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Information
updated July 2009
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| Solar
Energy |
| Driven
almost entirely by a robust off-grid sector led by rural electrification
programs, urban stand alone back-up generators, as well as
industrial applications such as telecom, rural banking and
railway signaling. |
| India's
2007 PV market reached approximately 30 MW. New installations
totalled 36 MW in 2008. |
| As
far as regional market distribution, the states of West Bengal,
Rajasthan and Punjab once again generated the greatest demand
in 2008. |
| India
hosts one of the world's most mature off-grid solar networks
comprised of state agencies, retailers, NGOs and rural banks
specializing in micro-financing. But with new on-grid policies
emerging, the dominance of the off-grid market is set to change. |
| With
over 3000 MW in applications for large ground-mounted on-grid
PV plants benefiting from the new national feed-in tariff
as well as plans to increase the size and pace of growth of
some of the largest rural electrification programs, competition
in the downstream will grow furiously in the years to come.
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| Add
to this, capacity expansion from manufacturers looking increasingly
to domestic rather than export markets, as well as falling
module prices and upcoming national renewable targets and
carbon emission obligations - the whole structure of India's
PV industry will soon have to adapt to this rapidly changing
landscape. |
| Government
Support for Renewables |
| The
Government of India has one of the developing world's more
aggressive renewable energy policies - with hopes to source
10% of its installed electricity capacity from renewable energy
by 2012, and 20% by 2020. |
| This
policy is overseen by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy
(MNRE) and is implemented through the Indian Renewable Energy
Development Agency (IREDA), the Ministry of Power (MoP), as
well as a host of other smaller state nodal agencies. |
| While
the program has created a great deal of enthusiasm among industry
players, many doubts remain concerning project profitability,
interconnectivity issues, as well as the effectiveness of
the, at present, modest scale of the total program. |
| China's
RPS targets are supplemented with numerous national and regional
solar PV market stimulation measures, including tax incentives
and preferential feed-in tariff rates. |
