base of Oil Based Thermal Power is 1,199.75 MW which is 0.9%
of total installed base.

The state of Maharashtra is the largest producer of thermal power in the country.

Hydro Power

India was one of the pioneering states in establishing hydro-electric power plants. The power plant at
Darjeeling and Shimsha (Shivanasamudra) was established in 1898 and 1902 respectively and is one
of the first in Asia. The installed capacity as of 2008 was approximately 36877.76[23]. The public sector
has a predominant share of 97% in this sector.[24]

Nuclear Power

Currently, seventeen nuclear power reactors produce 4,120.00 MW (2.9% of total installed base).

Main article: Nuclear power in India

Renewable Power

Current installed base of Renewable energy is 13,242.41 MW which is 7.7% of total installed base
with the southern state of Tamil Nadu contributing nearly a third of it (4379.64 MW) largely through
wind power.[22]

Vaishali Garg (EEE 3rd year) Page 5

 SOLAR ENERGY
A Future Outlook In India

Transmission

A power transmission cable operated by BEST in Mumbai, India.

Transmission of electricity is defined as bulk transfer of power over a long distance at high voltage,
generally of 132kV and above. In India bulk transmission has increased from 3,708ckm in 1950 to
more than 165,000ckm today(as stated by Power Grid Corporation of India). The entire country has
been divided into five regions for transmission systems, namely, Northern Region, North Eastern
Region, Eastern Region, Southern Region and Western Region. The Interconnected transmission
system within each region is also called the regional grid.

The transmission system planning in the country, in the past, had traditionally been linked to
generation projects as part of the evacuation system. Ability of the power system to safely withstand a
contingency without generation rescheduling or load-shedding was the main criteria for planning the
transmission system. However, due to various reasons such as spatial development of load in the
network, non-commissioning of load center generating units originally planned and deficit in reactive
compensation, certain pockets in the power system could not safely operate even under normal
conditions. This had necessitated backing down of generation and operating at a lower load generation
balance in the past. Transmission planning has therefore moved away from the earlier generation
evacuation system planning to integrate system planning.

While the predominant technology for electricity transmission and distribution has been Alternating
Current (AC) technology, High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) technology has also been used for
interconnection of all regional grids across the country and for bulk transmission of power over long
distances.

Certain provisions in the Electricity Act 2003 such as open access to the transmission and distribution
network, recognition of power trading as a distinct activity, the liberal definition of a captive
generating plant and provision for supply in rural areas are expected to introduce and encourage
competition in the electricity sector. It is expected that all the above measures on the generation,
transmission and distribution front would result in formation of a robust electricity grid in the country.

Vaishali Garg (EEE 3rd year) Page 6

 SOLAR ENERGY
A Future Outlook In India

Distribution

The total installed generating capacity in the country is over 147,000MW and the total number of
consumers is over 144 million. Apart from an extensive transmission system network at 500kV
HVDC, 400kV, 220kV, 132kV and 66kV which has developed to transmit the power from generating
station to the grid substations, a vast network of sub transmission in distribution system has also come
up for utilisation of the power by the ultimate consumers.

However, due to lack of adequate investment on T&D works, the T&D losses have been consistently
on higher side, and reached to the level of 32.86% in the year 2000-01.The reduction of these losses
was essential to bring economic viability to the State Utilities.

As the T&D loss was not able to capture all the losses in the net work, concept of Aggregate Technical
and Commercial (AT&C) loss was introduced. AT&C loss captures technical as well as commercial
losses in the network and is a true indicator of total losses in the system.

High technical losses in the system are primarily due to inadequate investments over the years for
system improvement works, which has resulted in unplanned extensions of the distribution lines,
overloading of the system elements like transformers and conductors, and lack of adequate reactive
power support.

The commercial losses are mainly due to low metering efficiency, theft & pilferages. This may be
eliminated by improving metering efficiency, proper energy accounting & auditing and improved
billing & collection efficiency. Fixing of accountability of the personnel / feeder managers may help
considerably in reduction of AT&C loss.

With the initiative of the Government of India and of the States, the Accelerated Power Development
& Reform Programme (APDRP) was launched in 2001, for the strengthening of Sub – Transmission
and Distribution network and reduction in AT&C losses.

The main objective of the programme was to bring Aggregate Technical & Commercial (AT&C)
losses below 15% in five years in urban and in high-density areas. The programme, along with other
initiatives of the Government of India and of the States, has led to reduction in the overall AT&C loss
from 38.86% in 2001-02 to 34.54% in 2005-06. The commercial loss of the State Power Utilities
reduced significantly during this period from Rs. 29331 Crore to Rs. 19546 Crore. The loss as
percentage of turnover was reduced from 33% in 2000-01 to 16.60% in 2005-06.

The APDRP programme is being restructured by the Government of India, so that the desired level of
15% AT&C loss could be achieved by the end of 11th plan.[22]vdggv

Power for ALL by 2012

The Government of India has an ambitious mission of POWER FOR ALL BY 2012. This mission
would require that the installed generation capacity should be at least 200,000 MW by 2012 from the
present level of 144,564.97 MW. Power requirement will double by 2020 to 400,000MW.[25]

Vaishali Garg (EEE 3rd year) Page 7

 SOLAR ENERGY
A Future Outlook In India

Objectives

• Sufficient power to achieve GDP growth rate of 8%

• Reliable power
• Quality power
• Optimum power cost
• Commercial viability of power industry
• Power for all

Strategies

• Power Generation Strategy with focus on low cost generation, optimization of

capacity utilization, controlling the input cost, optimisation of fuel mix, Technology
upgradation and utilization of Non Conventional energy sources

• Transmission Strategy with focus on development of National Grid including

Interstate connections, Technology upgradation & optimization of transmission
cost.

• Distribution strategy to achieve Distribution Reforms with focus on System

upgradation, loss reduction, theft control, consumer service orientation, quality
power supply commercialization, Decentralized distributed generation and supply
for rural areas.

• Regulation Strategy aimed at protecting Consumer interests and making the

sector commercially viable.

• Financing Strategy to generate resources for required growth of the power sector.

• Conservation Strategy to optimise the utilization of electricity with focus on

Demand Side management, Load management and Technology upgradation to
provide energy efficient equipment / gadgets.

• Communication Strategy for political consensus with media support to enhance

the genera; public awareness.

Rural electrification

Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Orissa, Uttranchal, Madhya Pradesh etc are some of the states where
significant number (more than 10%) of villages are yet to be electrified.

• Number of Villages (1991 Census) - 593,732

• Villages Electrified (30 May 2006) - 488,173
• Village level Electrification % - 82.2%

Vaishali Garg (EEE 3rd year) Page 8

 SOLAR ENERGY
A Future Outlook In India

Subsidies

Several state governments in India provide electricity at subsidised rates or even free to some sections.
This includes for use in agriculture and for consumption by backward classes. The subsidies are
mainly as cross-subsidisation, with the other users such as industries and private consumers paying the
deficit caused by the subsidised charges collected. Such measures have resulted in many of the state
electricity boards becoming financially weak.

At present (2009), the price per unit of electricity in India is about Rs. 4 (8 US cents) for domestic
consumers, and Rs. 9 for the commercial supply

Solar power in India

India is both densely populated and has high solar insolation, providing an ideal combination for solar
power in India. Much of the country does not have an electrical grid, so one of the first applications of
solar power has been for water pumping, to begin replacing India's four to five million diesel powered
water pumps, each consuming about 3.5 kilowatts, and off-grid lighting. Some large projects have
been proposed, and a 35,000 km² area of the Thar Desert has been set aside for solar power projects,
sufficient to generate 700 to 2,100 giga watts.

In July 2009, India unveiled a $19 billion plan to produce 20 GW of solar power by 2020 under the
plan, solar-powered equipment and applications would be mandatory in all government buildings
including hospitals and hotels

18 November 2009, it was reported that India is ready to launch its Solar Mission under the National
Action Plan on Climate Change

Annual insolation

With about 300 clear sunny days in a year, India's theoretical solar power reception, just on its land
area, is about 5 PWh/year (i.e. = 5000 trillion kWh/yr ~ 600 TW). The daily average solar energy
incident over India varies from 4 to 7 kWh/m2 with about 2,300–3,200 sunshine hours per year,
depending upon location. This is far more than current total energy consumption. For example, even
assuming 10% conversion efficiency for PV modules, it will still be thousand times greater than the
likely electricity demand in India by the year 2015.

Present status

Installed capacity

Vaishali Garg (EEE 3rd year) Page 9

 SOLAR ENERGY
A Future Outlook In India

The amount of solar energy produced in India is merely 0.4% compared to other energy resources. The
Grid-interactive solar power as of June 2007 was merely 2.12 MW. Government-funded solar energy
in India only accounted for approximately 6.4 megawatt-years of power as of 2005.However, as of
October 2009, India is currently ranked number one along with the United States in terms of installed
Solar Power generation capacity.

• Number of solar street lighting systems: 55,795

• Number of home lighting systems: 342,607
• Solar lanterns: 560,295
• Solar photovoltaic power plants: 1566 kW
• Solar water heating systems: 140 km2 of collector area
• Box-type solar cookers: 575,000
• Solar photovoltaic pumps: 6,818

Still unaffordable

Solar power is currently prohibitive due to high initial costs of deployment. To spawn a thriving solar
market, the technology needs to be competitively cheaper — i.e. attaining cost parity with fossil or
nuclear energy. India is heavily dependent on coal and foreign oil — a phenomenon likely to continue
until non-fossil / renewable energy technology become economically viable in the country. The cost of
production ranges from Rs 15 to Rs 30 per unit compared to around Rs 2 to Rs 6 per unit for
conventional thermal energy. The parts of solar water heaters, like evacuated glass tubes, are still
imported from other countries and adds to the bill of materials. Solar heaters available in China for
under $200 costs $400 in India.

PV manufacture in India

Current PV manufacturing in India includes:

• Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd., Banglore plant

• Waaree Energies Ltd. Surat, Gujarat, India
• Titan Energy Systems Ltd, Hyderabad
• SHARP (JAPAN).
• BP-Tata joint venture.
• Moser-Baer signed up for a thin film Si plant provided by Applied Materials.
• Solar Semiconductor Pvt in Hyderabad, AP.
• GreenBrilliance Pvt. Ltd.
• ICOMM TELE Limited
• KCK Energy Systems
• Jain Irrigation Systems Ltd., Jalgaon, Maharashtra
• NanoPV Solar India Private Limited, Chennai

Applications

Rural electrification

Vaishali Garg (EEE 3rd year) Page 10

 SOLAR ENERGY
A Future Outlook In India

Lack of electricity infrastructure is one of the main hurdles in the development of rural India. India's
grid system is considerably under-developed, with major sections of its populace still surviving off-
grid. As of 2004 there are about 80,000 unelectrified villages in the country. Of these villages, 18,000
could not be electrified through extension of the conventional grid. A target for electrifying 5,000 such
villages was fixed for the Tenth National Five Year Plan (2002–2007). As on 2004, more than
2,700 villages and hamlets had been electrified mainly using SPV systems.[4] Developments on cheap
solar technology is considered as a potential alternative that allows an electricity infrastructure
comprising of a network of local-grid clusters with distributed electricity generation.[6] That could
allow bypassing, or at least relieving the need of installing expensive, and lossy, long-distance
centralised power delivery systems and yet bring cheap electricity to the masses.

Agricultural support

Water pumping

Solar PV water pumping systems are used for irrigation and drinking water. The majority of the pumps
are fitted with a 200–3,000 watt motor that are powered with 1,800 Wp PV array which can deliver
about 140,000 liters of water/day from a total head of 10 meters. By 30 September, 2006, a total of
7,068 solar PV water pumping systems have been installed.

Harvest processing

Solar driers are used to dry harvests before storage.

Cooling

Another e.g. is the cost of energy expended on temperature control — a factor squarely influencing
regional energy intensity. With cooling load demands being roughly in phase with the sun's intensity,
cooling from intense solar radiation could be an attractive energy-economic option in the subcontinent.

Solar water heaters

Bangalore has the largest deployment of rooftop solar water heaters in India that will generate energy
equivalent to 200 MW everyday and will be the country's first grid connected utility scale project
soon.

Bangalore is also the first city in the country to put in place an incentive mechanism by providing a
rebate, which has just been increased to Rs 50, on monthly electricity bills for residents using roof-top
thermal systems which are now mandatory for all new structures.

Pune, another city in the western part of India, has also recently made installation of solar water
heaters in new buildings mandatory.

Challenges and constraints

Land scarcity

Vaishali Garg (EEE 3rd year) Page 11

 SOLAR ENERGY
A Future Outlook In India

Per capita land availability is a scarce resource in India. Dedication of land area for exclusive
installation of solar cells might have to compete with other necessities that require land. The amount of
land required for utility-scale solar power plants — currently approximately 1 km² for every 20–
60 megawatts (MW) generated — could pose a strain on India's available land resource. The
architecture more suitable for most of India would be a highly distributed, individual rooftop power
generation systems, all connected via a local grid. However, erecting such an infrastructure — which
doesn't enjoy the economies of scale possible in mass utility-scale solar panel deployment — needs the
market price of solar technology deployment to substantially decline so that it attracts the individual
and average family size household consumer. That might be possible in the future, since PV is
projected to continue its current cost reductions for the next decades and be able to compete with fossil
fuel.

Slow progress

While the world has progressed substantially in production of basic silicon mono-crystalline
photovoltaic cells, India has fallen short to achieve the worldwide momentum. India is now in 7th
place worldwide in Solar Photovoltaic (PV) Cell production and 9th place in Solar Thermal Systems
with nations like Japan,China, and the US currently ranked far ahead. Globally, solar is the fastest
growing source of energy (though from a very small base) with an annual average growth of 35%, as
seen during the past few years.

Latent potential

Think-tanks have recommended that India should adopt a policy of developing solar power as a
dominant component of the renewable energy mix, since being a densely populated region in the
sunny tropical belt , the subcontinent has the ideal combination of both high solar insolation and a big
potential consumer base density . In one of the scenarios, India could not only rein its long-term
carbon emissions, but do so without compromising on its economic growth potential, with renewable
resources like solar becoming the backbone of India's economy by 2050 [28]

Vaishali Garg (EEE 3rd year) Page 12

 SOLAR ENERGY
A Future Outlook In India

Argument that sun provides power only during the day is

countered by the fact that 70% of energy demand is
during daytime hours. At night, traditional methods can
be used to generate the electricity.

 Goal is to decrease our dependence on fossil fuels.

 Currently, 75% of our electrical power is generated by

coal-burning and nuclear power plants.

Vaishali Garg (EEE 3rd year) Page 13

 SOLAR ENERGY
A Future Outlook In India

 Mitigates the effects of acid rain, carbon dioxide, and

other impacts of burning coal and counters risks
associated with nuclear energy.

pollution free, indefinitely sustainable

Vaishali Garg (EEE 3rd year) Page 14